Produced by Tom Kapinos, Ildy Modrovich, Len Wiseman, Jonathan Littman, Jerry Bruckheimer, Joe Henderson, and Tom Ellis
Starring Tom Ellis, Lauren German, Kevin Alejandro, D. B. Woodside
Distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Rated TV-14 for violence, sexual content, nudity, and drug usage
Running Time: 42–65 minutes

Author’s note: This review contains spoilers.

After an eternity on the throne of hell, Lucifer Morningstar decides to abandon his post to vacation in Los Angeles. He buys a nightclub and hosts lavish parties at his penthouse, embracing the life of a charming libertine and immersing himself in sex and drugs, and he begins granting favors to mortals. But after surviving a murder, he meets a human unlike any he’s ever known: LAPD’s Detective Chloe Decker. Lucifer has the power to get people to tell him their deepest desires, but Detective Decker, somehow, is immune to his spell. Trying to understand why she’s immune, he begins to follow her and ends up using his powers to help her solve cases.

The foundation of Lucifer’s character is taken from the DC comic The Sandman, created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg. Both characters hold honesty as a central value: “When the Devil wants you to do something,” says Lucifer, “he doesn’t lie at all. He tells you the exact, literal truth. And he lets you find your own way to hell.”1 But from there on, Lucifer departs from the DC Universe.

The show presents two parallel story lines, following LAPD officers as they solve murder cases and simultaneously tracking the celestial conflicts that Lucifer deals with daily. These intertwining plots fill every fifty-minute episode with thrilling twists and turns, leaving the viewer on edge. And despite its biblical background, the show celebrates important secular values: romance, self-worth, and the essence of what it means to be human.

Unsatisfied by romantic comedies filled with mundane quarrels, I was pleased with Lucifer’s presentation of a profound and romantic partnership—the relationship that quickly develops between Lucifer and Chloe. Her ability to resist him causes Lucifer to experience new, “human” emotions such as jealousy and pain. Proximity to her even makes the king of the underworld vulnerable to such material dangers as bullets.

As one might expect, there are barriers to overcome before a devil can carry on a romantic relationship with a human. These, however, are not the trite conflicts ever-present in most TV drama. Each episode shows Lucifer learning more and more about the emotional life of humans as he experiences such alien things as guilt, regret, insecurity, and, to his surprise, even love. He had concluded that, as a celestial being, he was incapable of such an emotion. When Chloe asks why he never says “I love you,” the ever-honest devil replies:

Detective, you’ve been nothing but wonderful, you deserve to hear those three words back, but the truth is I’ll never be able to say them to you. . . . I am incapable of love. . . . I’m sorry Chloe, but if I ever said those three words to you, it would be a lie.2

Whereas other relationships would come crashing to an end over such a statement, Chloe calmly tries to help this being—whom she’s come to trust—to process the ideas and experiences that led him to that conclusion.

Another celestial being—Maze, Lucifer’s devoted follower—likewise illustrates a transformation that captures the writers’ benevolent, pro-human outlook. When we first meet her, she carries two demon daggers in each hand and moans lasciviously at the sight of violence and the screams of tortured humans. She despises Lucifer’s emotions toward Chloe, viewing them as a weakness.

Although she at first thinks that the purpose of her existence is to unconditionally serve Lucifer’s needs, in time, she comes to see the importance of independence and developing a life of her own. She even chokes up, asking everyone she knows, “Do you think a demon can grow a soul?”3

Another central figure is Dr. Linda, a wise and empathetic therapist who guides several of the show’s immortal characters toward a better understanding of humanity. When Lucifer lashes out at her, she says, “I find people who are rude usually feel powerless in their own lives. Terrified of not being in control.”4 When he is grappling with the unpredictable losses of human life, she tells him, “That’s life, Lucifer. Pain is inevitable. The suffering, that’s optional.”5 And when a celestial friend realizes that loving a mortal means accepting the fragility of life—the wrinkles, the fading mind, and even the possibility of her loved one passing away—Linda consoles her, saying, “Never loving anyone is far worse than loss.”6

Lucifer also presents an interesting conception of hell; it’s only as bad as a person’s unresolved guilt. There, souls are stuck in a “hell-loop,” forever replaying the moment a person felt guiltiest in his life. Contra the biblical tale, people aren’t judged by a god but by themselves.

Discussing religion’s “myth of a supernatural recorder from whom nothing can be hidden,” the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand voiced a similar view, saying that “the merciless recorder is the integrating mechanism of a man’s subconscious; the record is his sense of life,” which she described as “an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence.”7 Man’s “subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum.”8 Relatedly, in the show, a soul can break a hell-loop only by turning inward, reassessing his own actions and self-worth in search of salvation.

Even given all the show’s heady contemplation, Lucifer’s humor manages to lighten the mood. Once, when Chloe is annoyed by his shenanigans, she locks him in her car, having warned him, “Act like a child, get treated like a child.” Lucifer yells back, “Wha . . . ? Isn’t it illegal to leave your child locked in a car?”9 Of course, as the lord of the underworld, his jokes are, at times, much darker.

As is often the case given the need for character development, the main characters are not as likable and rational in the early seasons as they are later on. However, a more substantive problem emerged after Netflix acquired the show from Fox. Overall, Netflix’s production, beginning with season five, was an upgrade, granting the writers greater freedom to develop the story, even when it could be construed as critical of religion.

However, Netflix also injected more of a political agenda into the show. Until season six, the LAPD was portrayed as a source of justice. Chloe and her crew worked day and night to punish the guilty and protect the innocent. But in season six, a subplot reveals deep-rooted systemic racism in the police force. There is nothing wrong, of course, with depicting racism and using stories to shed light on social issues—but the timing and inconsistency within the show’s established universe make clear that this was an attempt to capitalize on a popular political narrative.

Nonetheless, in Lucifer, the good outweighs the bad. If you like a romantic story with heartwarming friendships, thought-provoking questions, and a side of dark comedy, you might just become possessed by the devil himself.

If you like a romantic story with heartwarming friendships, thought-provoking questions, and a side of dark comedy, check out @LuciferNetflix. You might just become possessed by the devil himself.
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1. “Lucifer (DC Comics),” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer_(DC_Comics) (accessed October 8, 2021).

2Lucifer, “Family Dinner,” season 5, episode 9, directed by Nathan Hope (Netflix), aired May 28, 2021.

3Lucifer, “Resting Devil Face” season 5, episode 11, directed by Bola Ogun (Netflix), aired May 28, 2021.

4Lucifer, “Et Tu, Doctor?,” season 1, episode 8, directed by Eagle Egilsson (Fox), aired March 14, 2016.

5Lucifer, “Is This Really How It’s Going to End?!,” season 5, episode 5, directed by Ildy Modrovich (Netflix), aired May 28, 2021.

6. Lucifer, “A Chance at a Happy Ending,” season 5, episode 16, directed by Karen Gaviola (Netflix), aired May 28, 2021.

7. Ayn Rand, “Philosophy and Sense of Life,” in The Romantic Manifesto, (New York: New American Library, 1975), 25.

8. Rand, “Philosophy and Sense of Life,” 26.

9. Lucifer, “Sweet Kicks,” season 1, episode 5, directed by Tim Matheson (Fox), aired February 22, 2016.

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