TVSquad

How'd Reaper do this week? As much as I enjoyed it, this episode has left me with a few longings for more. Don't worry, I wasn't wishing I was watching the 13 American Idol wannabes performing over on FOX, but I do think there are places that Reaper could go that would be extremely satisfying.

In fact, they went there at the end of season one. The conspiracy with Sam's dad (um, does Sam even know that his dad is alive?), the demon rebellion, Sam's true parentage ... I want more! When I saw Andrew Airlie's name in the opening credits, I got excited, thinking we were headed back to the darker side of Reaper, to the secrets of Sam's family (remember his mom digging up his dad at the end of season one?) and really getting to some good stuff.

Bah, I guess I'll have to wait for that, but I'm hoping they'll deliver. Reaper did deliver laughs and a bit of a story arc tonight.

They are taking it slowly, but we got to see a little more of Alan. I wish we knew something more about him, though now that we do know he is obsessive about being tempted, they could go some funny places with that.

But hey, they used the Devil tonight, didn't they? The Devil playing jokes on Sam never gets old, and it was a nice bit of foreshadowing to the fact that the Devil set Sam up to be attacked. And really, that Jerry is such a sensitive guy, really moved by the demon he told to lay off Sam: "Did you get a look at its face? I thought it was going to start bawling!"

One other little complaint ... if they aren't going to dig into the back story, then please don't veer too much from the formula, because the soul-catching really took a back seat to some other antics. Are they still just setting us up for the season? They've got Sock settled, Ben seems to have an interesting new relationship forming (to say the least), and Sam and Andi have their quest for Alan. Maybe next week will give us either some meaty back story or an interesting soul...

Other things worth mentioning:

• Sock and Kristen have gone from tickle fights to wrestling matches; I'm not sure it can old, it's so damned funny.
• "It's like she's water-boarding my boys, Sammy. They're constantly blue." - Sock, about the wrestling matches.
  "You have the blue man group in your pants." - Ben
• Gladys is in a book group. This is the kind of quirky detail I love in this show.
  
• "She's my sister and the only one allowed to have sex with her is me." -- Sock, to Kristen's date
• I think I'll miss Ted, but it was totally worth seeing him hit on that secret shopper.
• The loser dance-off between Sock and Topher was a hands-down win on Topher's part. Really, does anyone actually do that invisible come-to-me rope thing? For real?