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There are very few aspect of Cane I dislike. It’s a good premise, a wealthy Cuban family decides if it wants to abandon its sugar business in favor of the more glamorous rum business, complete with some shady dealings, murderous intrigue, and inner circle power plays. The acting is top notch (or at least upper-notch). Jimmy Smits heads a cast of some of the best Latin-American actors working today (most notably, Frank, who was played by Nestor Carbonell — “Scott” this past season on Lost). Visually it’s quite stunning. The colors are bright and saturated — lots of greens and blues and oranges. The dialogue, while often expository in this opening episode, always seems naturalistic. The action is constantly moving forward but is never rushed. More after the jump…

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I’m not going to have time this afternoon to get full-length reviews up for Cane and Reaper which both premiere tonight, so I’ll just give you some quick reactions and let you decide what to watch.

Reaper (9:00pm on The CW) is great. It’s about a kid who is sat down by his parents on his 21st birthday and told that they sold his soul to the devil when he was born. Now the devil has come to collect in the form of hiring our hero as a bounty-hunter of escaped souls from hell. Oh, and it’s a comedy. Much hay has been made of the fact that Kevin Smith directed the pilot. While I’m sure his input was kindly accepted, this show would have worked with or without him based exclusively on the strength of the cast. There are four must-see new series this fall and Reaper is one of the top two.

Cane (10:00pm on CBS) wants to be The Godfather. I mean, really wants to be The Godfather. Unfortunately it comes up considerably short. Still, there are far worse shows premiering this week and Cane shows enough promise it could turn into a really great serial. After one episode, you wouldn’t know this. Like K-Ville, the cast and groundwork is in place for the series to grow into itself over the long haul, but it certainly gets no added boost from its pilot, which I found at times painfully slow. Still, Jimmy Smits is in it and I once read that that has to be worth something, right?