Reaper

Premise

Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) lives at home with his parents (Andrew Airlie and Allison Hossack) in the Seattle area. Sam dropped out of college ("It made him sleepy", his Mom explains) and took a dead-end job at the Work Bench, a home-repair superstore. He spent the rest of his time hanging out, playing video games, and pining for his co-worker Andi (Missy Peregrym).

On Sam's 21st birthday, his parents behave very strangely and Sam himself sees hellish visions and experiences odd events. His father eventually claims that many years ago he was very sick, and in return for restoring his health he and his wife promised their firstborn child to the Devil (Ray Wise). Although the couple intended to cheat the Devil by not having children, this plan went awry when Satan persuaded their doctor to lie and tell the couple that they could not conceive in exchange for wiping his gambling debts clean. Sam was born shortly thereafter.

After informing him of his fate, the Devil explains to Sam that he must serve as his bounty hunter (or "Reaper"), tracking down souls that have escaped from Hell and sending them back using his new powers (which include telekinesis) and "vessels," varied objects said to have been hand-made in the bowels of perdition by the iniquitous and the vile. Vessels appear inside a long wooden box sent for Sam to open (with the Italian inscription "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate" ["Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"], as was written on the entrance to Hell in Dante's Inferno), and are specially designed for each job. Examples throughout the series have included a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner, a Taser gun, and a cigarette lighter.

Although Sam initially balks, Satan tells him that should he refuse, Sam's mother's soul is forfeit. Unwilling to sacrifice his mother and convinced that he is doing good in the world by tracking down evil souls, Sam accepts his fate. With the help of his slacker friends, Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez), he begins his new life tracking down the corrupted souls trying to escape their own eternal punishment.

Development and production

Reaper premiered on September 25, 2007 in the United States, airing on Tuesday nights at 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central on the CW, following Beauty and the Geek. The series had a full 18 episode order for the 2007–2008 season, with 13 pre-strike episodes and 5 post-strike episodes.

Reaper stopped airing new episodes after the tenth episode due to the industry-wide 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. It resumed new pre-strike episodes for three weeks on Thursdays in March, and began airing post-strike episodes on April 22, 2008.

On May 12, 2008, Reaper was officially renewed for a 13-episode second and final season which premiered on March 3, 2009.

On May 19, 2009, Reaper was officially canceled by The CW. However, ABC Studios was still in negotiations with CW affiliates to syndicate the show, or sell it to cable.

Tyler Labine who plays Sock posted on his Facebook account that Reaper has officially been canceled and will not be returning.

Conception

The pilot script which was written by creators/executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters received a script commitment by The CW in September 2006. Mark Gordon and Deborah Spera also joined the project as executive producers under the former's production banner at Touchstone Television, The Mark Gordon Company. The network green-lighted a pilot order for the script in January 2007, and writer/director Kevin Smith agreed to direct the first hour of the series in February 2007. The CW gave the series an early pick-up and a 13-episode order on May 15, 2007.

While initially not making a full season order, The CW eventually ordered an additional 3 episodes, citing a high percentage of audience retention between Reaper and Beauty and the Geek. Additional episodes were ordered to fill in the first season after the writer's strike was resolved, and a second season of 13 episodes was later ordered, as well.

In a February 1, 2010 interview with CliqueClack TV, creators Fazekas and Butters revealed many of the unresolved plots from the series.

Casting

Casting began in February 2007, when Bret Harrison won the lead role of Sam Oliver. At the time, his commitment to the series came second to his show at Fox, The Loop, which had yet to air its second season on the network. The show was later canceled, leaving Harrison free to fully concentrate on Reaper. Canadian actor Tyler Labine (formerly of the sci-fi series Invasion) was cast in the same month in the role of Bert "Sock" Wysocki, Sam's best friend and sidekick. Nikki Reed, actress and co-writer of the award-winning film Thirteen, was originally cast as Sam's love interest, Andi, in March 2007 but she was replaced by Missy Peregrym, who was fresh off a high-profile recurring role on Heroes in June 2007. Actors for the roles of Ben (Sam and Sock's co-worker and friend) and Josie (Sock's ex-girlfriend) were found in the same month when Rick Gonzalez and Valarie Rae Miller were cast. Anthony Head and James Marsters auditioned for the role of the devil before Ray Wise was cast in the part in mid-March. Kyle Switzer was cast as Sam's younger brother Keith. Keith's name would later be changed to Kyle, and was written out of the show after two episodes. Donovan Stinson and Andrew Airlie rounded out the cast as Ted Gallagher and John Oliver, Sam's boss and father respectively.

In July 2008, it was announced that Eriko Tamura had been cast as a season 2 recurring character, playing Sock's new stepsister and love interest.

