One of the most anticipated new shows of the season, “Reaper” (8 p.m., CW) is also one of the silliest and cleverest.

College dropout Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) thinks he’s going to spend his 21st birthday working at the giant hardware outlet at the mall. He doesn’t know that his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born.

The suave and self-effacing old scratch (Ray Wise, “24”) informs Sam that he’s now under his employ as a bounty hunter, assigned to capture souls that have escaped from hell.

The miraculous audacity of “Reaper” depends on its audience’s familiarity with a million supernatural thrillers and shows like “Buffy,” where demons and portals to hell are as commonplace as Burger Kings. The fact that Sam can take this cosmic joke – not to mention his parents’ betrayal – with a certain grain of salt is part of the show’s essential comedy.

“Reaper” is turbocharged by the presence of Sam’s oversized sidekick, Sock (Tyler Labine, “Invasion”). Labine may borrow some affectations from Jack Black, but he all but steals “Reaper.” The show is shot through with funny details. Sam uses a little vacuum – a Dirt Devil, to be exact – to clean up lost souls. And he delivers them to hell’s earthly outpost at the Division of Motor Vehicles. As the devil tells Sam, “If a place seems like hell on Earth, it generally is.”

Trend alert: For all of its cheeky insouciance, “Reaper” reflects a theme in this season’s new shows. In this series, “Gossip Girl” and “Dirty, Sexy Money,” parents are depicted as monstrously irresponsible creatures – little better than spoiled adolescents – who force the young protagonists to make their own way in a dangerous world. Folks who follow such things should take note. I don’t think the subject of generational resentment is going away.

¢ A moldy combination of “The Godfather,” “King Lear” and a little “Dynasty” thrown in for good measure, the new melodrama “Cane” (9 p.m., CBS) takes itself terribly seriously.

Hector Elizondo stars as Pancho Duque, the ailing patriarch of a Cuban family with vast sugar holdings and a rum empire. His son, Frank (Nestor Carbonell), can’t stand his brother-in-law, Alex (Jimmy Smits), a poor Cuban refugee adopted by Pancho. Alex liked the family – so much so that he married his adoptive sister, Isabel (Paola Turbay), much to Frank’s disgust and dismay.

Not to give too much away here, but Frank’s no angel. He’s hot to make a deal with the Samuels family, neighboring Anglo landholders and Duque rivals. Alex suspects the Samuels’ business motives and harbors a dark secret about their past.

“Cane” does not lack for action. The pilot includes a flashback murder as well as one in present tense. There’s a torrid affair, a coming-out party of sorts and even an announced pregnancy. But with all of this going on, it’s hard to avoid the sense that you’ve seen this all before – with more humor and less pretense.

Tonight’s season premieres

¢ A shocking secret revealed on “NCIS” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ Teens have a macabre highway encounter on “Bones” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ House tries to cope by himself on “House” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ Ryan faces Congress on “The Unit” (8 p.m., CBS).

¢ A university sues Shirley on “Boston Legal” (8:30 p.m., ABC).

¢ Cynthia Nixon guest stars as a woman with multiple personalities on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).