The first already-canceled show I fell for, even before "Firefly," was the CW's comedy "Reaper." While "Firefly" received a belated movie wrap-up in 2005 with "Serenity," the story of "Reaper" has remained open since its 2009 cancellation. Perhaps the show invited its own grim fate with a name that suggested death.
What is "Reaper," anyway, though? Well, I don't bring up "Firefly" out of nowhere; if you're a fan of Joss Whedon's writing, then "Reaper" might be up your alley too. The show is best described
as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" crossed with Kevin Smith, from "Clerks" to "Dogma." (Smith even directed the "Reaper" pilot.)
Created by Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters, "Reaper" follows 21-year-old slacker Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison). On his birthday, he gets a very unpleasant gift. Before Sam was born, his father John (Andrew Airlie) was "very sick," so Sam's parents made a deal with the Devil (Ray Wise) for a cure. The price? Their firstborn's soul, to be delivered on his 21st birthday. Now Sam has to act as a "Reaper": a bounty hunter tracking souls who've escaped Hell (apparently it's gotten so crowded that the inmates can slip through the cracks). The show follows an episodic monster of the week formula. Sam, aided by his friends Sock (Tyler Labine), Ben (Rick Gonzalez), and eventually his girlfriend Andi (Missy Peregrym), track down evil souls with powers reflecting their sins. For instance, the first escaped soul was an arsonist in life, so now he can control fire.
The show-stealer though is definitely Mr. Wise as the charming but still scary Prince of Darkness. You might say his portrayal of the Devil is just a toned down version of his performance as Leland Palmer on "Twin Peaks" and spin-off film "Fire Walk With Me," but I'd counter that's the best pitch for a Network TV Devil I've ever heard.
While "Reaper" had a fun premise and Wise brought the goods, it wasn't enough. The show ran for two seasons and 31 episodes, from 2007 to 2009, and that was it. The finale, "The Devil & Sam Oliver," features Sam trying and failing to get out of his contract, ending the series on a depressing note that makes it harder to recommend. So, why did the CW cast "Reaper" down into the fiery pit?
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Reaper Wasn't The Show The CW Was Looking For
The first season of "Reaper" was interrupted by a halt of production due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America (WGA) Strike. That accounts for the season's unusual episode count (18) and it's easy to guess the mid-season break hindered it building an audience. Many shows were affected by the strike, including the CW's "Supernatural," and it feels like "Reaper" was too. Contemporary reporting also suggests that airing on Tuesday nights, in competition with "American Idol," hurt the ratings for "Reaper" season 2.
But the numbers don't really bear these theories out. "Reaper" was bringing in about 2, sometimes 3, million viewers consistently during its first season. The second season had slightly lower ratings but it wasn't a huge drop-off. In a 2014 interview on the Nerdist "Writers Panel" podcast, Fazekas and Butters said the show actually found its groove after the strike because the network stopped paying attention and giving stringent notes. "Reaper" got a second season, the creators said, because it was a rare CW show that starred and appealed to mostly men (even if it was created by two women). But even if "Reaper" was getting ratings on par with "Gossip Girl," it wasn't being featured on magazine covers like that show was. Apparently the CW took that to mean the show wasn't hitting with its audience, and the network pulled the plug. Fazekas and Butters claimed that people from the CW have since told them canceling "Reaper" was a mistake, which did not make them feel better.
Variety ultimately reported the cancellation of "Reaper" on May 19, 2009, the night that the penultimate episode aired. The CW didn't even let the season end before pulling the plug. Negotiations to sell the show to ABC as a syndicated series didn't pan out, either.
In June 2009, Labine shared on a "Reaper" Facebook fan-group (backed up on a fan-site) that a "Reaper" comic book was in the works, and there was "serious talk" about a cartoon series. Neither of those ever happened. FEARnet picked the series up for syndication in 2013 and even produced a brief reunion special of the cast discussing the series. Still, that ultimately didn't lead to a revival like some fans (me) hoped, especially since FEAR went defunct in 2014 (it folded into the Chiller channel, which also shut down in 2017). Sam and Sock cameoed in Fazekas & Butters' later show, "Kevin (Probably) Saves the World," but the episode didn't wrap up any "Reaper" story threads.
But this journey doesn't end in despair, because the creators have at least revealed to the public what they had planned for the show.
What Would Have Happened In Reaper Season 3 And Beyond
From the very beginning, something is off about Sam's infernal deal. In "Pilot," Ben tells him the Prince of Lies must be, well, lying about owning his soul because Sam himself didn't sign on the dotted line. That idea doesn't get followed up on in the episode itself but it planted a seed for future episodes. Hints build until season 1's penultimate episode, "The Leak," finally suggests Sam isn't the Devil's thrall: he's the Devil's son. The Devil keeps Sam around, it seems, because he's training him to be part of the family business. But while everyone in "Reaper" season 2 proceeds as if Sam is indeed Satan's son, the Devil himself never confirms this.
In the season 1 finale "Cancun," John is seemingly buried alive ... emphasis on alive, because it doesn't kill him. He returns in season 2, looking as gaunt as a zombie, claiming his deal with the Devil to "not die" evidently applies in perpetuity. When Sam confronts him about the Devil apparently being his father, John says he can't reveal the truth.
In a 2010 interview with CliqueClackTV, Fazekas & Butters confirmed that the Devil is not Sam's father. John is, but there's a twist:
"[Sam's dad] was a demon, who made a deal with the Devil. He fell in love with Sam's mom and wanted to marry her. So the deal was, fine, you're not a demon anymore. He was never fully human, either, which is why you can't kill him. So, in the pilot, when he said he was really sick and made a deal with the Devil, he wasn't 100% lying nor 100% telling the truth. And this is the reason why Sam is special: Sam is part human, part demon."
"The Devil was really worried that this kid was going to be his downfall," Fazekas & Butters continued, but the Devil also knew, in the words of Darth Vader, "If he could be turned, he would be a powerful ally."
If you rewatch the series with this information in mind, then the mysteries all click into place, as do the Devil's actions. "If you look at what the Devil is doing throughout the series, he's trying to tempt Sam to be bad," Fazekas & Butters noted. The Devil letting Sam believe he's his son works to his advantage, because it lets him cloak his corruption of Sam in the guise of fatherly advice.
Fazekas & Butters admit they didn't have a step-by-step plan for how the story would continue, but they foresaw a happy ending where Sam escapes his deal. The actual filmed ending of "Reaper" isn't that, but it is a hopeful ending. The angel Steve (Michael Ian Black) appears before Sam and Andi and reassures them, essentially, that God works in mysterious ways. It's still a shame that "Reaper" season 3 didn't fit into the Lord's grand design.
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