I promised myself I wouldn't do anymore recaps. I should be focusing on writing my books. However, I couldn't resist with Lucifer. I have so many thoughts.
So, here it goes. The Lucifer pilot.
I didn't have high hopes for this pilot. I loved Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, and Lucifer Morningstar was one of the best characters in that series (Death, of course, was the best). Tom Ellis as Lucifer? I wasn't really convinces. Lucifer in the comics looked more like Alexandr Skarsgard. And I didn't find the concept of Lucifer as a detective particularly compelling. I'm not a big fan of police procedurals.
But I am a big fan of paranormals, particularly the ones with a contemporary feel. So, I tuned in.
And I was hooked. The show is funny and smart. I don't find the mysteries all that interesting, but that may just be me. Like a said, not a fan of procedurals.
As the pilot episode opens we learn that Lucifer has a fast care, a weird way to identify (and satisfy or manipulate) people's desire, a nightclub (called Lux), and a surly employee (called Maze). Maze, we find out, didn't leave Hell to become a bartender.
Maze is awesome. I could sit and watch her bitch forever. That could be a whole show in and of itself. Unfortunately, we don't get to see that because Maze's bitching is interrupted. Actually, everything is interrupted. Time seems to slow down. Maze expression turns even bitchier, which I didn't think was actually possible.
"You have a visitor." Words cannot describe the delightful mixture of scorn and resignation that Maze manages to infuse into these words. It is glorious.
They do have a visitor. It is the Archangel Aminadel (or, as I will refer to him from now on, Archangel Douchebag) who is here to try to convince Lucifer to return to Hell.
Lucifer refuses. At this point, they kind of, sort of explain the world building. The angels are God's "children." Lucifer was ordered to manage Hell. He didn't rebel and it wasn't his punishment. It was more of an assignment, a tedious one as far as Lucifer is concerned. Leaving Hell is actually his rebellion, and he may be punished for it. In addition, his little escapade may free a whole bunch of demons.
Lucifer doesn't care.
Archangel Douchebag leaves.
A gorgeous young woman bumps into Lucifer. Her name is Delilah and she is a singer. We get a whole bunch of exposition at this point. Lucifer helped Delilah get her record contract by introducing her to a record producer. She's afraid that she sold her sold to the devil.
Lucifer reassures her that she didn't. He's not interested in souls.
I'm confused. The whole collecting souls thing is pretty much the whole Satan schtick. I appreciate that the series is telling us that this is a different Lucifer, and pretty much walking us through all the differences.
Delilah then tells him that she married and divorced the record producer, who now wants to get together even though he is marrying a supermodel on Saturday.
Whew that's a huge infodump.
Lucifer tells her that she's wasting her potential and that she has to get her life together. She's doing drugs and partying and betraying her talent. It has to stop.
Say, what? Lucifer as life coach? What is this?
Delilah promises to get her life together, and Lucifer walks her out of the club. But, after the info dump, Delilah is no longer useful to the writers and she dies in a hail of bullets. Lucifer also gets hit but he's an immortal demon so it's more like he gets tickled by butterflies or something. He ends up flat on his back on the sidewalk holding Delilah's dead/dying body.
Fun times.
Luckily, the murderer's SUV is hit by a bus (LA Transit FTW). Lucifer resuscitates the murderer and asks him why he did it. "Money," the murderer replies.
Police show up and the show actually starts. We meet detective Chloe Becket who looks a lot like Cat from Beauty and the Beast. Another detective tells her that this is an easy case, the murderer was a dealer and Delilah was a user so he probably killed her because she owed him money.
Gee, even I know that this is stupid. Chloe seems skeptical, but the detective tells her not to dig in too deep "not after Palmetto Street." Chloe asks to speak to the witness.
Chloe meets Lucifer who seems confused.
"Have we met before?" he asks. This is interesting.
"Five minutes ago," she replies.
She tells him the detectives little theory, and he is also unconvinced. Hey, they have something in common.
She asks him how he survived the bullets, and he tells her that he's immortal.
Even more interesting.
She wisely decides that he's either a crackhead or a nutcase (or both) and leaves.
I like Chloe.
We cut to commercial break. The next scene is a wedding. Delilah's ex-fiancée is getting married (amazing church, btw). Lucifer crashes the wedding and interrogates the groom who tells him that Delilah had a rapper lover and he is probably the guilty party.
Lucifer then visits the rapper (at his mega impressive house) and interrogates him by dangling him over the balcony. At this point, I'm starting to lose interest. The whole mystery part of this episode is kind of lost on me. The music is good though.
Anywho, the rapper tells Lucifer that Delilah was cheating on him. Delilah's therapist is the only who would know the name of the lover.
The police come in. Chloe went through the dead guy's phone and found out that he'd called the rapper. The rapper says that he guy was his dealer.
The rapper recognizes Chloe who, it turns out, used to be an actress. Her magnus opus was a soft porn movie called "Hot Tub High School." That's where Lucifer knows her from.
This is a bit disappointing. I was hoping for a supernatural connection. Boo. Still, the whole B-movie actress thing is pretty cool (I use it in Ghost of a Chance so I have a soft spot for it).
Lucifer convinces Chloe to let him investigate with her. Blah, blah, blah...secret desires...blah, blah, blah. The trick doesn't work on Chloe. Lucifer is intrigued by this. He tells Chloe about the psychiatrist. They set off to investigate, but Chloe gets a call from her kid's school. She has to pick up her daughter who got into a fight.
This is where I fell in love with the show. Lucifer's scene with Trixie (Chloe's daughter) is sweet and hilarious. Forget the spinoff show with bitchy Maze. Trixie and Lucifer should get their own show.
But, moving on, the annoying detective from the murder scene is Chloe's ex-husband and Trixie's daddy. Detective Ex sneers at Lucifer and asks Chloe why she hasn't closed the case yet. Chloe ignores him and takes Trixie to her grandma's.
More banter. More investigating. We get to meet Dr. Martin, who is a fantastic character. Dr. Martin is carnally fascinated by Lucifer and spills the beans. It's a great scene. Delilah was dating an actor.
Lucifer crashes a movie set. They interrogate the actor. It's a bit of a dead end. Lucifer and Chloe bond. We learn about the Palmetto Street thing which backfired on Chloe. Suddenly, Chloe gets an idea.
Turns out the record producer murdered Delilah to get her new record to number one. They go to the studio to arrest him and he takes out a gun. He threatens Lucifer and Chloe shoots him. The producer is not dead, though, and he shoots Chloe and Lucifer. Lucifer, however, is not harmed by the bullets. He reveals his demon self to the producer then resuscitates Chloe.
Cute hospital scene with Trixie and Lucifer. Lucifer returns to his club and is intercepted by Archangel Douchebag. Apparently, Lucifer's AWOL status could trigger a war. Lucifer doesn't care. He enters the club. Maze is bitchy. All is right with the world.
The epilogue is Lucifer visiting Dr. Martin. He needs someone to talk to. Dr. Martin needs sex. They work it out.
Intriguing. Very intriguing. I'm a bit disappointed that the mystery didn't have a supernatural aspect to it. I was expecting one of the rogue demons to be involved. The characters are fantastic, though, and the writing is witty. I'm definitely sticking around for more.
ETA: The music in this series is uniformly fantastic. One of my favorite songs in this episode is "No Rest for the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant.
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