Fox already canceled The Loop, so bringing the twenty something executive comedy back to air its final episodes was more of a study in loss control than paying off it’s small, but clever, audience. Fox is known for having an itchy trigger finger for shows that do not instantly ignite a ratings firestorm, usually it’s a three strikes and your out business where the network is concerned just looks at Drive. But don’t mourn for star Bret Harrison , The Loop may be ending, but he already has a part on another network’s prime time show. And he doesn’t even have to give up his character name.
Harrison will be leaving the caustic, often daring humor of The Loop for something a few shades darker in CW’s Reaper, which costars Ray Wise as Lucifer. Harrison is playing a young man who finds out that his parents sold his soul to the devil.
The subject matter is a far cry from the failings of The Loop which attempted to capture the funnier aspects of a sexually obsessed corporate jungle against the all too familiar landscape of co-ed roommating.
Reaper, on the other hand, is sort of like Ghost Rider without the flames, and motorcycle. In Reaper, Harrison will star as Sam (yes his character in The Loop is named Sam too), a young man who finds out that his soul was sold to the devil before he was born. At twenty-one he is conscripted by the dark angel himself to repay that debt as a bounty hunter, seeking out souls who have escaped from hell.
If the concept sounds familiar, it should. Just start thinking in terms of “this” meets “that” concept forging, and you’ll probably come up with the formula for Reaper in no time at all.
The saving grace, of course, is in the execution. The Loop, with its quilted concepts succeeded on a creative level through writing that rose above its high concept roots; something FOX puts very little value in. The CW, on the other hand, has been known to be a little more creator friendly.
The final episodes of The Loop will air on Sundays at 9:30/8:30c on FOX until the series finale on July 1st.
– Jon lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image © 2007 FOX)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
