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Reaper is definitely a Supernatural rip-off. I mean, if they had come out at the same time, maybe I wouldn't think so, but, Reaper debuted after Supernatural already had one season out, and come on:

Main character-Sam
He hunts evil/collects souls
Has demon blood
"Works" for the Devil

I've never even watched a whole episode of Reaper because it's too similar. I think The CW is trying to get rid of Supernatural...remember when they had Reaper in SPN's timeslot, and had absolutely NO PROMOTION WHATSOEVER of Supernatural??

It all started when those idiots in The CW put Reaper repeats in Supernatural's spot and took Supernatural completely off the calender. That's when their trouble began.

I personally don't even bother to watch it after all that stuff went down.

I actually saw a couple of episodes of Reaper before I saw Supernatural. I normally don't watch the CW because I am allergic to shows such as Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, etc. I don't like soap operas. I like action, comedy, and SciFi. I bumped into Reaper and thought... that's cute. I even bought a couple of episodes on iTunes. Then, during the holidays I found Supernatural and it was love at first episode. I watched the entire set of available episodes (2 seasons plus 8 episodes) in just over 48 hours. OMG, it was incredible. I don't normally like scary shows, so it scared the crap out of me, but I didn't care because the bond between the brothers was just so compelling. I laughed, cried (boy did I cry), and I definitely screamed. After the first season's finale I screamed so loud that I hurt my throat. If I would have had to wait through the summer for a conclusion, I might have been knocking on Kripke's door. That man is cruel!

So, when I first saw Reaper, I had no idea what Supernatural was and I liked it. After I fell in love with Supernatural, Reaper kind of lost its appeal, but I still watch it if I bump into it. I still find it cute, but I don't see it as a rip off of Supernatural. It would be like comparing a MacDonald's cheeseburger to a Ruth's Chris steak... no comparison!

I like both series. And they´re totally diferent in my opinion. Reaper has a little bit comedy on it.

Supernatural is simply a better show. Reaper may try to be like it in some ways, but it will never achieve it so it doesn't bother me in the least.

haha the comment "My Sam is better and has more issues than your Sam" just came to my head haha... in that tone of voice that Sam Winchester tormented poor Jo about his daddy shooting her daddy in the head=p

Interesting fact: there is another TV show besides these two that have a main character named Sam and involves special powers and the supernatural. It was on years and years ago (long before many of us were born!) and is considered a TV classic.

OMG, both of these shows ripped-off Bewitched (1964 - 1972)! OMGOMG.

here's my opinion.

I watch both shows.

Supernatural, devotely.
Reaper more as a "hey, its on, cool i'll watch it."

At first, being the SN fan I am, all I did was too watch it because I heard it was a rip off of SN and i wanted to see for myself.

There were some things that bothered me, such as Sam, sell your soul, hunts demons, and some of the episodes of Reaper, seemed to be alot like previous epidoes of SN. Bugs, hunting in the sewer...yadda yadda.

You totally get the sense that Reaper is a ho hum whatever kind of show. It has its funny moments, and I admit I've laughed at some of it.

While Supernatural, it tries its best, it explores different emotions and well...it's a more effort, more wanna be serious.

IMO

KAckles, i wholeheartedly agree with you in everything that you said:
yea Reaper and Supernatural are similar, but the similarities end with Sam's name, the devil/demon blood, and hunting demons. Otherwise, if you look at the demons Supernatural uses and the ones Reaper uses, they're totally different--Reaper's are more, i guess, childish whereas Supernatural's are more intense and evil.
And i completely agree with the fact that Supernatural doesn't get any promotion--in that commercial about friends returning in the fall, the only time you see Supernatural is this millisecond of a clip where Sam and Dean are running. Then poof! more stuff about 90210, OTH and GG<--each of those got two long clips. Not fair. As for ratings, Supernatural is usually the third most watched show on the CW, and once it even beat ANTM's ratings. Take that!
Go Supernatural, you deserve to win!!

