The saying goes that the Devil can assume a pleasing shape.
I guess that may be true because FOX has a new series on called Lucifer and,
God help me, I liked it. Not “liked it” like it’s the new Mad Men, but it
breezily passed an hour with enough giggles to justify the cost of the
electricity running my TV set.
The show is one of those
that a brilliant Hollywood
Reporter column dubbed
Fox’s “quirky consultants aid law enforcement.” The premise is so obvious it is
amazing it hasn’t been done before: the Devil gets bored running Hades and
decides to vay-cay in El-Lay, and then starts solving crimes. As played
by British actor Tom Ellis (of course the Devil is British) Beelzebub is a
walking pile of smarm who used to revel in sin and debauchery but now finds everything
so “been there, had sex with that.” But then a former . . . customer?
Protégée? I’m not sure what to call her, but someone he cared about is
shot while hugging him, and he decides he wants to find out who is responsible.
He keeps bumping into Detective
Chloe Decker, the detective assigned to the case (Lauren German), a former
actress famous for doing topless scenes (of course the LAPD hires former
soft-core porn stars), to their mutual annoyance. Of course they team up,
bouncing from suspect to suspect until the case is solved 5 minutes before the
end.
As has been noted
elsewhere, the show is basically Castle with the Prince of Evil, but is that so
bad? Aside from the standard police procedural aspects, and the rather
vague theology (D.B. Woodside pops up as a winged angel and makes veiled
threats that maybe will be explained in later episodes), I like the surprising
way the Devil, who calls himself Lucifer Morningstar (the detective asks is
that’s a stage name), connects with several of the mortals he encounters.
He immediately bonds with
Detective Decker’s young daughter, despite his stated aversion to children, and
manages to scare the bejeezes out of a bully who was abusing her on the
internet. When a middle-aged, mousy psychiatrist has a key piece of
information, Lucifer uses his one supernatural trick—he asks her what she wants
most in the world, and she says it’s to have sex with him. So he
cheerfully agrees, but since he and the detective have to follow up on the clue
he leaves, but promises to come back saying, “My word is my bond.” At the
end of the episode he does go back, and agrees to fulfill his
part of the bargain but asks her for some therapy while they’re at it. He
does have major daddy issues.
I’ve said before: it is
hard to evaluate TV shows based solely on pilots. This could easily
become a show with an intriguing premise that is just content to slog through
standard police procedural scripts. I hope they can keep the novelty alive
and not settle for being just another “quirky civilian contractor to aid law
enforcement” show. Based on Tom Ellis’ performance and the wit displayed
in the pilot, I am willing to give Lucifer another few episodes to prove
itself. The pilot also makes great use
of the soundtrack, from “Ain’t no rest for the wicked” to David Bowie’s “Fame.”
Speaking of “quirky
civilian contractor to aid law enforcement” shows, the Hollywood Reporter
article applied that trope to the seven dramas on Fox and found it fit six of
them (all but Empire). But I find it applies as well to shows on all
broadcast networks. ABC has the aforementioned Castle. CBS, which
has a bunch of actual police procedurals, has Elementary (Sherlock Holmes is
the original QCCALE), Scorpion and Limitless. NBC has Blindspot and
Blacklist. Going back in history, there’s Monk and Psych. I have
rarely found a trope so useful in understanding where TV shows are coming
from. I tip my cap to the author of that blog post.
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