Reaper: The Favorite review

One of the most interesting aspects of Reaper is the built in discussion of right and wrong in the show. the examination of why people are good and bad may or may not have been planned but it seems clear now that the writers understand this part of the show.

The devil is of course the most blatant example of this examination. Sometimes it is in his attempt to explain his importance and other times in his humorous attempts, often successful to lead people a astray.

One of my favorite examples of this was in a recent episode where he was leading an alcoholics anonymous meeting, though many of them are far more grey than that. Is the torturing of condemned souls evil or an important job, what about temptation. Is this something that is necessary for free will to exist.

Another example of this are the condemned souls. Each week the show has someone who has in some way failed the test of character in their life. In the first season these were usually quite black and white with murderers being those that Sam hunted, but in this season they have had escaped souls who are more interesting, as well as demons who aren’t as evil as you might suspect.

Then of course there is Sam, who’s goodness has generally been assumed in the show. Most of what he does, while inept, is selfless. His life would be far easier if he stopped caring if people were killed be the escaped souls, and this week they added another example of this examination of good and evil, another child of the devil, and technically Sam’s half brother.

This is someone who is everything that the devil wants Sam to be, he is ruthless, amoral and wants to rule hell with the devil, the problem is that he isn’t effective and so the devil sends him to Sam to be trained as a reeper but more important is the question of what makes Sam, who is smaller, weaker and probably not as bright. The devil seems to assume it is because he actually cares for people, and at the very least it is the reason that he has friends who are willing to help him.