Reaper is definately a SN rid off..

I completely disagree that Reaper is anything like Supernatural, nor is it trying to be. The only thing they have in common is a network and the paranormal. Regardless of what I might think of either show, you can't really compare an hour drama show with a half hour sitcom. They have different goals. The drama is going to have an ongoing plot line with serious character development. A half hour comedy really just wants people to laugh. They don't even have to keep a continuity.

Now to personal opinion, I wouldn't consider comparing the two shows as one is all around quality storytelling and the other is just an attempt to capture a certain demographic. I'll take complex, three dimensional characters over a gimmick any day. So many networks are trying to cash in on the popularity of the paranormal. Only a rare few get it right. The true test of both shows will simply be time. Ten years from now, I think there will still be a steady following for Supernatural. It will still have conventions and fan fiction, a loyal following like Buffy and Star Trek. Reaper will be long gone, a short blip on the radar of TV history.

I'll admit it, I've never watched or had the urge to watch an episode of REAPER. I'm a SUPERNATURAL girl to the end.

When I first heard about REAPER, I never thought of it as a SUPERNATURAL rip-off. After hearing that the main character's name was Sam and he was the Devil's son or whatever, I was like, "WTF?! Talk about deja vu!" SUPERNATURAL is the best of it's kind and this is coming from a major Buffy/Charmed fan.

I dont see how people can say that SUPERNATURAL isnt a funny show and that it's always serious? Hello?? Havent you even seen an episode? Dean's antics are freakin hilarious! Season 1 is filled with Dean's cracks. 'Scarecrow' has some great quotes as well as the pilot and a few others. Season 2 and 3 are filled with great quotes from both Sam and Dean! I mean come on..."..dont forget the extra onions." -Dean "Dude, I have to be in the car with your extra onions." - Sam -"All Hell Breaks Loose part 1" Season 2- Cracks me up every time!
Plus, Jensen and Jared are down right the most amazing and talented guys I've ever seen. And trust me when I say I've seen a large amount of movies/tv shows in my life. I've never seen two actors work so well with each other let alone the guest stars. The fact that these two can carry a whole show solely relying on each other is purely miraculous. SUPERNATURAL is what it is because of Jensen and Jared. If it were any other two actors, I probably wouldnt watch it. SUPERNATURAL deserves a hell of a lot more credit than it's given and WAY MORE PROMOTING from the CW! That's definitely one thing that freakin pisses me off about the network. THEY DONT PROMOTE SUPERNATURAL BUT THEY PROMOTE DUMBASS, POINTLESS SHOWS LIKE GOSSIP GIRLS AND 90210!! I'm sorry if that offends any GG/90210 fans but it's the truth. Both shows get way more advertising than SUPERNATURAL and it's not fair to SUPERNATURAL. It's not a second-rate show that bombs in ratings. Sure, it's not up in the double digits but it does reasonably well on a small network.

Ok, so I went off on a different tangent there...back to REAPER.

If it gets right down to it, REAPER and SUPERNATURAL are different shows with uncanny similarities. But, let's face it, SUPERNATURAL is and will always be better.

Being a Supernatural fan from the get go, i don't think Reaper is a rip-off of Supernatural. It's a downright insult to Supernatural and everyone involved. I would say it's more like Ghost Rider with a less hot-manly bounty hunter. For the record, i would totally watch Reaper on a regular basis if it had Nicolas Cage as Sam.

I tried watching the first episode of Reaper that had so much buzz but couldn't bring myself to finish it. I love comedy to death but the kind of comedy Reaper offers is so overdone to the hilt, it goes beyond cliche. The sidekick Sock reminds me of the cliched friend who does inconsiderate things to you but in the end you tell him it's okay. When In real live, you'd kill him. The characters are two dimensional and typical. It can't grow on me and will only watch it if there is absolutely nothing else on t.v. It needs to find it's own unique identity and quality by first revamping it's writers who don't seem capable of writing anything but cliches.

