Blink and You Missed It: Reaper

I tend to be somewhat of a connoisseur of underrated short lived television shows. One of My personal favorites would have to be one of the only few quality shows ever to come out of the CW Reaper.

Reaper was the story of Sam (Bret Harrison) whose parents sold his soul to the Devil (Ray Wise) before his birth to be collected on his twenty first birthday. On his birthday the devil comes to collect scaring the ever loving hell out of Sam and letting him in on the fact that he is now on of hells Bounty Hunters. Sam is not all for this plan and enlists the help of his two best friends Ben(Rick Gonzalez) and Sock(Tyler Labine). Sam must also never let the love his life Andi (Missy Peregrym) know about his situation in usual TV fashion. This is one of the funniest and quirkiest shows ever to come on the air.

I almost missed it as well, the only reason I tuned in for episode one was because it was directed by Kevin Smith and I even saw Jersey Girl so there was no way I was going to miss this. Episode one was all I needed to be hooked, I came for Smith but stayed for Tyler Labine. At first glance he may look like a bad Jack Black impersonator (Looking at you Dan Fogler) but he is much more that that. He was the core humor of the show and sometimes some of the heart. Frankly this show had no weak link, Brett Harrison was the perfect  choice for the lead of Sam (Check out his new show on fox  Breaking in). Rick Gonzalez was fantastic as animal loving nick guy Ben, Missy Peregrym started out as the typical love interest but evolved into so much more becoming into somewhat of a demon fighting bad-ass girl (look at me with the adjectives). Ray Wise may have been the best Devil to ever grace the silver screen giving out the perfect combination of sleaze and evil.

Reaper was very much an ensemble comedy with the side characters giving out as many laughs as the main cast. I was always a bug fan of Gladys the RMV Demon (Christine Willes), and you couldn't top Steve and Tony the gay demons (The State alums Ken Marino and Michael Ian Black). Reaper also had its share of fantastic guest stars, Patton Oswald as a gun toting Leon just trying to be a better escaped soul or Jamie Kennedy who almost sold his soul for Rock and Roll. All in all Reaper was one of the best shows nobody watched. Great cast, well written, crazy plot twists, and an open ended finale that should someday be resolved in comic book forum. If you have yet to see it I suggest you do because it is currently streaming on Netflix or has very affordable DVD sets. Moral of the story is that if you like awesome things you should defiantly check out Reaper.