Picture this: an enigmatic, handsome, charmer. A tough, no-nonsense, cop. Both are thrown together in unlikely circumstances. Sounds like everything from Castle to White Collar, right? Now imagine that that charmer is none other than the devil himself. Lucifer Morningstar. Beelzebub. Satan. Congratulations, you now have the basic premise to FOX’s new show, Lucifer.
Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked…
Loosely-based on Neil Gaiman’s interpretation of the Devil in his Vertigo comic-book series Sandman and its spin-off Lucifer, this police-procedural dramedy stars British actor Tom Ellis as the titular character, and Lauren German as his homicide-detecting counterpart and asks the question: just what does the King of Hell do when he bores of reigning terror, dishing out torture and tormenting souls? Well, he moves to The City of Angels and opens a piano bar, apparently.
Yeah. You read that right.
Relocation, Relocation, Relocation
So, having grown tired of hell, like a soul-searching (heh) student on a gap-year, Lucifer relocates to Los Angeles with his loyal ally Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and opens a ritzy night-club called Lux. One night however, his days as just a fallen-angel-turned-club-owner change irrevocably when he witnesses a murder and decides he’s going to don his very own detective cap.
Enter LAPD’s Chloe Dancer (whose last name is changed to Decker after the pilot, for some reason) the cop assigned to the murder that Lucifer was witness to. Like seemingly every cop on TV, she has a chip on her shoulder, has something to prove, has tragedy in her blood, yada, yada, yada. What’s endearing about this cookie-cutter-character is how she plays off of Ellis’ witty and theatrical performance with dry, deadpan delivery. The Yin to his Yang, if you want to get cliché. If a little done-to-death, the dynamic still works.
Cool Motive, Still Murder…
And so the dynamic-duo set off to solve the murder of a talented pop singer, brutally gunned down in a drive-by-shooting, armed with Dancer/Decker’s firearm and cop jargon and Lucifer’s supernatural talent of making people admit their deepest, darkest desires. And when it’s laid out like that, the ridiculousness of this show really hits home. Nevertheless…
What follows is a somewhat basic and predictable case of whodunit with your standard three-ish suspects and motives aplenty, sprinkled with supernatural elements (like immortality and demon-eyes-scaring-bullies) and intriguing sub-plots (Lucifer’s angel-brother Amenadiel popping in to urge him back to Hell.) It proves to be a silly but entertaining way to spend 43 minutes and does generate the feeling of wanting to watch at least one more episode, if only to see if it crashes and burns as hot as Hell, or ascends to a more Heavenly standard.
Sorry not sorry for making you read that dastardly sentence.
Will They, Won’t They, Should They?
Having seen the first three episodes, it can be concluded that Lucifer, like the character himself, has its merits. Ellis, like the Nathan Fillions and Matt Bomers before him, exudes Luci’s (yep, that’s his actual nickname) inherit swagger and charisma, while German (and the supporting cast) offers as steady performance that improves hour by hour and captivates more and more.
The question that is always inevitably dredged up when these types of shows have a male and female lead that exchange glances and air space for more than three seconds, is ‘will they ever get together?’ The meaningful music swirling in the background and Lucifer’s not-so-subtle ‘what is this? She makes me feel things?!’ seems to point to at least the possibility.
But that’s all awhile away yet. For now it’s, as they say, not the destination but the journey that matters. And with more murders to solve, more hilarious desires to reveal and more songs-about-the-devil to play, it seems as if the audience is in for one Hell of a journey.
…okay, I am a little sorry for that one.