Lucifer Season 1 Review
Major spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.
Lucifer has been on my list for a couple years. I haven’t gotten the time until the Holiday season came around, and Netflix acquiring the rights sped things along. When Fox cancelled the show, I was devastated because Tom Welling joined season three (Smallville rules!). So, when season four was picked up by a more accessible platform, I decided to watch the first season. It consists of 13 episodes.
The premise: Lucifer (Tom Ellis) leaves Hell and retires to Los Angeles. He runs a nightclub called Lux with a demon named Mazikeen—Maze for short—and parties all the time with women and booze. Then he crosses paths with Chloe Decker (Lauren German), a police detective and former actress. They end up becoming partners and solve crimes together.
The relationship between Lucifer and Chloe is at the heart of the show. They are foils and have great banter whenever they tackle any case together. The beginning of the season was a bit rough on them because we had to let the show get away with some of the supernatural elements. No matter how many times Lucifer mentions he’s the real Devil, Chloe refuses to budge from her beliefs, but has a hard time reasoning her decisions to keep him around. Once we see how much Chloe invests in Lucifer and their partnership, we gain an understanding on Chloe’s character and her reckless feelings for Lucifer.
To keep the stakes up there with the Devil himself, the show reveals that Lucifer is humanly vulnerable whenever he is around Chloe Decker. The reasoning for this is not revealed in the first season, but this strange inconvenience is treated as an annoyance rather than an actual problem. Otherwise, Lucifer is incredibly powerful: can’t bleed, invincible, “Devil’s Face”, super strength, and the ability to get people talking about their deepest desires.
The last power allows Lucifer to bypass typical police procedures in order to speed up the crime solving. He heavily relies on this trick of his, which makes the police work repetitive when the duo questions their prime suspects. Whatever gets the job done on this supernatural crime drama.
Tom Ellis plays Lucifer wonderfully. His dialogue is crafted well for the Devil and very charming. He holds the show and keeps our interest through his own interest in humanity. He tends to make the cases about him, which allows him to emotionally invest and helps give the background supernatural elements more relevance. However, as the first season progresses, people question less and less that the guy’s name is “Lucifer Morningstar”.
Other major characters are Amenadiel (D.B, Woodside), Doctor Linda Martian (Rachael Harris), Detective Dan Espinoza (Kevin Alejandro), and Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt). I’d consider Amenadiel, Lucifer’s oldest brother, and God’s favorite angelic son, the main antagonist of this season. He is manipulating events to ensure Lucifer returns to Hell where he belongs and interacts with the other characters (Maze and Linda) to get things done in the name of His Father.
Dan is Chloe’s separated husband and they have a young daughter named Trixie. He does questionable police work and gets involved with a corrupt police officer named Malcolm. The relationship he has with Lucifer is completely antagonistic, based on Lucifer’s morals and his growing relationship with Chloe.
The first season has some clear issues in the narrative like how Lucifer breaks every police rule, but otherwise, it is entertaining to watch. The second season review will be posted as well and the third season once I finish up my binge-watching.