Gay TV Recap: Reaper

The CW series Reaper follows Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison), a young man who learns that his parents sold his soul to the Devil (Ray Wise), who now expects Sam to be his bounty hunter, capturing damned souls that have escaped from hell. These souls return to earth with special powers based on the skills they possessed and the evil deeds they committed as a mortal and Sam is regularly armed with an everyday household object/product placement opportunity that will help him capture the soul.

When the fall season started, Reaper was a show generating a lot of buzz. Its Kevin Smith-directed pilot had a witty sense of humor and a promising cast. While I didn't love the pilot as much as some critics did, I thought the series had potential. Unfortunately, follow-up episodes didn't really work for me. I found the stories a bit repetitive, with Sam having to be convinced to accept his duties as a hunter of lost souls every week. Seeing the lead character make the same emotional journey again and again made this show pretty tiring.

To some degree, that's my way of warning you that there are some aspects of the Reaper universe that I don't understand -- and we'll get into that later. However, I also wanted to note that Reaper has broken out of the trap that initially lost me as a viewer. Sam has matured a little since I stopped watching. He didn't spend half the episode refusing to hunt escaped souls and, instead, Sam is now fighting for more independence in how he handles those assignments.

Sam still is a bit immature and in last week's episode it takes a bit of trickery and forgery by his friend "Sock" (Tyler Labine) to get him to move out of his parents house and into a fabulous and spacious loft apartment. Eventually, an electrical short brings Sam and his new roommates, Sock and Ben (Rick Gonzalez), to meet their new neighbors, Steve (Michael Ian Black) and Tony (Ken Marino).

The guys wince a little at the realization that their neighbors are a gay couple but they quickly check themselves. Overall, Sock ends up displaying a small amount of gay panic -- he feels the need to declare his heterosexuality before commenting on how much he enjoys having them as neighbors. Steve and Tony quickly become a full-service pair of assistants to Sam and his roommates. They invite Sam and his roommates over for dinner, help them do their laundry, take them clothes shopping and fix electrical problems. Sock says it's like living next door to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Sam comments that they've made Steve and Tony into a substitute for their parents.

I have to add that Black and Marino are totally adorable as Steve and Tony. The characters are smart and witty, traits that Black and Marino personally have in spades and nicely channel into their characters. They also have plenty of chemistry together and are helped by a script that captures the little touches that make them seem like a couple who have been together for a while, like when Steve notes Tony's tendencies to get food stains on his clothes.

Steve and Tony have two moments where they move they plot forward. While having the guys over for dinner, Steve happens his mention his interest in security technology, pointing out a motion sensor device that Sam ends up using to capture the escaped soul (which turns out to be invisible) he's currently chasing. At the end of the episode, Sam walks in on Steve and Tony as they're using power sanders to grind down their horns and hide their demonic nature.

I mentioned earlier that I'm not up to speed on the Reaper mythology and that makes it hard for me to figure out how to feel about the revelation that Steve and Tony are demons or Sam's shock at the discovery. Sam doesn't hunt demons, but escaped souls so I don't think it'll turn out that he's expected to hunt down his helpful new neighbors. From what I've been able to read about Reaper, demonic DMV worker Gladys (Christine Wiles, who will always be Delores Herbig from Dead Like Me to me) has turned out to live a normal life, one where she doesn't cause trouble for mortals aside from the trouble normally created by the DMV. She's not evil and I don't think there's a bad message in the gay guys turning out to be demons.

I suspect that it'll turn out to be significant that Steve just happened to say the right thing to help Sam with his assignment. Perhaps Steve and Tony are there as the Devil's agents, watching over Sam, helping him become more of an adult and a better bounty hunter? If so there's potential for Reaper to parody the "fairy godfather" stereotype, of gay characters who exist only to make the leading straight characters better and more fashionable people. The foundation is definitely there.

If that bit of speculation turns out to be the case, it'll be interesting to get to know more about Steve and Tony's relationship, their lifestyle and their role with the Devil. Why do they get a much nicer life than Gladys, who is stuck working in a DMV booth? Will we learn why they're together and how gay demons find love? They come off as eager to help Sam, Sock and Ben -- if Steve and Tony turn out to be working on the Devil's behalf, how much of that helpfulness is genuine and how much is a matter of taking their work seriously? It'll be very interesting to see how this develops. In the meantime, I'm off to find a restaurant that serves a lobster mac and cheese where the lobster is poached in a marscapone beurre blanc sauce.