Sepinwall on TV: Two superhuman efforts are twice as much fun

Meet Sam. Sam is in his 20s, an underachieving college drop-out who works at a big- box store and lives with his parents. One day, through the actions of his folks, he develops superhuman powers he doesn't want and has to moonlight for Satan or face eternal damnation.

Now meet Chuck. Chuck is in his 20s, an underachieving college drop-out who works at a big-box store and lives with his sister. One day, through the actions of his ex-roommate, he develops superhuman powers he doesn't want and has to moonlight for the U.S. government or face a quick execution.

Yup, a new TV season is upon us, and that means it's time for the annual case of double vision.For some reason knowable only to TV execs and other people who start every sentence with "At the end of the day," every new season brings with it at least one pair of shows that are disturbingly alike on paper, even though the creators of each claim to have never heard of the other. Sometimes, one is good and the other is awful ("House" vs. "Medical Investigation" in '04). Often, both should have been scrapped from the start ('02's two "time travel back to high school" shows "That Was Then..." and "Do Over"). Occasionally, you get two that are both good, but different in style ("ER" vs. "Chicago Hope" in '94.)

The CW's "Reaper" and NBC's "Chuck," the two shows featuring the aforementioned Sam and, um, Chuck, are an unusual pairing in that they're not only both good -- with ABC's "Pushing Daisies," they're the best new shows of the season -- but they're exactly the same show, more so than any of the duplicate duos I mentioned above.

Though they were both briefly scheduled to air Tuesdays at 9, they won't be competing head-to-head, so you won't have to choose one or the other the way "ER" and "Chicago Hope" fans did. But there are times when I feel like I have to reach to the 8th decimal place to quantify which show is better.

Maybe I should elaborate on the above descriptions, see if that helps a bit.

"Reaper" stars Bret Harrison, the human pincushion from Fox's "The Loop," as Sam, who quit college after a month because he got sleepy (Sam's not big with the follow-through) and now spends his days roaming the shelves at Home Depot clone The Work Bench, working alongside boisterous sidekick Sock (Tyler Labine). On his 21st birthday, Sam is horrified to discover that before he was born, his parents sold his soul to the Devil -- in fairness, they had a good reason -- and that Ol' Scratch (Ray Wise) now expects him to work as a bounty hunter who tracks down escaped souls from Hell.

"That's cool, right?" insists Satan, who as written by creators Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters and hilariously played by Wise is a charming guy with a dazzling smile. (Wise is the breakout star of the fall; not bad for a guy who's been in the business for more than 30 years.) Makes more sense than him being a jerk with a pitchfork -- sin is supposed to be seductive, isn't it?

The Devil gives Sam some iffy telekinetic powers and, in a brilliant bit of product placement, a soul-sucking Dirt Devil. Armed with those and some less-than-helpful assistance from Sock -- plus whatever handy hardware can be scrounged from The Work Bunch -- Sam goes hunting for escaped souls, all while trying to work up the nerve to ask out pretty co-worker Andi (Missy Peregrym from "Heroes").

Red Bank's favorite son Kevin Smith is on director duty for the pilot and does a much better job handling the disparate tones -- comedy, horror, action, even genuine pathos (Sam's parents feel really bad about what they did) -- than he did with his own theologically-themed movie "Dogma." It's as confident and plainly fun a TV pilot as you'll find.

"Chuck" starts a step slower, with more exposition in the first two episodes and no larger-than-life character like Satan to smooth over that, but by episode three, it's just as assured and entertaining in its own extremely similar way. (I've only seen the "Reaper" pilot; not all great pilots lead to great series.)

Zachary Levi, cut from the same dorky-handsome cloth as Harrison, stars as Chuck, who left college after being accused of stealing tests by his roommate -- the same roommate who years later is working as a spy for the CIA. The roommate goes rogue and steals all the data from a computer containing the combined intelligence secrets of the CIA, NSA and the rest of our federal alphabet soup, gets caught, and e-mails the secrets to Chuck, now working in tech support at Best Buy clone Buy More.

When Chuck reads the e-mail, the intel downloads directly into his brain. To keep an eye on this clumsy civilian and use his new knowledge to battle terrorists, the government presses him into service, sending hulking assassin Casey (Adam Baldwin) and sexy assassin Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) as his new babysitters.

So while keeping his new double life hidden from sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and clumsy sidekick Morgan (Joshua Gomez), Chuck has to fix computers by day, fight evil by night -- or, at least, hide in a corner and crack jokes while Casey and Sarah fight for him -- all while trying to figure out whether Casey and/or Sarah are planning to kill him.

"Chuck" was co-created by "O.C." mastermind Josh Schwartz, and the shows share an ironic, pop culture-worshipping, geek-friendly style. (It's not hard to imagine Chuck being played by "O.C." star Adam Brody -- who, by the way, used to be Bret Harrison's roommate. No word on whether he knows how to send government files as a brain-downloadable attachment.) But there's also real flair to the spy stuff, some of it serious, much of it with a wink. Sarah, for instance, goes undercover at the hot dog place next door to Buy More and has a number of elaborately choreographed fight scenes wearing the chain's German peasant girl uniform. (It's "Alias" with a sense of humor and no Rambaldi.)

Other than Ray Wise -- the best thing about either show -- and the supernatural vs. spy aspects, the only distinctions between "Reaper" and "Chuck" are matters of degree. For instance, do you prefer your comic relief sidekicks to be loud and aggressive like Sock or cowardly and neurotic like Morgan? Do you find a giant hardware store innately more ridiculous than an electronics chain? Are you more amused to know that a major plot element in the "Reaper" pilot is a glazed ham, or that Chuck calls his sister's jock boyfriend Captain Awesome?

Fortunately, NBC moved "Chuck" to a different timeslot, so it's not an either-or proposition. In an otherwise underwhelming new season, these geeks rule.

Chuck (Tonight at 8 on Channel 4) Zachary Levi, Adam Baldwin and Yvonne Strahovski star in a new comic spy thriller from "O.C." creator Josh Schwartz.

Reaper (Tomorrow night at 9 on Channel 11) Brett Harrison, Ray Wise and Tyler Labine star in a new comic horror thriller directed by Kevin Smith.

Alan Sepinwall can be reached at