Reaper

What It's About: On his 18th birthday, slacker Sam found out that his parents had sold his soul to the Devil before he was born. Now Satan has come to collect on the deal, and has decided he can best use Sam's services as a bounty hunter for souls escaped from Hell. Using strange "vessels" provided by the Devil, Sam and his friends, Sock and Ben, hunt down the evil escapees while trying to keep his satanic duties a secret from his Workbench co-workers -- especially the girl Sam likes, Andi.

Origins: The show Reaper comes to us from the writing team of Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, who cut their teeth writing for Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. The director for the pilot episode was Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, etc.).

Popular Characters: Bret Harrison (Sam) makes a great Everyunderachiever, with two jobs he hates but puts up with and a girl he likes but can't bring himself to ask out (Missy Peregrym, effortlessly charming as Andi). Ray Wise has the suave sophistication with an edge of menace you'd expect from the Devil. As for Tyler Labine (the lowbrow, goalless Sock): Labine gets hired when producers need a character that's explicitly meant to be annoying (see Jake 2.0). Sam can do better.

Flavor: The tone is perfectly pitched: the humor comes from all the things that go wrong in Sam's life as he deals with each assignment from the Devil, and it's fun to watch Sam getting more and more put-upon until he's finally pushed into capturing the soul; but the show never forgets that Sam's predicament is at root, not funny. The second level of humor comes from how twisted it is that we laugh anyway.

Network: Reaper is shown on The CW. For showtimes see When It's On.