1.2 Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil There’s no doubting that it’s clever… but does that make it wise? Finding ways to squeeze in references to ‘Old Scratch’ (his favourite handle, apparently) as a source of entertainment is effective enough now, just two episodes in, but stretch to two series when all the best allusions have been done and you have to wonder if it won’t begin to feel a trifle tired. That old maxim about the devil getting all the best lines? That only holds water if there are good lines left to have. Of course, all of this won’t matter a jot (Tom Ellis’ unimprovable Englishness rubbing off on me there) if Lucifer is able to bring something else to the table. Pathos, laughs, drama: it matters not as long as the show has something else beyond the limited scope offered by finding a way to include a writer’s room laundry list of devil references. Tom Ellis continued to impress as the lead character; without his seemingly endless reserves of carefree charm, the show would be in very deep trouble so early in its run. One particularly sticky wicket however, is the sorry CG that they employ in an attempt to show his true nature. Ellis is clearly proving himself to be a fine Lucifer, so take a lead from best parts of Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate and let the guy chew some scenery to scare the living daylights out of us mere mortals. Anything’s better than the pitiful Red Skull impression or worse, those silly red eyes. The Simpsons’ Ned Flanders made a better Lord of Darkness in the scare stakes than Ellis so far, although that is clearly no fault of his own. On the plus side, he does do humour exceptionally well: the moment where he threw Trixie’s doll and stood puzzled by the fact that she hadn’t scampered to retrieve it was pure gold. Lucifer has begun to show that it can deal with these recycled tropes in engaging if (as yet) unoriginal ways. The central problem continues to be the show’s reliance on a tired format when it has so much else to offer. Read DC’s review of the previous episode, Pilot, here.