Broadcast history

The first showing of the pilot occurred on July 27, 2007, at San Diego Comic-Con. It received mostly positive responses from critics and audience members alike. The series premiered on The CW on September 25, 2007, and ran on Tuesdays, but moved in late February 2008 to Thursdays after Smallville. After the restart following the writers' strike, Reaper returned to being broadcast on Tuesday nights on The CW as original releases.

Cancellation

The CW canceled the show near the end of the second season, airing the final episode on May 26, 2009. ABC Studios was initially in talks with CW affiliates to get a syndicated version of Reaper run on Sunday nights.

It was later reported that syndication talks with CW affiliates fell through, as well as attempts to sell the series to Sci-Fi Channel as part of its change over to Syfy, after news that both Bret Harrison ("Sam") and Tyler Labine ("Sock") would not be returning for season three even if the syndication plan proved viable.

The official Reaper website confirmed that there will be no third season, but there will be a comic book series and possibly a cartoon.

In February 2018, Bret Harrison and Tyler Labine reprised their roles from the show on an episode of Kevin (Probably) Saves the World.

Syndication

In 2013, FEARnet made a syndication deal to air the entire series. It is FEARnet's first "off-network" series, meaning that it is the first third-party show they air that they didn't make for the network. The series premiered on June 4, 2013, but on May 28, FEARnet aired a 30-minute reunion special that they produced which featured discussion with some of the cast. During the reunion cast members left open the possibility that a Kickstarter campaign could help finance the production of a season 3 of Reaper.

Cast and characters

Main characters

Sam Oliver (played by Bret Harrison), the protagonist of the show, is a dropout and all-around slacker who, due to a deal that his parents made to save his father's life, is coerced into becoming a bounty hunter for the Devil after turning 21 years old. According to the terms of the contract, Sam would serve the Devil by using various tools, called vessels, to recapture souls who have escaped from Hell. After capturing an escaped soul with a vessel, he would then drop the vessel and soul at a portal to Hell, which was the local Department of Motor Vehicles in the show. Also, the Devil would grant Sam a unique power to aid in a particular soul's capture; the type of power ranged from telekinesis to a tattoo hinting the soul's location.

Sam, despite being an inherent quitter, surrendered to his fate as a bounty hunter for the Devil in an endeavor to prevent the escaped souls from endangering innocent lives and to protect his mother's soul. He enlists the help of his best friends Sock and Ben to capture these dangerous souls.

Since the beginning of the show, Sam had romantic feelings for his co-worker, Andi and the two entered a relationship by the end of the first season.

At the end of season one, the demon Tony tells Sam that he believes Sam's parents were paid by the Devil to carry his (the Devil's) baby, though Sam's mother denied this, and the Devil admits that he would probably not answer Sam honestly if asked about it. Later, the Devil indicates that Sam is his son, although the father who raised Sam, Mr. Oliver, tells Sam that the deal with the Devil will not allow him to tell Sam the truth of the matter. All other characters who know about the claim assume that Sam, though kindhearted, is indeed the Devil's son.

During season 2, Sam discovers an escaped soul, Alan, who can't be sent back to Hell because he claims he escaped the Devil. Sam continues throughout the season hunting down Alan, trying to get information on how to escape his contract.

In "Underbelly", the Devil hints that Sam is invulnerable. In "The Home Stretch," Sam inadvertently wins a competition with his half-brother Morgan and is appointed the Devil's right-hand man. In the words of the Devil, he is "my right-hand man, my human representative in this realm, serving at my side as we create Hell on Earth". In "No Reaper Left Behind", the Devil tells Sam, "I expect you to rise to the heights of political power here on Earth, seize control of the planet, and hasten the Apocalypse".

Supporting characters

Gladys (played by Christine Willes) - A demon who works at a DMV office, which actually houses a portal to Hell. Gladys collects the filled vessels from Sam and sends them back to Hell. In "The Leak," when it was revealed that Gladys was the one repeatedly freeing home-wrecking soul Mike Volta from his vessel, the Devil "transferred" her to the "home office." She was later released at Sam's request. She seems to have a sexual interest in humans as well, making overtures to both Sock and Andi. Like all demons, she can project nightmares into human beings, nightmares so convincing that they believe they're real.

