Reaper 1x01

[timepiececlock]

Well, Dead Like Me it's not. I doubt we'll get any moving or deep introspective thoughts about the beauty of living now or the importance of family from this show, or any of DLM's spectacular sense of irony and mood. Reaper is far more sitcom than artsy cable drama. Still, it's funny, swiftly-paced, and entertaining. I enjoyed the first episode, and I might enjoy future episodes if they don't abuse the formula.

There's really nothing new about Reaper-- it's a soft version of Brimstone, with slacker-teen sensibilities. It's funny, but I recognized the humor style as being similar to that of Kevin Smith, who was not a writer but who did direct the first episode. Still, the story has promise.

It took me a bit of thought to figure out what was slightly off about it, though: it's a boy's show. It's from the POV of an emotionally timid young man who claims to be close friends with a girl, yet she is the one of his friends mysteriously left out of his new adventuresome life, so he can admire her from afar. Blegh-- and that's the only female character of any significance in the pilot. Some show's are girl's shows, some shows are boy's shows, and some shows are for both. A show I'm watching right now--BBC's Robin Hood, is a boy's show with just enough decent and strong female presences that it almost makes you forget its a boy's game. Certainly it gives its female characters purpose and characterization beyond the role of love interest to be pursued, even if there are only 2 of them. Supernatural, though I admit I've seen less than ten episodes in total, is a boy's show... and every time I've watched it I've felt like I'm watching shows I've seen before (Buffy, XF) but with everything female stripped away until all that's left is masculine anger. It leaves me practically nothing to identify with.

I can't say I identify with any of the characters in Reaper, but I do have a love of all things goofy. My love of the simply goofy and weird causes me to give a lot of series much more leeway than they normally would get from people who don't appreciate goofy-weird.

The pilot, overall: B - cute, entertaining, goofy, promising. Needs a dash of estrogen, and if it can keep the writing up, it should sail. But if I had to choose--- Pushing Daisies all the way.

Comments

[mildmay.livejournal.com]

...Is Reaper normally compared to Dead Like Me? I would not have thought to make that comparison. I did totally compare it to Brimstone, though. I think it's a fun show but I mostly watch it for Sam's friends and the Devil. They all amuse me more than Sam himself does.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I've no idea what Reaper is normally compared to. I've never talked to anyone in fandom about the show before. I feel its comparable to Brimstone in plot-- its actually the same exact plot-- but comparable to DLM only in the sense that it's about young people and death. Although having seen it now, it's less about death and more, apparently, about monster hunting. The first episode was very deliberately Ghost Busters, case in point.

I don't know yet how much this will or will not amuse me. I'll have to wait and see. It did pretty well for the first episode, but whether it can retain that is another story.