The Second Episode of 'Lucifer' Confirms Its Damnation

The pilot episode of Lucifer, the show about Vertigo Sandman spin-off character (and painfully boring interpretation of Satan), failed to make any strong or interesting choices. The gist of it is that the devil — tired of being blatantly “bad” all the time — takes a vacation in L.A. where he runs a night club and sips whiskey while playing piano over techno beats. This version of Beelzebub loves the band Cage the Elephant and his superpowers include the ability to make people confess their darkest desires and standard immortality. When a celebrity who previously sold her soul to Lucifer is gunned down, he befriends a local cop whom he recognizes from some nude scene in a movie she made. From there, the show is a straightforward procedural in which one of the partnered officers just happens to be, y’know, “The Devil.” Also, there’s a subplot with a kid, a love triangle, and some borderline problematic commentary about rap music. Much like everyone involved in this cancellation-fodder, our heart is not in it.

“Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil.” centers around a murder-themed fashion show that soon escalates into actual murder. Officer Chloe Decker finds herself re-teaming with the titular weirdo from the pilot whom she essentially deputizes despite hating. The mythical elements of Lucifer serve as background ongoing mystery to the series with presumably nefarious angelic/demonic forces looming near. But can they really be all that villainous if their aim is to take down Lucifer?

We came back for the second episode hoping that some of the roughest edges of Lucifer would be smoothed out after the pilot. Sadly, that is not the case. These edges were simply the show Fox intended to make.

Frankly, it is an all-around feat to make the devil this boring. Honestly, SirPatStew from Starz’s Blunt Talk had more edge to him. We know none of you saw that show, but this is indeed a sick burn. Considering that this man is intended to be the personification of all evil, the fact that all Lucifer seems capable of is shaming people for their looks or forgetting that he once had sex with a given woman. Any man on the Sunset Strip can “neg” a chick, so why is the Devil operating on sub-Pick-Up Artist levels?

Oh, he also loves to blast Beck’s “Devils Haircut”, which is an altogether different form of evil from what the show promised us. Lucifer winks to its audience with no purpose or reason. The show feels even more outrageous given that NBC’s infinitely superior Constantine was [cancelled after only 13 episodes] (https://www.inverse.com/article/5261-constantine-will-live-on-in-arrow-this-fall).

The only light of narrative potential this episodes provides is the fact that Lucifer gets injured in a fight, suggesting that the longer he stays on Earth, the less invulnerable he becomes. Finally, some stakes. The third episode might altogether reveal that Lucifer isn’t the actual devil, but rather his ne’er-do-well son, which would actually improve the show immensely.