Review: ‘Lucifer’ Heats Up After Its Pilot Episode
Months before Lucifer premiered on Fox, I had the chance to see the pilot before it aired. It wasn’t very good. I watched it twice just to be sure because sometimes you go into a movie or show to review with a preconceived notion. I knew of the comic book, I knew of the actors in the show, I love the silliness of making the Devil a human (even though his powers are garbage), and I knew that the show was being retooled because it was awful. It worked. The second episode wiped it’s feet off from what the pilot episode walked into.
Let me remind you about the plot of the show:
Premise: The series focuses on Lucifer Morningstar, “who is bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell and resigns his throne and abandons his kingdom for the beauty of Los Angeles, where he gets his kicks helping the LAPD punish criminals”. In the opening episode, a young woman whom Lucifer once aided getting into show business – which proved as harmful to her as helpful – is murdered in his presence. Seeking to punish the person behind it, he imposes his assistance upon police officer Chloe Decker, whose resistance to his manipulative abilities intrigues him.
Get it? The Devil moves to the City of Angels! Like I said in my original review, the show did have promise, but it was completely wasted in the first episode by being way too self aware of itself. We understand that the show is about the Devil, but playing music specifically about the Devil as a soundtrack was seemingly like a middle finger to the audience… but they still do it, although it’s done better.
In the first episode, as mentioned in the premise above, Lucifer meets Chloe Decker. Lucifer can basically turn people he talks to into inhibition-less drunkards who give up information easily. However, Chloe is immune to his charms. This creates what the insiders call: SEXUAL TENSION.
In the second episode, Lucifer manages to fix it all up. One you get the BS out of the way, you actually get to tell the story. It’s why origins story movies for a superhero are usually garbage. We know how the person because who they are, do we have to do this all over again? The Devil is one of the most famous fictional characters in the history of the world, so we don’t really need an origin story for him. What’s the second episode about?
Premise: When a movie star’s son is killed after being chased by the paparazzi, Chloe takes a deep look into the case with a little help from Lucifer. Meanwhile, Maze and Amenadiel continue to encourage Lucifer to go back to hell.
It’s a really good episode of television that I’m glad I gave another chance. The main reason I did was because the cast was too good to not screw it up. The creator is behind the stellar Californication. It had to get good. IT HAD TO! And it did. If you happen to watch The X-Files reboot, check out Lucifer after it. It’s a good show.
Lucifer airs on Monday evenings at 9:00 p.m. ET/8:00 p.m. CT.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post,UPROXX,BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com