21ST Birthday parties are always a bit troublesome to plan. How much alcohol is to be served? Are the bushes in your frontyard the type that can be safely vomited on, or will that affect the PH of the potting soil? And since the Devil owns your soul, will he need an invitation or just show up and will you need flame-retardant furnishings if he does? For answers to these Faustian Faux-Pas questions as well as a whole related range of infernal improprieties, examine the fine-print on that contract very closely as you play Devil’s Advocate with REAPER (Seven Network, TBA)

REAPER – which has been pushed back to a “coming soon” timeslot on the Seven Network thanks to the Hollywood Writer’s Strike (which has caused more mayhem than the Diabolical Contract that is the only explanation for Rob Schneider’s career) – is a new comedy/horror series in the vein (literally) of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, DEAD LIKE ME and the often Hellishly homoerotic BRIMSTONE. Sam (Brett Harrison), an affable slacker, works in a hardware store doing some vague handypersonish job that seems to require him getting shirtless at least three times an episode (no complaints from this quarter). His idyllic, if slothful existence comes to a (again with the literal) fiery halt on his 21st birthday however, when his parents reveal to Sam that to cure his dad from a terminal illness decades earlier, they promised their first-born son’s soul to the Devil. Now that Sam is 21, the Devil (Ray Wise from TWIN PEAKS) shows up to wish Sam a Happy Birthday and claim his collateral.

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But it’s not all doom and gloom. Rather than send Sam’s immortal soul to a rather warm place, Old Nick cuts Sam a deal – Sam doesn’t have to go to Marble Bar… er… I mean Hell, as long as he serves as the Devil’s Door Bitch, that is a ‘Reaper’, and hunts down Evil Souls that have escaped from the Nine Circles. Seeing as how Sam is still a slacker, Scratch allows Sam to get help from his best friends at the hardware store – Sam’s chubby best friend Sock (Tyler Labine), the accident-prone Ben (Rick Gonzalez) and unrequited love of Sam’s life Andi (Missy Peregrym). To help the Devil win back his ‘errant tenants’, Sam is given special demon-fighting equipment, such as an infernal Zippo lighter to absorb the soul of a homicidal pyromaniac and a souped up dust-buster to ‘clean up’ a messy poltergeist.

Trom the frequent shirtless or shower scenes to a few slashy innuendoes about the nature of Sam’s relationship with Sock, the show has plenty of homoerotic moments. By far the best (and most surprising) Gay Moment, however, occurs when Sam acquires two new neighbours, Steve and Tony (Michael Ian Black and Ken Marino), hot room-mates who are a] Gay lovers and b] demons who file their horns down in the shower (together!) to pass as human. Despite being demons, they’re not interested in spilling bodily fluids – not the bad kinds of bodily fluid anyway.

Here comes the REAPER – watch it come Hell or High Water!