Comic-con

There were two distinct parts to this event: the screening of Reaper, a new CW comedy/drama about demon hunting, and the question and answer with writer/director/actor Kevin Smith. If you're not familiar with Kevin Smith's Q&A sessions, check out his DVD An Evening with Kevin Smith – you owe it to yourself. That is, if you don't mind extreme obscenity hurled at the audience, lewd stories, and a generally no-holds-barred type of audience interaction.

Kevin Smith has been a fixture of Comicon for 12 years, but this time was something different. Smith directed the pilot of Reaper, screened it to the audience, and then opened up the floor for Q&A. He asked for questions about Reaper, yet received very few. The cast who joined Kevin on stage looked a bit out of place. They should have been the stars of the event, but certainly weren't, more of a complete after thought (Missy Peregrin, the female lead, said less that 30 words the whole time on the panel – she was hot, though, so all is forgiven).

Now, you might think that the audience avoided discussing Reaper because it was a disappointment, or it just plain sucked. That couldn't be further from the truth. Reaper is a funny look at the supernatural genre, featuring a couple of slackers who have to send a escaped soul back to hell using a Dirt Devil. Why? Because Sam, the main character, had his soul sold to the Devil by his parents and the Devil (played magnificently by Ray Wise) decides to use Sam as a Demon Bounty Hunter, catching escaped souls and sending them back to hell. The writers were clearly influenced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and that's OK. Anything that resembles Buffy is probably going to be pretty good.

The main character's sidekick, Sock, is channeling a young Jack Black, but, somehow, not in a bad way. He's over-the-top, but the humor rarely falls flat (or, maybe it was funnier because of the 5,000 or so other fans of the genre that were watching in Hall H). Sam and Sock have an easy chemistry, which is going to be key for the show's future success. It's paced really well and the premise is set up as seamlessly as possible (some exposition is a little clunky, but you can't blame them – it's a very high concept show). Andi, the female lead, is another good character, with some quality depth of character established in the pilot.

At the panel, we didn't learn much more about Reaper, because it was the Kevin Smith show. Which isn't a bad thing at all, actually, because Lunch Box knows how to work a room. Unfortunately, there's not much I can relay about the Q&A on a family site like BuddyTV. Sorry.

But, watch Reaper. It's taking over Veronica Mars time slot on the CW, which may be a little bittersweet for Mars fans out there, but believe me when I say it's worth your time. It has serious Buffy-type potential.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Photo courtesy of Oscar Dahl)