“Reaper”, which premieres at 9:00 PM tonight on the CW with the Kevin-directed pilot, is our favorite new show of the Fall TV season. The show stars Bret Harrison (of FOX’s fun but cancelled “The Loop”) in the titular role, as Sam, a kid whose parents have unfortunately sold his soul to the devil (Ray Wise, the most pitch-perfect casting of the year). When ‘ol satan comes to collect what’s due on Sam’s 21st birthday, he learns that he’ll pay the debt by collecting escaped souls and sending them back to hell.

Harrison’s a likeable lead, with his everyman charm allowing us to instantly empathize and cheer for his “Sam”. The show’s target demographic of young adults should identify easily with his laid back attitude (all the way down to his shyness with the ladies). However, the scene stealer (at least of this pilot episode) is our boy’s right-hand man “Sock”, played by Tyler Labine - (ABC’s one-season-wonder “Invasion”). Labine here not only shoots and scores with practically every line of every scene he appears in, but gives the word from the page an even bigger comedic punch with some pitch-perfect delivery. We hear Kevin encouraged on-set improvisation and had a big hand in the tone and delivery of quite a bit of the pilot, much to its benefit.

Rounding out the cast, Missy Peregrym (seen last season as reality-bender Candice on NBC’s “Heroes”) plays love interest Andi, though our pilot screener featured Nikki Reed in the same role. The most exciting casting for us on this one, though, has to be Ray Wise, who so memorably took on the persona of Leland Palmer on one of the best shows of all-time, “Twin Peaks”. To see Wise playing the devil with such playful menace and glee has us wanting to shake the hand of the casting agent who came up with this pairing. There couldn’t have been a better choice. While it’s obvious that the young cast will be the stars of the show, you can’t help but perk up when Wise shows up for a scene. It’s a real treat.

So that’s the casting…But what about Kevin’s direction? First off, Kevin brought longtime DP Dave Klein to shoot the thing to ease into the TV world. The result? Way cool. As we know, Kevin can shoot the heck out of actors doing zippy dialogue and knows how to pull the funny out in just the right way. The big surprise here amounts to the amount of camera movement and action that happens here, though. The pilot features a bunch of laugh-out-loud moments, and makes for a fun communal watching experience, but the centerpiece of the program are the action sequences. Not only are they well staged and directed, but the visual effects go beyond what you’d normally expect to see on a TV program. When Sam and Sock suit up to do battle, you can’t help but notice that “Reaper” resembles the classic “Ghostbusters” - Just updated for the slacker generation.

The pilot sets the stage for quite a few subplots, so we’re looking forward to seeing where this goes. While it would be simple for the program to fall into a “monster of the week” type of scenario, we’ve hoping to see it move further into a larger story arc, rewarding viewers for coming back week after week. Rumor has it that Kevin would love to come back to the program in some capacity as well, though a lot of that will depend on scheduling - The guy’s got two movies to prep for this year, as well as a directing gig on “Heroes: Origins”, after all.

With a perfect mix of humor, action, romance, and drama, “Reaper” is poised to be the first breakout hit of the new Fall TV season.

Can’t wait until tonight? Yahoo is presenting the show’s complete first act, streaming live via their website.

“Reaper” premieres TONIGHT on the CW at 9:00 PM.