“Reaper” — Charged
You gotta get me one of those suits.
This week: Sam versus the lightening monster! Granted, we’re only two episodes into the season, but what I love about Reaper is that it can have a very rigid monster-of-the-week formula, but so far it hasn’t seemed like the monster has ever gotten into the way of the characters interactions — well, aside from the general way being a bounty-hunter for the devil can crimp one’s lifestyle. I guess what I’m saying is that the pursuit of the monster is masterfully woven into whatever problems the characters are going through. This week, for example, Sam’s shift-change at work both affected his hunt of the escaped soul as well as kept him from seeing his crush at work. More after the jump…
Not to get too far off the subject, but there was a moment early in the episode where Sock throws a bottle of motor oil to Sam up on a step ladder. Sam misses the bottle, it goes over the shelf and hits a customer in the head. I loved this because in high school when I was working at a major office supply chain I was once stacking computer printers three high on top of the aisle’s shelving unit. This girl who I thought was cute (though who later turned out to be a master criminal) asked if she could do one. I said sure. She then stretched to get the printer onto the top of the stack (we’re talking about like 20 feet up) and then accidentally pushes it too far causing it to fall off the shelf and into the next aisle where it missed hitting this elderly couple by about… oh… seven inches. We then both ran to the back and didn’t show our faces for about forty minutes.
So yeah, maybe my love of Reaper is more about my love of working retail. Or my love of crazy costumes. Last week when the gang was going after the fire-monster they dressed in awesome red jumpsuits with goggles and kneepads looking like they were right out of Ghostbusters. This week they opted for matching luge suits, complete with rubber head-piece. Two occurrences don’t make a trend, but I pray they have to come up with new monster-fighting apparel each week. That would be the bees knees.
Elsewhere in the episode the elements I loved from the pilot remained. Sock (short for Wysocki) was funny (especially at the end where his nervousness caused him to keep laughing). Sam was relatable. Ray Wise was brilliant again as the devil. The “vessel” was creative. The action (notably the power-tool attack) was super-cool. Oh, and things ended with the boss of The Work Bench reciting a Successories poster that was hanging right behind him.
Love it.
