Who Knew the Devil Could Be So Hot? (Lucifer Season 1 Review)

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Nick Kallipolites, Staff Writer

Turning heads at whatever party he may find himself at, Lucifer (Tom Ellis) is a retired ruler of the underworld who emigrated to Los Angeles to indulge in the finest things in life: women, alcohol, and music. He’s arrogant, charismatic, wealthy, immortal, and retains his ability to extricate the true desires of anyone even though he’s taken on a human form. However, after a murder occurs outside his propersous nightclub, foreign feelings such as sympathy and compassion are reignited within him. 

At the investigation following the murder, he meets a detective named Chloe, who strangely does not fall for any of his charms. Intrigued at how such an anomaly may exist, Lucifer then spends the next five episodes finding any way to be involved in Chloe’s life, which means becoming entangled with the LAPD as he helps solve various crimes. 

Considering how interesting the idea of having a demon walking among men is, especially when he can transform into the devil at any moment, having him accompany an offstandish Chloe as she completes her weekly police work seems like a waste of concept. There are brief moments where Lucifer actually does transform, which the show emphasizes by only showing the transformation through reflections — but instead of using it for something cathartic or purposeful, he scares a schoolgirl into not bullying Chloe’s daughter and freaks out a random doomsday prepper on the street. 

Once a crime is solved by our two protagonists, the other characters introduced within the episode are never featured afterwards. They are only relevant for the case and not for the general narrative or show, which makes it feel more episodic instead of a continuously flowing story. There’s actually an entire mystery plot involving the police department about a corruption investigation, but none of the characters left the same impression as the devil did and it lost my interest after a while. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a mediocre portion of the show, but the most entertaining portions are when the devil receives screen time. 

However, living in the human world is not easy. The devil may be the most charismatic person around, but whenever Chloe is involved, he just can’t seem to understand her struggles. Looking for a way to comprehend why his charms aren’t working, he seeks out a therapist to vent his frustrations and figure out how to win over the detective. There’s typically one scene with the therapist after every emotional beat within the story. Unfortunately for our hard-working and mostly confused therapist, every time she would give a good piece of advice about trying to understand human emotions more, he goes the absolute opposite direction. This happens without fail. Perhaps it made sense during the first few meetings, but towards the end of the season I was hoping he had developed a little bit and didn’t interpret things completely backwards.

Another thing to note about this series is the surprising amount of sex appeal and innuendos. Although nothing inappropriate is ever shown, Lucifer is constantly thinking about sex and how to score his next date. The show cannot go 10 minutes without making some sort of innuendo, which can get tiring after a while when my primary interest was seeing how a literal demon would interact with society today. His arrogance is frequently over the top and portrays him as dickish in most scenes. The devil having no self-awareness is one thing, but after spending years in the mortal realm and a number of weeks helping Chloe, I was rooting for the devil to be more empathetic around his closest friends.
Overall, moving past my gripes, this was an entertaining show. Tom Ellis truly brings life to the devil, and it’s evident he had a blast filming and presenting himself. The group of characters from the LAPD and Lucifer have proper chemistry despite the devil’s personality being so erratic and narcissistic. The first handful of episodes may be boring, but the second half of the season redeems itself by introducing real stakes about the devil being forced to Hell from his vacation in the overworld. This review was mostly spoiler-free, so if you want to know more about the show, I recommend you give it a watch! Stay tuned for the season two review!