Reaper is in trouble.

It’s only the second episode, and already the format seems tired and used up.  One of the problems is that it wants to be a comedy, but it’s flimsy plots, cardboard characterizations and lame punch lines are simply not capable of sustaining themselves in a 60 minute timeslot.  At 30 minutes, this might work, but right now it just seems like a sitcom straining to fill the airtime.

Two weeks in, and most of the characters still seem like cyphers.  Their names aren’t even memorable, and I’m continuing to have to consult the IMDB page just to remind myself who the actors are, with two exceptions, that I’ll elaborate upon below.  One of the problems I had with the pilot was that Sam’s progression from a slacker loser to a confident bounty hunter was too quick and too easy, thus depriving the show of anywhere to go in future episodes.  Episode 2 suggests I was right, as writers Michelle Fazekas and Tara Butters have basically brought him back to step one.  Again, I think the real source of the problem here is that Sam’s character is simply too weak and undefined

It’s almost as if the writers decided to give all the characterization to Tyler Labine’s Sock, and that’s probably the worst decision they could have made.  The problem here is that Sock, whilst undeniably energetic, is little more than a pseudo-Jack Black retread, and, aside from School of Rock, I’m not a big fan of Black’s shtick in the first place.  It helps little that Labine’s performance seems self-conscious and looks like it was focus group designed to appeal to that 20something slacker demographic that fancies itself much smarter and much edgier than it really is.  His dialog is witless and crude, and that wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if the character weren’t obviously meant to be cool and hip.  For two weeks in a row, now, Valarie Rae Miller is given the thankless job of not only existing merely to provide expositional material to Sam, but also having to play the grotesquely unbelievable role of Sock’s ex-girlfriend.  Every time he opens his mouth to say something vulgar and rude toward her, I want to punch the TV screen.

 If a show is going to have a character as obnoxious as Sock, it has to do either of two things to win the audience:  (1)  It has to earn the bad behavior by exhibiting it through a three-dimensional character, or (2) it can’t pretend that the character is meant to be sympathetic.  In Sock, we have a moron who we’re supposed to cheer for but whose character is one-dimensional and has not earned any leeway for acting like a jerk.

 Lastly, we have Ray Wise’s Devil.  I still don’t think they’ve got the tone right.  He just doesn’t seem very menacing, and the show takes great pains to demonstrate that, in some ways he’s little more than a divine functionary.  He demonstrates a certain amount of respect for and awe of God, which is not bad conceptually, but it belongs in a different, more contemplative show.  The Devil of Reaper needs to be more of a badass, at least occasionally.  As it is, it’s very hard to believe that this relatively nice fellow would ever buy the innocent soul of an as-yet-unborn child.

I’ve heard some defense of this approach on other blogs, referencing, for example, William Hurt’s monolog in Broadcast News about how the devil will appear as a nice guy.  He’ll be attractive and good-mannered, and he’ll harm humanity by lowering our standards just a little bit at a time.  It’s not a bad idea, but it’s not working in Reaper because Reaper doesn’t want to be even that serious.  Reaper wants to be a balls-to-the-wall laugh riot, and its approach to the Devil only works when they let him loose.  Indeed, the best moments of Reaper are when we get a small flash of the Devil’s wrath.  It’s just that he never seems to mean it and always seems to follow-up by  being so nice that his threat is undermined.

Bottom line, this show either needs to ramp up the Devil or cut back on the lame Animal Housery and give the situation some depth.  So far we’ve had two lame forgettable villains and very little in the way of genuine stakes.  I’m hoping that the writers are thinking this through a bit further and planning to deepen things a bit.  Ways to improve things might include introducing some genuinely sympathetic villains, people who have a good point in escaping from Hell, people who maybe we don’t want to lose or might feel something when they do.  Maybe one of them should be a girl who Sam can fall in love with whilst he’s tracking her down.  Sam’s got it far too easy, and that’s a big problem.  With a premise this outrageous, you have to put your characters in impossible situations and see what they do.  So far, Reaper is remarkably pedestrian.

 So that’s it.  Two episodes down.  I’m not sure I’m going to be able to care enough to make it through the entire season.

Now you!