Nina (played by Jenny Wade) - A demon who tried to kill Sam, but her assassination attempt was thwarted by Ben. Enamored by his loyalty to his friend and love for his pet bunny, Nina kidnaps Ben and takes him to her lair. In "The Sweet Science", Nina is introduced to the group as Ben's girlfriend, but Ben remains concerned that Nina is not really interested in him and still trying to kill Sam. Nina reveals to Ben in "The Favorite" that she once had a physical relationship with a fellow demon named Brad. When Ben tries to break up with Nina in a restaurant, she cries tears of acid. She tells how, while she was still an angel, she once fell in love with a human. After her relationship with the human was discovered by God, her human lover died shortly thereafter, explaining her reluctance to get more involved with Ben. In "The Home Stretch", Ben shows his reluctance to introduce Nina to his grandma who has 'the eye' being able to see potential evil. Nina strikes up a pleasant conversation with her about St. Peter but is shocked into her demon form when scared by a barking dog, which sends Ben's grandma into cardiac arrest. Ben later breaks up with Nina at the Work Bench, and Nina declares a vendetta. However, at the end of "No Reaper left Behind" they get back together. Nina subsequently moves in with Ben. Ben's grandmother later threatens to disinherit Ben unless Nina undergoes an exorcism. The exorcism seemingly succeeds, but Nina is in fact unaffected.

Tony (played by Ken Marino) - Sam's former neighbor, a demon and Steve's widower. Tony was a leader of the anti-Devil rebellion, and was often plotting against the Devil. He helps Sam and his friends in their quest to capture escaped souls. As of the first-season finale, his whereabouts are unknown. It is Tony who tells Sam that he is the son of the Devil. In the Second Season, he reappears and adopts the newborn daughter of an escaped soul, whom he names 'Stevie' after his deceased husband Steve.

Minor characters

Alan Townsend (played by Sean Patrick Thomas) - The man who reneged on his deal with the Devil. Sam meets Alan first in the Season 2 premiere, "A New Hope," during a reap to capture 40 fighting souls in a warehouse. After being knocked unconscious by Alan, Sam continues his hunt for him in "Dirty Sexy Mongol" and tracks him down to an apartment. He tries to solicit Alan's help, but two demons, sent by The Devil, attack Sam at the gate. Scared that he'll return to Hell, Alan leaves his apartment. Sam and Andi find out that Alan's been trying to stay off The Devil's radar by avoiding all temptation. Alan accepts a job offer as a gravedigger and takes refuge at a cemetery after being informed that the grounds have been consecrated and thus untouchable by the Devil and other demons. Sam and the others corner him at the cemetery and, since Alan was a gambling addict, attempt to bribe him with horse-racing tickets for the information. Alan eventually buys into a trip to Vatican City and tells Sam that he needs to challenge and beat The Devil (Alan beat The Devil in a game of poker). He promises to tell Sam how to make The Devil agree to the challenge after landing. As he is on a plane toward Vatican City, the Devil diverts the plane to Las Vegas and gives him 100 dollars in casino chips. Later, the Devil tells Sam that he took Alan back to Hell after he started gambling again; Alan's deal with the Devil was that if he sinned again he would return to Hell, and gambling was a sin.

Cady Hansen (played by Jessica Stroup) - Sam's ex-girlfriend, and possible daughter of the Devil. Cady is the daughter of Mimi, the Devil's ex-girlfriend, but her true father is unknown. Although Sam is initially attracted to her, he suspects that she may be the Devil's daughter (a suspicion seemingly put to rest by Sock and Ben in "Cash Out"). Despite his general calm to the situation, Sam's suspicions re-surface later on, due to her reportedly strange behavior around Andi and the manifestation of strange phenomena around her, such as breaking glass spurred by a kiss, and flowers wilting and dying several moments after she has touched them. At the end of "Unseen", Cady, upset by the fact that Sam still has been distant and in her eyes deceitful, goes to New Mexico to stay with her mother and sort things out. If the Devil truly were her biological father as well as Sam's, that would make them paternal half-siblings.

Taylor (played by Pascale Hutton) - Taylor is Sam's one time fling, she appeared in the episode "Love, Bullets and Blacktop", when Sam is trying to capture the souls of a couple.

Demons

Demons, in the Reaper universe, are portrayed as seemingly neutral and non-aggressive (so far) entities who are either in the direct service of the Devil or plotting to overthrow his rule. It was stated that all demons were once angels who "fell" out of their place after joining up with the Devil's attempt to overthrow God and got banished along with him from Heaven.

Demons residing within the mortal realm exhibit the ability to assume near-human forms that enable them to live along with real humans, with the only thing distinguishing them from actual mortals (besides their immortality) being two small horns protruding from their foreheads which can be sanded down to create the complete illusion that they are human; they are also capable of morphing into their true demonic forms, as displayed by Tony, which seem to grant an incredible boost of physical power in the process, and also flight with demonic wings. They are immune to mortal weapons in either form. Types of Demons include standard and succubus.

