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‘Reaper’: The CW Scores with a Devilishly Funny New Series

[IMG:L]Like many twentysomething slackers, Sam Oliver is a college dropout who punches in at a warehouse store and lives with his parents, but with one big difference: he’s the Devil’s bounty hunter, conscripted to retrieve renegade sinners who’ve escaped from Hell. Sam’s parents sold his newborn soul to Satan, and now that he’s turned 21, Lucifer collects on the IOU.

Starring Bret Harrison (Grounded for Life, The Loop) as Sam and Ray Wise as the Devil, Reaper is a hybrid of action, fantasy, drama and comedy that gets that delicate balance just right.

Executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, who met as assistants on the X-Files, came up with the premise eight years ago and continued to develop the idea and tone. That some may find Reaper reminiscent of Ghostbusters, which Fazekas admits to having seen “about 5,000 times,” is not coincidental, but the 2004 flick Shaun of the Dead was even more influential for the creators.

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“Here were two ordinary guys who were too hung over to realize the world’s been taken over by zombies. I started thinking about these kinds of kids in their twenties who live in a nice suburb and have a nice car and Xbox and all the comforts of home so they’re not really motivated to do anything. Why would you leave to live in a crappy apartment downtown? So I kind of married the two ideas together,” she explains.

Once executive producers Mark GordonDeborah Spera and Tom Spezialy were on board and sold Reaper to the CW (where it premieres Sept. 25 at 9/8c), Harrison was tapped for the lead. “He has an everyman quality, he’s relatable, and he’s funny,” praises Spera. As for Wise, a veteran of 100 plus films and TV shows including Robocop, Good Night and Good Luck, Dallas, 24, and Twin Peaks, “Ray walked in and smiled at us, and that was it,” adds Spera.

Wise, who fittingly appeared on screen for the first time in a 1969 movie titled Dare the Devil, has played his share of heroes and villains but doesn’t mind if he’s typecast as the latter. “It’s something I relish, really,” says Wise, whose baddie repertoire includes Twin Peaks’ Leland Palmer, campaign manager Chet McGregor in Bob Roberts, and on stage, Roman emperor Caligula. He conjured up examples of “pretty much every Devil that’s ever been done on the screen” from John Huston in The Devil and Daniel Webster to Peter Stormare in Constantine and Robert De Niro in Angel Heart before “forgetting all about that and doing my Devil.”

[IMG:R]His wardrobe of impeccably tailored suits aside, the best part of playing this incarnation of Beelzebub, says Wise, is “just the feeling that you get of incredible power, of dominion over everyone and everything, and then to play against that, knowing that you have that and being confident enough to play against and be something that most people think you’re not.”

Tyler Labine, the Jack Black-esque Canadian most recently seen on TV in Invasion and Boston Legal, plays the sidekick role of Sam’s jokester best buddy and co-worker, Sock. “No matter what is happening with Sam, I’m a fiercely loyal friend that will follow him to the end,” describes Labine, adding that Sock is naïve but not stupid. “He thinks this is all fun. What’s more exciting, cutting PVC pipe all day or [working for the Devil]? And I really like being able to provide a comedy element,” he adds.

The role of Andi, Sam’s co-worker and love interest played by Nikki Reed in the original pilot, was recast with Missy Peregrym, who recurred as shape-shifter Candice Wilmer on Heroes last season and played a gymnast in the movie Stick It. “I’ve done some things before that were very serious and I’ve got to say that it’s great to work on something where you’re laughing all the time. It makes work a lot more fun when you’ve got to be there for 12 hours a day,” compares Peregrym, who has returned to her native Vancouver to shoot Reaper.

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As for the character, “She’s down to earth– I think anyone who works at Home Depot has got to be able to hang with the guys and be able to handle that,” reflects Peregrym. “I don’t see her as very prissy or girly. I can’t really say why but she’s made some decisions to stay there and work there based on things that have happened in her life. She feels very safe.”

Andi’s backstory will emerge, and Sam will develop certain powers depending on his mission of the week. “They are more annoying than powerful. They will change depending on the [escaped] soul and that will be explained in the episode after the pilot,” promises Fazekas. Kevin Smith, who directed the pilot, “is going to help us out every once in a while,” says Mark Gordon.

[IMG:L]The action aspect of the show has had its hazards for Bret Harrison. “I had to get shocked so they rigged a wire up my leg that goes through to my arm. They assured me that I wouldn’t get hurt,” he relates. “I was basically electrocuted. But I’m very used to it at this point now.”

Reaper’s cleverly subversive comedy touches include a Dirt Devil used to vacuum up wayward demons and the Department of Motor Vehicles as a portal to hell, which makes complete sense to Harrison. “I never had the right document when I moved from Oregon to L.A.,” he recalls his own hellish experience with DMV bureaucracy. “I had to go back 15 times.”

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