Devilishly funny

The fall season is born of woulda, coulda, shoulda, as networks unleash more misses than hits. But first -- the best ...

The best new show of the fall is also the most fun. "Reaper" is a silly little piece of hilarity about a guy who turns 21 and finds out his parents sold his soul to the devil. For eternity, he must serve Satan as a small-fry gopher on Earth.

His first mission is to use a Hellacious hand vacuum to suck up the soul of a fugitive from Hell, then deposit the vacuum at a place, like the DMV, that seems like Hell on Earth. The place will change each week.

This plot is truly unique and fresh. It was created by two writers -- Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas -- whose resumes include "The X-Files" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

Their track record suggests "Reaper" won't start sucking anytime soon. Plus, it's on ratings-challenged CW, where shows can live forever, so it may not be canceled this decade.

The first episode benefits from being directed by Kevin ("Dogma") Smith. He won't be back, but his tight yet freewheeling style sets a tone for other directors to follow.

The cast is stellar. Bret Harrison (unknown despite starring in Fox's funny "The Loop") plays Sam, a good guy in weird circumstances whose devilish chores may not be so evil after all. Tyler ("Invasion") Labine portrays his scene-stealing friend Bert "Sock" Wysocki, who finds the whole situation totally super cool.

The hardest I laughed at the first episode comes in a stupid scene (I mean this as a compliment here) where the friend throws a bleach-type bottle at Sam's head to wake him up emotionally. Why's it funny? Why's anything funny? It works.

And Harrison and Labine -- portraying witty, dorky workers at a Home Depot-ish store called the Work Bench -- are immediately one of the funniest duos on TV.

I laughed at another scene where Labine wraps big wads of tape around his hands. I asked Harrison why that gag sings.

"You know why it's funny?" Harrison said. "Because it's random."

He and Labine say the scripts are strong, but they're also improvising their characters' comedy. For instance, Labine didn't like one line in an upcoming script where he was supposed to tell Sam, "You do rock the house on 'Guitar Hero.' "

"I said, 'Nah,' " Labine says. "We decided a better line was, 'You do eat steak pretty good.' Or: 'Yeah, you do roll an impossibly thin crepe.' "

"That is comedy, my friends," Harrison says. "Not 'Guitar Hero!' Everybody would say that s---."

He's completely right.

When Labine read the "Reaper" script, he was "relieved to see something ridiculous and asinine." There's a freedom in this, his sixth TV series. He's steering his character away from being just dumb or aimlessly goofy.

"There's a fine line between jackass and a guy who chooses to be a jackass," he says. "I've decided [that] to follow Sam into the depths of Hell sounds cool. F--- it. I work at the Work Bench. I'm bored. That sounds good."

Quite seriously, there is a lesson to be learned from "Reaper." It is not a show driven by committee and focus group (like "Brothers & Sisters," say). It's made by a team of expert individualists who are allowed to explore their own paths.

There are promising reference points for "Reaper." Labine says it will follow a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" template of being smart and silly but not intimidating or idiotic.

And there's plenty of room to change things up. The devil is portrayed by Ray Wise, who was smiley Leland Palmer on "Twin Peaks." Or is he?

"It has things for comic-book fans like me," Harrison says. "Nuances. Like: What if this guy isn't really the devil? Like: Why hasn't there been a scene yet where he's standing behind my mom waiting to slit her throat?"

There's only one way to find out. Watch "Reaper."

delfman@suntimes.com