Supernatural on the other hand has better writers, and way more rounded three dimensional characters and actors.

That's my opinion on this anyway.

Just to even things out a little bit, I freakin' love Reaper but never could get into Supernatural, despite being a huge horror fan. It's a fine show, it's just not for me. So the shows are definitely different enough.

But I think Supernatural fans getting all up in arms about Reaper being a "rip-off" is ridiculous. If the two shows were on different networks and vying for the same timeslot I'd get it, but they're not even remotely in competition.

Lemme repeat that.

They're. Not. In. Competition.

You don't have to be randomly angry about Reaper! It's not going to "steal" things from your baby. It's not going to "take its place" or anything wacky like that. That's not how television works. It's okay! You can relax! YOU'RE FREE!

I've been a Supernatural fan since the pilot, but I have to admit that my first reaction to Reaper was not 'It's a Supernatural rip-off!' but rather 'It's a Brimstone rip-off!' Haven't changed my mind. And John Glover was a way more awesome devil.

Wait, really? Reaper's still around?

I never wanted to give the show a chance, because I honestly thought it was a blatant way for Ostroff to disrespect Kripke and Supernatural. But I'm a fan of Kevin Smith, so I thought I'd give it a go, rather than just run my mouth against it for no valid reason.

I gave it a go.

Ray Wise can't even save that show, and that's a damned shame. He's a talented actor, and a joy to watch.

It sucks.

Hence, my surprise that it's still on the air. Of course, these are only my opinions.

Supernatural comes back September 4th, yes? 18th? Anyone?

Hi,
Supernatural is way better than Reaper. Yes, I am a huge SN fan, it's my first love, but I can be objective about that. Reaper is a ok, has some funny moments, the guys are the type of nerds we always see in comedy shows but I can't see them like men. They look more like boys and sometimes they act like little girls:)
But Dean and Sam, they are awesome and J and J make this show extraordinary.
There are episodes from SN so funny that you can't stop laughing so the humor is better than Reaper's.
But there is a thing that really bothered me in Reaper. As a Supernatural fan I felt dissapointed that the writers of Reaper have no imagination sometimes. In BDAHR, 3rd season of Supernatural, Dean says I'm Batman and Sam makes a funny face and says :Yes, you are!!! I thought it was the most funny thing I saw in Supernatural and I laught so hard, but then I saw the same lines in an episode from Reaper. Practically the dialogue was exact the same, only that this time Sock( I don't know if this is the name) tell Sam :you are Batman. Sam says:I am?
And the other guy says:Yes you are"
I mean come on....This is so clear from Supernatural, you didn't found anything else to use? I didn't even blink at that scene, laughing was out of question...In supernatural I thought it was hilarious but in Reaper I felt dissapointed to see that.
So, yes, we can say that, even if the 2 show are distinctive, Reaper has the bad habit to inspire from some Sn scenes.

Supernatural is and will always be my all time favorite show, but I gotta give Reaper a lot of credit. I've come to love it as its own show, as well. I have to say the finale was pretty kick ass. And the whole thing with Steve and Tony being demons kind of solidifies the two shows' different takes on the supernatural world.

I also completely agree with Mia in that Sam and Dean are constantly on the move and in Reaper, Sam has a pitifully systematic lifestyle that he really needed to get out of.

As for the name thing, I don't take a lot of offense to it--Sam is a common name, so whatever. I mean, there's two Nates, two Dans, there used to be two Lukes when Gilmore Girls was still on, even two Logans with Gilmore and Veronica Mars!

So yeah...two very different, but still very quality tv shows

I think Supernatural and Reaper have similar yet different. They are the same because both shows have a main character named Sam. Also Supernatural and Reaper deal with killing demons. They are different in that Reaper is more light hearted, when Supernatural is more dark and scary. I think the Reaper=funny and Supernatural= serious argument can work since Supernatural is definitly funnier than Reaper.

