Cane

(CBS, Tues, 9,00)

Cane was bad. Very back. Movie-of-the-week bad.

Matt asked if it was, as some reviews have said, racist in addition to being terrible.

The answer is: kind of. But more than likely the percieved racism is just a side-effect of the shittiness of the show. So, the characters are inarticulate and over-the-top. It's certainly not hard-racism; I don't think anyone in the process said: "They're Cuban, so let's make sure they're inarticulate and over-the-top." And it doesn't seem like soft racism, either: "Oh, I guess that's the way I wrote them because I guess that's how I think latinos are."

(Should "Latinos" be capitalized? And, consequently, when I break it apart, as I like to do, into "The Tinos" do both (or either?) of those need to be capitalized, too?)

Mostly the it's-kind-of-there-if-you're-looking racism comes from the fact that that show is poorly put together in nearly every aspect. (And the best way to describe how that is is that it looks and feels like a movie-of-the-week. To summarize: there is no redeeming feature to this show: not Jimmy Smits and certainly not Hector Elizondo, and definitely, certainly not Luis from Suddenly Susan.) So, at most, 1/3 actual racism, 2/3 crappy writing/acting/production.

Cane: CBS, Tues, 9,00. F.

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Reaper

(The CW, Tuesday, 8,00)

Sam had his soul sold to the devil before he was even born. His parents, in return for a cure for Sam's father's terminal illness, sold the soul of their firstborn. "Fine," they thought, "we'll just not have kids." Through some trickery, the devil ends up making sure they do, and so now, on his 21st birthday, Sam must go to work for the devil returning escaped souls to hell. To do so he's gifted with telekenesis and a bad-ass dirt-devil to capture said souls.

Reaper's pilot was slow. So very slow. But then again, I knew the setup before I started watching and the Devil didn't show up until 20 minutes in. Even so, sloooooow. And the production values seemed weirdly low. Maybe because the local CW broadcast it in standard-def, maybe because the CW didn't want to throw movie-quality money at a pilot, I don't know.

And my tivo cut off the last 20 minutes b/c America's Next Top Model ran long or something. But the show was generally flat and, did I mention slow? But given that it's from Kevin Smith and given that I think the premise has some merit, I'm going to hold off reviewing it for now. But I am going to suggest that you watch the pilot when it re-airs on Thursday, or the new episode next Tuesday (if you're not watching House) and let me know what you think. Where it fails, where it succeeds, why it does either. It's an interesting enough premise to merit your time at least once, I think.

Reaper. The CW, Tuesday, 8,00. TBD.