Reaper is probably my favorite new show of 2007. I might even like it more than Lost. I guess that's an apples and oranges thing. Okay... maybe not. It's a lot like old TV. Once you get the basic concept, you don't really have to watch the show in order. (Although there is an arc. It's in there.) It's a formula show, but it's a good formula. The basics: Sam finds out on his 21st birthday that his parents sold his soul to the devil. They didn’t exactly mean to. The devil tricked them of course. They never planned to have a first-born son. But the deed was done. The devil, expertly played by Ray Wise (Twin Peaks), informs Sam that he is now a bounty hunter for hell.

AMC is going to air a remake or reinterpretation, as they like to say, of the 1960’s series The Prisoner. The original used to air from time to time on our own KPBS TV. Patrick McGoohan was amazing as star, writer, producer, director, creator, whew, all of those things. It really was all about him. The show was a bizarre follow up to Danger Man (AKA Secret Agent Man). We were pushed to believe that he played the same character in both series. But it was always just a little unclear, purposely unclear. He is stripped of his identity and only referred to as Number 6. (Cue the Iron Maiden song: “I am not a number! I am a free man!”) He is held captive in the generically labeled The Village and chased down by giant white weather balloons whenever he tries to escape. The internet tells me they are indeed keeping the rovers. I doubt they will keep my favorite car, the Lotus Seven.