(I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, but, why not now, you know, after it’s been cancelled, and no one cares, yeah sorry, anyway this is a review of Lucifer season 1)

Summary: based on the DC comic, Lucifer tells the story of a painfully bored Satan as he basically gives up running Hell so that he can run a nightclub in LA. Unfortunately, and to his legitimate surprise, getting wasted every night and sleeping with random beautiful women is actually a very hollow existence (or, at the very least it’s repetitive), which is why, when he gets a chance to attach himself a real-live detective (Chloe Decker) and force himself into her investigations, he does it without a moment’s hesitation.

The Good: There’s a lot of little things I actually like about this series, for example Satan isn’t really evil, he just sort of is (more on this below). There’s also a bevy of interesting characters, Trixie for example (Chole’s daughter) adds a lot to the show and does act how I would expect a kid her age to act. Mazekeen was also a fun character (though shockingly underutilized), and I like how the ‘agents of Heaven’ try to force Lucifer to get back to work. They establish him early on as this force of nature, so, obviously, they can’t strong arm him into it and thus have to play on his ego, using subtler manipulations (admittedly they don’t do this very often, but the few times they do it’s pretty clever).

The Bad: As I said Mazekeen is wasted here, she’s a fairly layered character that the writers didn’t seem to know what to do with, in the end, she kinda boils down to just being Lucifer’s disgruntled secretary, and well, she deserved better. I can’t really say that I’m happy with the series format either, seeing as how it’s literally the Devil solving crimes in LA, you’d think they could pick something interesting for him to solve, or (instead of being another generic crime drama) they could deal with the larger cosmic effects that there’s no one left to run Hell. While they do put on Lucifer several times that his absence has caused an imbalance, they never offer any actual proof or reasons why he should go back, thus (and I hate to admit this, but) I’m kinda with the Devil on this one, the fuck’s the point?

Special Section- Symmetry of the Devil: You know, if Harry Potter can get banned from schools just because Hogwarts has the term ‘witchcraft’ in the title, I’d be remised if I didn’t mention the implications of having an entire TV show based around Satan. Look, if you’re any kind of religious, this is going to bother you as many people see the Devil as a personification of evil and he’s kind of the hero here. However, the show opts for a different interpretation, one not so much despising humans for their free will but jealous that they have it. Hence, his hedonistic nature and open joy at promoting sin, he seems to believe that doing so is less a corruption and more akin to exposing man’s true nature. I found it to be an interesting view on the exact nature of evil, but, take it how you like.

Final Thoughts: I miss Angel, I really do, and I’m not saying that I hoped this would be a direct cut and paste, but something more along that vein would have been nice. A main problem with this show is that Lucifer just doesn’t give a shit and mostly goes along on these investigations so that he can giggle in Chloe’s ear. Another issue is just how overpowered Lucifer really is, yet, the finale has him taken out, nearly killed, by a normal man who had stolen a magic knife from Mazekeen (do you get why I said she was wasted in this show). I guess you could say the finale is a microcosm for what’s wrong with the series as a whole, it’s interesting, I’m not saying it isn’t, it hits a lot of good beats and certainly has a unique view, but it’s mishandled, misrepresented, and, on the whole, it’s kind of boring.

If you’re curious, then I won’t tell you to be scared of it, but once you’ve seen it, it’s probably best to put it behind you.