PILOT REVIEW: Lucifer

LUCIFER

Starring: Tom Ellis, Lauren German, Kevin Alejandro, DB Woodside, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Scarlett Estevez, and Rachael Harris

Based on the characters created for "Vertigo," Developed by Tom Kapinos
Written by Tom Kapinos, Directed by Len Wiseman

THE PREMISE
Lucifer is a new drama based on a comic book. In the preposterous premise, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) is the Lord of Hell but he has gotten bored with his role and ends up in Los Angeles, helping the LAPD catch criminals with new found partner, Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German). Decker has an ex-husband, Dan (Kevin Alejandro), who is also a detective, and they have a daughter, Trixie (Scarlett Estevez). Rounding out the main cast is a dark-winged angel trying to get Lucifer back to Hell, Amenadiel (DB Woodside), an ally and bartender, Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt), and Lucifer's therapist, Dr. Linda Martin (Rachael Harris)

THE REVIEW
What even was this? I don't know much about the comic it's based on, but this seemed like a laughably bad premise and the execution was pretty laughable too. Let's start with a general gripe I have. Networks, particularly FOX, have looked at shows like Castle and Bones, dramedy procedurals with lots of cute interplay between a male and female lead. Well that's all fine but now they seem to be carving out procedurals with outlandish premises only to just basically pair up a male and female lead and hope for chemistry. So whether it's Sleepy Hollow, Minority Report, or now Lucifer, they're all basically the same show despite how different their premise might sound.

So as for Lucifer, it is just a silly procedural. I wouldn't say it's taking itself too seriously, it almost seems to know it's ridiculous. Why else would they have such overly dramatic moments done in slow motion? It seems to be a little tongue in cheek and there was a fair amount of comedy (attempts) to make it closer to a dramedy than a straight drama. I sure hope that's what they were aiming for. If they were going for the slow motion moments as real drama, then they failed miserably.

The acting is fine but nothing special. Tom Ellis tried to be charming and devilish in the title role, but he didn't bring anything unique to the role. I enjoyed Lauren German in Chicago Fire, but she's stuck with a boring straight woman role here. I didn't really get the purpose of Rachael Harris or DB Woodside in the pilot. This is a show that needed everything to be executed really well to overcome its odd premise and that wasn't the case here. And then anything unique it might have brought was quickly gone when they went to work on their case of the week.

WILL I WATCH IT AGAIN?
No, I will not.