As I'm soon to point-out (if I haven't already by the time this posts), I've pretty much turned the actual TV off at this point. And so it was with disappointment that I learned the CW's Reaper had been canceled unceremoniously.
It doesn't seem to have been missed, but it got a strong push when it first premiered and seemed to be a mild hit. Heck, my parents even started watching for a few weeks there after I introduced it to them on a visit! It got a full season's order (22 episodes - "The Back Nine") for its first season, too... I thought. I don't know the story behind Reaper's cancellation, but I recall the CW moving it around a lot and a lull between episodes.
The premise was probably a bit too far over the top, even though it was just cheesy enough to allow for good TV camp horror and would have made a good coupling with Supernatural. I believe Vampire Diaries knocked it off, but that does appear to have worked for the network and our beloved horror show, so there is a silver lining.
The other is that Reaper is available on Hulu.
© C Harris Lynn, 2010
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
Showing posts with label reaper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reaper. Show all posts
Monday, January 18, 2010
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Reaper Returns Early
CW's supernatural action/adventure/dramedy/romance, Reaper, will return earlier than planned, cutting teen drama, Privileged, short. In a "modest midseason revamp," the CW has decided to bring back the Kevin Smith-produced Reaper on March 3rd and run Privileged's season finale on February 24th. The network had originally planned to show more repeats of Privileged.
Reaper is an intensely enjoyable show, often featuring players seen in many genre favorites. While there's a lot going on in the overarching story, each episode is self-contained, allowing audiences to pick up and leave-off at any time. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
Reaper is an intensely enjoyable show, often featuring players seen in many genre favorites. While there's a lot going on in the overarching story, each episode is self-contained, allowing audiences to pick up and leave-off at any time. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
CW Ratings Hit New Low
The CW is CBS Corp.'s version of the WB... except that it's not.
The CW's ratings dropped a whopping 27% this season in its major focus group - adults aged 18-34 (that's us - just barely) - and Yahoo! has a whole host of suggestions to get them back up to snuff. But there's no sense linking to that article because Yahoo! drops its content within hours and most of the suggestions are pretty basic stuff. And by "basic," I mean trite and stupid.
My Yahoo! Horoscope said not to get on a soapbox today, but after reading their advice to the CW ("be edgier," "stop showing reruns - start doing remakes," - basically, recycle your content), I think I'm on pretty safe ground when I remind everyone that there was a little bustle in the hedgerow this past season: the writers' strike. That little fiasco set the entire TV world back a bit and hit the new CW, still struggling to find its way, quite hard. Add to that the departure of their ratings giant, The WWE, and you've got yourself a tasty recipe for disaster.
Still, the CW has two of the strongest shows on the tube today - neither of which were even mentioned in Yahoo!'s little advice column - I'm talking, of course, about Smallville and Supernatural. Both of which, by the by, are backed by highly-successful comics series, as well - both by DC, which is owned by Warner Brothers, which is what the WB was before it became the CW and has recently relaunched online. See how this all comes kinda full semi-circle?
No?
Well, me either - it's 6:00 in the AM and I haven't had a wink of sleep! Besides, my horoscope told me to shut up, so... Oh!
Yes, regardless of what Yahoo! said, the CW's heaviest-hitters just so happen to have more than a few things in common, including a fantastic, double-barreled line-up on a really tough night to crack (Thursdays), a touch of the paranormal, fatally-attractive casts, and superlative writing and direction. There's no recycling, no low-road taken; the CW's strong-showing Thursdays proves that the only reason "syndication is king" in TV is because the executives make it so; when we viewers have our druthers, we go straight for the good stuff.
In fact, the only suggestion I saw in Yahoo!'s article that I agree with is that CBS needs to make sure the fledgling network has more seed-money - but not to spend on insipid "OMFG" Gossip Girl twitters. Where was the CW when Joss Whedon came a-calling? Though NBC-owned, why has Smallville and/or Supernatural not been syndicated to Sci-Fi Channel?
The article ends with the reporter saying the CW won't really make it until it has that one, big break-out hit to call its own, yet the Smallville (originally airing on the WB) pilot remains WB's highest-rated series premiere ever! CW knows a good thing when it has one; it threw us a clever curve by following this season's reruns with reruns of Reaper (also a great show). But I think that plan backfired, as we regular viewers were looking for our weekly fix o' Sam and Dean and we'd already seen those Reaper episodes.
Final analysis: yes, the CW needs a little nudge from its parent company, but the strike hit it harder than most and WWE's leaving didn't do it any favors, either. But - and I know what my horoscope said about soapboxes and I know I don't know Shinola from... that other stuff when it comes to programming - but let me say it again: we make the world in which we live.
"Syndication is king" in TV - "ratings are king" in TV - because They make it so. Stop confusing "edginess" and shock value with talent. For years, They complained about competing with The Sopranos, and how network TV just couldn't do it because the mobster show was just too edgy. But if The Sopranos had been a one-trick pony full of curse words and grisly mob-hits, its novelty would have worn-off by season three; The Sopranos succeeded because it - like Smallville, like Supernatural, like Reaper - was quality programming. And while I might not know if that's Shinola you're waxing my shoes with, the numbers prove that!
The CW already has a hit formula: the scripted paranormal seems to work quite well for them. But there's the rub: they need to avoid the formulaic at all costs.
