So yesterday I took some time from crunching fantasy baseball numbers to catch up with "Reaper" (8 p.m. Tuesdays on the CW). The season premiere a few weeks ago was underwhelming, but it's definitely picked up steam since. Safe to say, I'm back on board.
I had two main problems with the premiere, and they've both been addressed. I'm still not a fan of Sock's hot new step-sister, Kristen, but her role appears to have been reduced. Not that I'm opposed to a little T&A, but in this case, it was just too . . . . blatant. Kristen got a little bit more depth in the second episode, but has barely been seen since, which is fine by me. She can come back when she brings something to the table. Right now, that character is extraneous. Until that changes, the less we see, the better.
On the other hand, I'm really liking the addition of Nina, Ben's new demon girlfriend. (BTW, when did he become Ben? Wasn't he Bengie last season?) Her character is a total ripoff of Anya from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but I liked Anya and I miss "Buffy" so I don't mind. She's suddenly the most interesting character on the show. (Well, aside from Ray Wise as the devil. I loved him leading the AA meeting. Pure eeeeeevil.)
Great scene last week with Ben in Nina's lair, with the mysterious dripping, creaking thing hanging in the rafters and her kiss tasting oddly like pennies. But hey writers, we can jump to our own conclusions and are able to appreciate subtlety -- the falling cow corpse and her explaining it was the flavor of blood in her mouth actually sucked a few laughs out of the scene. Sometimes a sly wink and imagination are more effective than over-explaining everything.
Ooooh, back to ripoffs, why was there no wink-wink, nudge-nudge moment in episode three, with the ficticious Les Nessman? Would a throwaway reference to "WKRP in Cincinnati" have killed them? Sadly, most of the show's viewers probably wouldn't have gotten it anyway, so maybe the name was enough of an inside joke.
My other problem was how the workplace/girlfriend situations were resolved so easily when the season began. But nice twists have made those more interesting. Ted's been fired (and now rehired as a trainee) and Andi's the new boss, and that new dynamic works well. As a character, Andi isn't the most. . . . interesting. So maybe a little personal/professional tension with Sam will help liven things up.
Random aside -- did anyone else notice the soul this week was named Edmund Fitzgerald? As in, "The Wreck of..."? And he was a shipping tycoon. Very nice touch.
So I guess Morgan, the devil's other son, will become a recurring character now. I'm fine with that. There's potential in that character. He's good and slick, a spoiled pretty-boy who I can very easily see becoming Sam's new nemesis. You know someone that smarmy has to be up to no good.
Overall, I like how they're expanding the cast of characters. There's only so much you can do with the same four. Again, it's a lot like "Buffy," and how the additions of characters like Anya, Spike, Dru, even Andrew, made things more lively and interesting.
I'm hoping they start to stray from the soul-of-the-week format and delve more into the secondary plots of the demons' failed coup against the devil and the mysterious Alan, the soul who escaped the devil's clutches. Sam's dead dad is back (Ha! As a zombie?), and that's another potentially interesting direction to follow.
All and all, I'm liking "Reaper" a lot. Let's hope it gets a few viewers and sticks around.
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