Review: Reaper Season 2

The first season of Reaper was a triumph, albeit one blighted by the spectre of cancellation and low ratings. In that respect, Season 2 follows in its predecessor’s footsteps…

Reaper: The Devil and Sam Oliver...

At the conclusion of this second series, having again garnered relatively poor ratings (a fact many attribute to poor scheduling) the show was cancelled by the CW. As a result, Reaper’s two main actors, Bret Harrison (Sam Oliver) and Tyler Labine (Bert ‘Sock’ Wysocki), left the show, making the possibility of an immediate revival on another network look unlikely.

The turmoil behind the show filters through to some of the episodes — later on in the series in particular it certainly feels like producers were trying to squeeze a lot of long-running storylines into the limited 13-episode space they had. While not wanting to give too much away, the ending to the series — if, as looks likely, it is also the end of the show — is not one that will particularly satisfy viewers, and leaves more questions than answers.

Review: Flight of the Conchords Series 2

Life is nothing if not a struggle for New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk digi-rock duo…

Jemaine and Bret: The Conchords

There is so little to hate about Jemaine and Bret, the two bandmates that make up Flight of the Conchords, that it almost hurts. Whether it be their general inability to strike up conversations with (normal) girls, or their total failure to get anyone apart from Mel (the band’s ‘fanbase’) to attend their gigs, something about the two New Zealanders makes them compelling viewing, despite the conspicuous absence of anything involving personal or professional progression.

The first series introduced us to the band, and allowed us to follow as they singularly failed to make any sort of headway on the American music scene. In that respect, then, the second series follows religiously in the same footsteps. As Jemaine tells Murray, the band’s injudicious manager, during the last episode of this collection, “It’s the story of two men who started at the bottom, who with a lot of hard work continued along the bottom, and then finished at the bottom.”