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
The CW's ratings dropped a whopping 27% this season in its major focus group - adults aged 18-34 (that's us - just barely) - and Yahoo! has a whole host of suggestions to get them back up to snuff. But there's no sense linking to that article because Yahoo! drops its content within hours and most of the suggestions are pretty basic stuff. And by "basic," I mean trite and stupid.
My Yahoo! Horoscope said not to get on a soapbox today, but after reading their advice to the CW ("be edgier," "stop showing reruns - start doing remakes," - basically, recycle your content), I think I'm on pretty safe ground when I remind everyone that there was a little bustle in the hedgerow this past season: the writers' strike. That little fiasco set the entire TV world back a bit and hit the new CW, still struggling to find its way, quite hard. Add to that the departure of their ratings giant, The WWE, and you've got yourself a tasty recipe for disaster.
Still, the CW has two of the strongest shows on the tube today - neither of which were even mentioned in Yahoo!'s little advice column - I'm talking, of course, about Smallville and Supernatural. Both of which, by the by, are backed by highly-successful comics series, as well - both by DC, which is owned by Warner Brothers, which is what the WB was before it became the CW and has recently relaunched online. See how this all comes kinda full semi-circle?
No?
Well, me either - it's 6:00 in the AM and I haven't had a wink of sleep! Besides, my horoscope told me to shut up, so... Oh!
Yes, regardless of what Yahoo! said, the CW's heaviest-hitters just so happen to have more than a few things in common, including a fantastic, double-barreled line-up on a really tough night to crack (Thursdays), a touch of the paranormal, fatally-attractive casts, and superlative writing and direction. There's no recycling, no low-road taken; the CW's strong-showing Thursdays proves that the only reason "syndication is king" in TV is because the executives make it so; when we viewers have our druthers, we go straight for the good stuff.
In fact, the only suggestion I saw in Yahoo!'s article that I agree with is that CBS needs to make sure the fledgling network has more seed-money - but not to spend on insipid "OMFG" Gossip Girl twitters. Where was the CW when Joss Whedon came a-calling? Though NBC-owned, why has Smallville and/or Supernatural not been syndicated to Sci-Fi Channel?
The article ends with the reporter saying the CW won't really make it until it has that one, big break-out hit to call its own, yet the Smallville (originally airing on the WB) pilot remains WB's highest-rated series premiere ever! CW knows a good thing when it has one; it threw us a clever curve by following this season's reruns with reruns of Reaper (also a great show). But I think that plan backfired, as we regular viewers were looking for our weekly fix o' Sam and Dean and we'd already seen those Reaper episodes.
Final analysis: yes, the CW needs a little nudge from its parent company, but the strike hit it harder than most and WWE's leaving didn't do it any favors, either. But - and I know what my horoscope said about soapboxes and I know I don't know Shinola from... that other stuff when it comes to programming - but let me say it again: we make the world in which we live.
"Syndication is king" in TV - "ratings are king" in TV - because They make it so. Stop confusing "edginess" and shock value with talent. For years, They complained about competing with The Sopranos, and how network TV just couldn't do it because the mobster show was just too edgy. But if The Sopranos had been a one-trick pony full of curse words and grisly mob-hits, its novelty would have worn-off by season three; The Sopranos succeeded because it - like Smallville, like Supernatural, like Reaper - was quality programming. And while I might not know if that's Shinola you're waxing my shoes with, the numbers prove that!
The CW already has a hit formula: the scripted paranormal seems to work quite well for them. But there's the rub: they need to avoid the formulaic at all costs.
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Tonight's Geek TV!
Sci-Fi is re-airing the second season of the fantastic Eureka starting tonight and while I hate to suggest something else - especially since the second season was so good and Eureka is a great show - I was flipping around to see what all is coming on and I found that tonight's Nova (PBS) is about Samurai swords. It's all about the craftsmanship that goes into making them, as well as those interested in collecting them, etc. Sure, they may be playing on the popularity of Heroes, but it's an interesting topic either way, and most of us probably saw the whole season of Eureka. Of course, Sci-Fi's lead-in is Dead Like Me and nothing else better is on during the 6:00 hour - very little better is ever on, compared to Dead Like Me.
At 8:00 (CST) is the new Reaper over to the CW. I saw the pilot the other night and loved it! It's from Kevin Smith and the pilot was absolutely fantastic! It's silly in just the right way, even though the "best friend" character is your stereotypical Kevin Smith "hipster," and approaches the somewhat flimsy, ridiculous premise earnestly. Not to mention they didn't skimp on the SFX.
I have to give CW that much, in general: no matter the show, they do not eff-around when it comes to the special effects. Charmed went easy on them throughout much of the series, even though the early episodes had some really fantastic SFX work, but they obviously spent the brunt of their budget on getting big-name hotties to appear and that sustained them for nearly 10 years, so whatever's clever. But Smallville, Supernatural, Reaper - these shows pull out the stops when it comes to the special effects! Granted, they are not quite up to the level of anything over to the BBC (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Hex), but I'd submit that they rival most of the stuff we get from the Sci-Fi Channel.
Not to knock Sci-Fi; they have some great SFX work - as well they should, mind you - but but those of the CW are generally just as good. Further, many of Sci-Fi's shows and movies use lesser talent so they can focus their budget on the SFX, where CW tends to divide their money more evenly between talent and SFX, and you can tell it. Either way you slice it, BBC beats everyone, hands-down.
Those damn Brits!
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