Review – Lucifer (TV series)
Lucifer is a TV series based on a character created by DC Comics that first premiered in January of 2016. It is produced by DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television and Jerry Bruckheimer Television. It first premiered on Fox, and it was a Fox series until the third season when they decided to discontinue it. One of the reasons for Fox to let go of this series, along with many other successes like Brooklyn 99, was allegedly Thursday Night Football, where pundits discuss the best NFL bets. Hard to compete with that, sadly.
However, Netflix picked up Lucifer and quickly made season four. Netflix stated that season five is on the way, but there are no particular details known at this time.
Even though this series took a lot of blows from critics, it had a pretty considerable viewership. The reviews stayed grim, while the series raised its popularity. It was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia until season two and after that filming was relocated to Los Angeles, California, where the story primarily unfolds.
The story is about a character named Lucifer Morningstar, who is played by Tom Ellis. In the series, Lucifer Morningstar is the Lord of Hell, but he leaves Hell and decides to walk the land of the mortal, picking out a vacation spot in Los Angeles. He is a quite narcissistic character that lives in the moment and likes all the immediate gratifications humans can offer.
In the first episode, a friend of his comes to his club with worries, after she gets shot in his arms by a drug dealer with a deeper motive. Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) arrives on the scene and starts investigating. Shortly then, she questions Lucifer Morningstar, who is a bit shaken by the death of his friend. He is eager to punish the person responsible for this crime because, in fact, he punishes the guilty in hell.
Lucifer quickly becomes a civil consultant for the LAPD, because of his chemistry with Detective Chloe. He also realizes that she is somewhat special and that some of his devilish tricks don’t work on her.
However, as you go through the episodes it seems apparent that the Devil actually is in love with Detective Chloe and becomes mortal and vulnerable in her presence. The Devil also starts seeing a psychiatrist named Dr. Linda Martin (Rachel Harris) and comes to realization to many basic human principles and feelings. In turn, the series takes you on a ride through some very deep family dysfunctions between the Devil’s parents and children-angels.
As the episodes progress, it can be a little frustrating when the storylines become formulaic. But the episodes can leave you speechless sometimes. This series has a deeper meaning to its story and resembles a constant image of life, but painted in different colors and metaphors. Family dysfunctions, realizations, emotions, sentiments, love and many other day-to-day things happen in each of the episodes. It is basically life, but presented through a creative lens.
Even though this series can have you hooked on it, one of its big problems is that is all too familiar. Up until season two, things pretty much go stale and nothing special happens. It is just the same things over and over again. Season three gets things spiced up, however, in mid-season the things go stale again. Season three finishes off strong at the end, with a cliffhanger.
The music implemented in the series shows that the makers have done an excellent job at picking out particular songs to match each moment in the series. The series also features Lucifer singing. Tom Ellis made a statement that confirmed that the singing is completely done by him, however, the piano is not.
The series is filmed quite good, it has some nice shots and fully to be expected by its production. The actors do an amazing performance, and considering the small set for Lucifer, the makers have done a terrific job of making the series look bigger than it actually is.
The visuals are not perfect. It lacks the lavish cinematography you would expect from a series that stars the Devil. As the series progresses, the visuals do become better, but not as good as you would want to in this era.
Considering all of the above, this series is an excellent way to spend your evening. It could have you hooked within a few episodes; though it might be easily forgettable, which is sad for an incredible idea of a series.
The series does have an attractive rating on IMDB, though, at 8.7/10. Metacritic is a bit harsher, giving it only 49 points in 100 possible. One of the lowest critics, comes from Alan Sepinwall, from Uproxx, that says: “Turning Lucifer into The Mentalist with slightly more CGI seems a
waste of the character.”
Written by Mario Petkovski.