Reapers

'Reapers' are beings tasked by the Devil to apprehend souls that have escaped the depths of Hell. Sam became one in the premiere episode of the series. The word was first used in the episode "Acid Queen", which implies that there may be others like him with a similar obligation (or predicament). Currently, it is not exactly known how many Reapers there are, or if all of them are even human. Sam does not like this status but begins to live with this fate, though shows no surprise towards its utterance. It is made clear by the demon Steve that Sam is perhaps the only person on Earth that the Devil talks with face-to-face, which raises suspicion amongst Sam and his friends. This suggestion is later disproved when the Devil introduces Morgan, a young man the Devil claims is his son.

Escaped souls

These are fugitives from Hell whom the Devil has entrusted Sam to recapture. All of them were once mortals who committed various crimes or sold their souls that ultimately led to their damnation. When they come back to Earth, they are intent on finishing the jobs that they started.

After escaping Hell and returning to the earthly realm, not only do they regain a corporeal body with which to interact with the living world once again, but sometimes also exhibit supernatural powers that often reflect the nature of their crimes or punishments. For example, an arsonist imprisoned in Hell for 50 years being tortured by being burnt every day came back with pyrokinetic powers and could take on the appearance of a humanoid creature made of molten rock. Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of William McKinley, gained the ability to turn his hands into guns. Not all souls come back to Earth with a corporeal body, as seen in "Ashes to Ashes," where the Mortician soul came back as a spirit since his body was cremated.

Vessels

As the souls that Sam is sent to apprehend have already died once (along with the fact that they have various paranormal abilities), an attempt to capture or even kill them by a mere mortal could prove almost impossible. The Devil provides Sam with vessels to help him do his work. The vessel is usually sent for Sam to open in a wooden box which varies in shape per episode, sometimes inappropriate for the vessel they hold (e.g. a large box contained a Zippo lighter vessel) and it's usually up to Sam to figure out how to use it to capture the escaped soul assigned for him to apprehend since the vessels don't usually come with an instruction manual. All vessels are unique because each of them is intended to capture the escaped soul for whom they were created and intended to confine. The vessel could even be a seemingly living thing (e.g. a live dove).

Vessels often have the appearance of seemingly ordinary day-to-day accessories, and can easily be mistaken for such. Most escaped souls shown in the series seem to be aware whenever a vessel is brought to their presence, especially if that particular vessel is the one intended for their capture, thus alerting them of potentially being sent back to Hell by the one wielding the vessel.

Vessels don't always work for anyone, though several characters in the show other than Sam have used vessels to capture souls. A vessel will only work on the particular soul it is intended for, and has no effect on any other escaped souls. The only known exception is a Nerf gun created by a demon named Dennis (in "Greg, Schmeg"). Although technically a vessel, the Nerf gun can send any person or object to Hell.

In "The Good Soil", it is revealed that vessels can capture other objects besides souls (e.g. a corpse).

The Ender

Introduced in "The Good Soil", the Ender is the Devil's backup plan. When Sam refused to capture the soul and return it to hell, the Ender was summoned to seek out and destroy the soul. As a result, the soul would be sent to neither heaven nor hell. The Ender took on the form of a cloaked phantom and could destroy anything with one touch. It was never actually confirmed whether the Devil was lying to Sam or the Ender could actually annihilate a soul.

Season 3 plans

In February 2010, the show's creators gave an interview that detailed some of their ideas for season three. Included were plans to have Andi work in the DMV with Gladys and the possibility of bringing in the Archangel Michael, though they had no plans to introduce God as a character. They also revealed the truth about Sam's parentage.

Basically, the whole premise that never actually had the chance to come out was the idea that Dad was a demon, who made a deal with the Devil. He fell in love with Sam's mom and wanted to marry her. So the deal was, fine, you're not a demon anymore. He was never fully human, either, which is why you can't kill him... And this is the reason why Sam is special: Sam is part human, part demon.

DVD releases

On November 4, 2008, Lionsgate Home Entertainment (under license from ABC Studios) released season 1 of Reaper on DVD in region 1. On June 9, 2009, season 2 of Reaper was released on DVD.

Reception

The series, as shown on Metacritic, has been dubbed as having "universal acclaim" with a rating of 81 out of 100, out of 27 reviews.

Critics have compared Reaper to the NBC spy comedy Chuck, which follows the story of another seemingly unremarkable, post-adolescent "big box" store employee (in Chuck's case it's a "Buy More") who also leads a secret double-life trying to save the world.

Weekly ratings

As of May 12, 2008, Reaper has averaged 2.70 million American-based viewers for each new episode for its first season. Viewing figures from other countries are inconclusive so far.

Reaper averaged 2.16 million American-based viewers for each new episode for its second season. Viewing figures from other countries are inconclusive so far.