Lucifer Pilot Isn’t About The Devil You Know
The Lucifer pilot started strong with a lot of style and visual appeal, to the perfect song choice of No Rest For The Wicked by Cage the Elephant. Lucifer, it transpires, has left Hell for a more neutral–if hedonistic–life on Earth. We first meet him on the glittering streets of nighttime Los Angeles, speeding in his classic convertible on the way to his ultra posh bar named Lux.
Unfortunately the unique concept and interesting choice for the lead of TV show is hampered the fact that the character is surprisingly un-unique for Satan. His general personality type is very reminiscent of characters like House and Sherlock; a cheerful asshole who can look at you and tell you your whole life story by way of a miraculous talent. As expected, there’s many instances of his shocked targets gaping at him with the by now well-known “How did you do that!?!” facial expression. He’s offset by the somewhat predictable snarky female co-star who is supposed to make up for his BS by calling him on it at routine intervals.
It’s somewhat disappointing that they chose to take the great character concept from Neil Gaiman and Mike Carey, and then just reworked it into yet another cop procedural. I’d like to give it a few more episodes before coming to a final judgement, but unless it goes in a very different direction after the pilot it’s going to be highly disappointing.
Crime-of-the-week shows have their place, but due to their ubiquity most people tuning in to Lucifer probably have at least two or three cop procedurals they already watch. So the question becomes not, “Does this show look interesting?” but rather, “Is this show different enough from the other similarly themed shows I’ve already become invested in?” It’s kind of odd that a television show about Lucifer spurning his duties as the destroyer of human goodness to run a Los Angeles nightclub with a former sex tape star turned policewoman can’t readily answer that question with a quick “yes.” Should not the point of using a unique character like Lucifer be to make an equally unique show?
His partner Maze was a highlight though under-utilized in the pilot. I definitely look forward to seeing what they do with her. The angel Amenadiel is suitably grim and foreboding in his role of trying to convince Lucifer to return to Hell, but he could use a wing-fix. Like many productions that have used angels in their plots, the design is awkward and borderline silly.
Overall I’m not especially excited by this show but I’ll tune in to the first few episodes to see if it gets better.
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