I'm a huge fan of genre shows but it's always seemed to me to be a bit unfair that, while you can have a dozen crime dramas about the same thing, whenever something like Supernatural comes out it's always compared to every other genre show that came before it.
I don't think that Reaper is a ripoff of Supernatural. Reaper is campy and doesn't have a whole lot to say and Supernatural is a much more serious and, let's be honest here, better show.

I'll admit that I've only watched a few episodes of REAPER and also that I am a huge huge huge SUPERNATURAL fan.

I "get" that these are different types of shows and that REAPER is not trying to be SUPERNATURAL. (But I agree with the opinion of some others who noted that the humor on SUPERNATURAL is actually better than what I've seen on REAPER.)

The fact that REAPER's lead character's name is Sam on a "supernaturalish" type show was just really awful planning. Even if they didn't know the CW was going to pick up their show (vs another network), SUPERNATURAL had already been on the air a couple seasons ... so why go there at all? They really invited criticism by doing it.

I'm with those who disagree that Supernatural=serious while Reaper=funny. Supernatural can be a hilariously funny show. There are episodes of Supernatural that make you crack up from beginning to end. Then there are episodes that tear your heart out. And there are episodes that somehow manage to do both.

That's the brilliance of Supernatural. Sometimes it's scary, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's deep and dramatic. It can do it all, and do it all well.

So saying the big difference between Supernatural and Reaper is that one is serious and one is funny is kinda incorrect. Both can be funny. So maybe the difference is that while Reaper is mostly just funny Supernatural can be funny on top of being a complex drama with plenty of spine tingling horror.

i believe reaper is too close to supernatural. mainly two guys? hunting stuff or souls or whatever? reaper always looked to me like a funny version of supernatural but not nearly that awesome and one of the characters name is sam! he's the reluctant one not so keen on everything. sounds tooo similar if you ask me

Doesnt matter, Reaper isnt all that great. The Devil is gold but the show sucks. If they thought it would have competed with Supernatural,even if its a Sera written episode - they were wrong.

Reaper is a spoof of Supernatural, plain and simple. Whether this is deliberate or not, there are several instances of story and character arcs being far too similar to Supernatural (and as someone else has noted, "The Collector").

Yes, I've watched Reaper. No, I'm not a fan of it. It's like watching a train wreck, and I find it about as funny as a hot poker in the eye. It's the "Dumb and Dumber" of horror, which is of course fine if you like that sort of thing.

Much as I want to see sci-fi/horror as a genre thrive, especially on the CW for several obvious reasons, I hope Reaper dies a quiet and unnotable death, and is replaced by something original that doesn't involve rich people screwing each other in various ways.

Im not comparing Supernatural =serious and Reaper= Funny
and if you really get into the show supernatural its way more funnier than Reaper. Supernatural is way better. Deal with it. they got hotter dudes beter storyline and even if you dont believe in the supernatural stuff the show actually makes you believe that there are things that are beyond your beleifs.
Reaper should be cancelled and thats it. I dont want to watch 2 shows that are the same with different characters. SUPERNATURAL KICKS REAPER'S ASS

I think reaper is actually more of a rip-off of a Canadian show called "Collector," than Supernatural.

I watched a couple of episodes right at the beginning but it didn't draw me in so that was that.

Supernatural certainly seems to have more depth than Reaper, but my understanding of Reaper is pretty superficial so I can't really comment beyond my first impression.

I think if Reaper didn't steal the name Sam for it's main character, it wouldn't be as bad. But then again, before the show even aired last Fall, the lead already compared his show to Supernatural by saying "it doesn't take itself seriously like that other show, Supernatural." If there's anyone to blame for starting this whole debate, blame Bret Harrison.

