DVR Cleaning: Criminal Reaper, My Name Is Scrubs
By fred | November 4, 2007
You know the drill, every weekend I try to watch all that I couldn’t during the week. Yes, it’s true, I can’t watch everything during the week, there’s just too much to go through. But I don’t complain, I love that, and my busy week end as well. I realize that this is due to the strike, because if a deal had been worked out months ago networks would have had canceled quite a few of their new series already !
I guess we can thank the strike for helping networks giving more of a real chance to many shows, now let’s hope it doesn’t last too long so that it doesn’t end up hurting those very same shows, as well as others, in the end. Let’s all pray that the strike ends quick, I mean 4 weeks top would be the best. After that, things might get ugly…
But for now, here we go with new episodes of Reaper, Criminal Minds, My Name Is Earl and Scrubs.
Reaper: Leon
(S01E06) This is pretty cool… remember how last week I said that I wished writers would find a way to break away from the structure each episode/story seem to always rely on. I even mentioned this idea of opening with Sam and his gang already on a new case, knowing who the bad guy was, and already at him with the vessel. And this is (pretty much) exactly what happened this time!
I gotta say, I was really happy about that. Now it wasn’t, as I had thought of last week, the way the new case of the week went down. Instead, they had another case to work on at the same time, and yes, that second case did go down as always : find the vessel, learn about the escaped soul, make a first attempt that fails, then come back, successfully get him, and send him back to Hell.
It is true that the structure of that part of the story wasn’t much different than usual, but at least the episode wasn’t stuck in that same structure itself, and that is a very good thing, IMO. Not only that but I want to see it as a move in the right direction. Now they need to be able to find different ways for Sam to go after some bad guys.
I’ve said before that, because of how this show is done, it wasn’t probably gonna be as easy as with others. Because Sam isn’t a demon-hunter that goes after a bad guy when he hears of one, and send him back where he belongs on his own. No, instead he waits, not caring so much about demons, crimes or anything, until the Devil gets him a new mission, and the vessel that goes with it.
But here comes the other thing I liked about this episode, Sam finally seemed, by the end of it, to accept and embrace his “destiny”, as well as standing up to the Devil. Now sure, he kind of did that by the end of the pilot already, and we all know it went nowhere, and I’m sure that whole contract thing won’t just go away, but I really hope they get him to be more confident about his new life, because that would allow to extend the show and leave that famous structure behind.
If Sam embraces his “other job”, he can start hearing of demons, or weird crimes, or even look for some later on, and go after the bad guys himself. By himself, I obviously mean along with his buddies, but without an order of mission - or a vessel - from the Devil. Those things would come later on. Sam needs to take some initiative now.
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Criminal Minds, My Name Is Earl, Reaper, Scrubs