They're both very different shows, but the thing I hate when they're compared is when it's just dropped down to: "Reaper = Funny" vs. "Supernatural = Serious." I don't like that argument because, for me, I laugh way more during Supernatural. But maybe it just has my dark type of humor.

They are different, you get a different feeling when you watch both shows, reaper makes you laugh.

I think they are different, reaper, like someone said in another post reaper is funny (a comedic atmosphere), while supernatural is more terrifying and dark. If you watch both shows you will see the difference.

I think the CW saw that sci-fi-ish shows, like Supernatural and Smallville, were able to last and decided that an additional show in this genre would be able to make it. Although I've never really watch Reaper, but have caught a few minutes of it here and there, I think the similarities to Supernatural are disapointing, but maybe those are just coincidences, I'm willing to give the writers the benefit of the doubt. However, personally, I don't think I'll ever be watching Reaper over Supernatural.

I'm a huge fan of Supernatural, but I'm also a big fan of Reaper. Reaper is funny and lighthearted while Supernatural is darker and a weekly horror show. At first I thought Reaper was a ripoff, especially when it briefly replaced Supernatural on Thursdays. I no longer think so. I think the CW can have a place for both Reaper and Supernatural.

I get that two shows aren't really alike, I just think it would have been reeeeally nice to come up with a new plot instead of Reaper taking the plot of a boy named Sam who has psychic powers and battles demons*Shrugs*

I personally think that the shows r different. Except for the aspect of the main characters name is Sam, and it has to do with demons. But the storylines r totally different. Reaper is a comedy, and Supernatural is not. Now I never watched Reaper so I don't know exactly what the show is about. But I don't think it is like Supernatural.

i think that while supernatural and reaper may have some similarities, they are quite different. the only thing that upsets me is that the main character of reaper is named sam and is similar to sam of supernatural. i am a VERY dedicated sam fan and don't like that reaper's main character has the same name. but ultimately, supernatural (in my opinion) is a better show. what can i say? it's my one true love! :P

I totaly agree Reaper is a Supernatural Ripoff as Sarah said the similarities I agree with that why did they have the same name of the main characters. My Friends said I love "Reaper" and not "Supernatural". Why? The boys of SPN are much hotter, no offense. And the realation ships between them just makes my hear melt and when ever they show some brotherly moment i get tears in my eyes and believe me im a great fan of comedy shows ( The Game, Girlfreiends, All of us, and Aliens in America with Everybody hates Chris). But i just dont get the same feeling when i watch Reaper. I Love the Devil of the Reaper though lol. Supernatural is just undescribable. Ive watched all the episodes know all the dialouges and if i see a scene i know which episode its from. And Devil helping Sam (reaper one) and the other Demon helping Sam( Supernatural one)to fulfill there work or journey if you call it.It's the same story line. Thank god that Reaper is going on a different view with the whole Sam being the Devil's son and his mom helping his other father. Supernatural is my obsession and Reaper is a waste of time in my point of view. Well girls if you wanna see coulple of hot dudes so Tune in one Thursday at 9:00 to see Supernatural.
So Lastly Yes Reaper is Supernatural Ripoff.

Sarah, I get where you're coming from, and that was my initial worry about Reaper before it premiered. After, not so much.

SN and Reaper are completely different shows. And while I agree about your comparisons of the similarities, I think they are executed in such a way that makes them very different.

I'm a SuperFreak, but I gave Reaper a chance because I'm a Kevin Smith fan. The first episode was good, not great and after that it went downhill.

It seemed to be the same gag every week, complete with Ben getting injured somehow. And while Sock is funny, even his schtick became predictable. Ray Wise as the devil is something to behold, but wasn't enough to hold my interest.

I don't see Reaper as a threat anymore, or even as sort of similar to SN. I was actually disappointed that Reaper hasn't reached it's potential, and once Dawn Ostrofsky get done "sexing it up," I fear any potential it may have remaining will be gone forever.

She tried doing that with SN the past season and it tanked. Thankfully, SN did not.