Lucifer Pilot Review

 The show Lucifer is a series about, you guessed it, the devil himself, however he’s not so evil, more comical and charming, a ladies man you could say. The show stars Tom Ellis as Lucifer with his co-star Lauren German as the detective Chloe Decker his partner in crime, well not partner in crime but partner in stopping crime. The series made it debut in 2016 and continued on for six series up until 2021. Throughout Lucifer, he battles issues such as free will, trying escape “Dad” or God and the life that he had planned out for Lucifer. We see him build a relationship with humans, which at times doesn’t go well but we mainly see him build a relationship with Chloe which slowly turns to love, which the devil, doesn’t think he can feel.

Figure 1. Introduction to the Pilot.

On the first page we have a very clear build of the Lucifer, he’s described as a man with considerable wealth and taste, lusty mischief and timeless style. All rather fitting for the devil, well an angel, which Lucifer refuses to believe. Our first impression of Lucifer reflects these values exactly, he’s free, arrogant yet charming, all of this perfectly shown by him racing down the streets of Los Angeles and getting pulled over by a policeman. He insults the policeman saying “you felt the need to exercise your limited power and punish me for speeding” and at this moment, Tom Ellis fully embodies the character with the cheeky remark and Lucifer attributes are shown. He then goes on to bribe the officer showing no consideration to ‘human laws’. We then see Lucifer’s ‘gift from God’ which is his ability to bring out people’s desires, and how does he do it, well, by asking what they desire, then he goes on to congratulate the policeman for the laws he breaks, because “he can”. I think, Lucifer, perfectly portrays all the characteristics that they wanted, you have a clear sense of his personality and for that, I have to say the writing is very well done to show this. You have a clear sense of his personality  

Figure 2. The inciting incident - where Chloe and Lucifer meet.

The inciting incident is introduced on page 8 as this I when it all kicks off. There is a car crash in which Lucifer’s friend, actually, close friends gets gunned down in the street, with Lucifer also getting caught in the crossfire. This is were we see the first sign of Lucifer really being the devil himself, he sits upright after being shot multiple and gets up and goes over to the gunman, and we realise, the man is actually the devil, he’s invincible. The inciting incident doesn’t end there, now a crime scene, there’s a detective, Chloe Decker, she investigates the scene and heads into Lux, Lucifer’s very own night club, to talk to the only witness… Lucifer. From this moment they are yet to know just how important they will become to each other. Lucifer says he’s seen her before, flirts with her, and asks if they’ve had sex before, as you do. Never for a second does Lucifer deny who is, he tells her he’s immortal, but Chloe doesn’t believe him, I mean why would she. I think the handled the inciting incident really well, showing real contrast between the two, they focused on showing the differences between them, which will be inevitably what brings them together. 

The conflict in the episode isn’t very clear, Lucifer clearly has ‘daddy issues’, but why wouldn’t you when you’ve been kicked out of your home after starting a rebellion against your own father, failing, then being condemned to rule hell for all eternity. Strangely this isn’t the main conflict of the story. I believe Lucifer’s main conflict is with humanity and Chloe. After punishing people in hell for millennials, you would build some strong opinions of who humans are, so why wouldn’t you want to punish the people who murdered your friend, when its literally your job. However, Lucifer isn’t in hell, he’s on earth, where there are rules, laws even, and Lucifer can’t get away with doing what her wants. Working closely with the detective whilst also being involved in the case means that he has to sit back and watch what he calls the ‘corrupt system’ or in other words the police department solve it for him. 

Figure 3. Exert from script - Lucifer realises his powers are useless on Chloe.

In my opinion the main obstacle in his way is the detective, his devilish charms don’t work on her for some reason and it intrigues him. He is consistently trying to pursue her and understand what is going on. For example, in the script it says that “Lucifer locks eyes with her… Trying to work his mojo again”. Lucifer is relentless, he wants to know all the answers as to why his ‘mojo’ isn’t working, and being a celestial being, you’d think that he’d have all the answers, but he doesn’t. For this reason I believe that his main conflict is with Chloe and understanding her role in his life as ‘everything’ always links back to what his dad or God has planned for him. 

The resolution to the pilot takes place in act five. In this act Lucifer’s devilish character is really brought to life, once him and Chloe figure out who was really behind the murder of Lucifers friend they head to the studio in which Lucifer wants to punish Jimmy, he’s angry, he wants Jimmy to suffer, but once again the detective is in his way, as Jimmy is about to shoot Lucifer Chloe gets to Jimmy first. Lucifer screams and yells and said he ‘got off easy’ and ‘he needed to suffer’. However this anger quickly turns to shock as Chloe gets shot by Jimmy and Lucifer gets what he wants, Jimmy is still alive and punishes him, he shows Jimmy his devil face, terrorising him. However, despite being shot Chloe is still alive and Lucifer is waiting at her side, after having solved the murder of his friend and getting what he wants by punishing the man before death, Lucifer still has one question, who is Chloe Decker? Why can she resist his charms? But Lucifer never lies, she saw him get shot, yet he’s still alive, but he says that she can’t get her head around immortality. In this act Lucifer becomes humanised, we see that he cares about Chloe and Trixie, not so much Dan, he still find him ‘dickish’, but he cares, which isn’t a trait we’d expect the devil to have. The episode end with Maze, his feisty demon sidekick, telling him to stop caring as she can’t understand why he chose to save a human life, and neither can we, he’s the devil, what’s going on? Lucifer cant understand why either making the main conflict of the story ongoing, until he can wrap his head around this mess. 

In conclusion, I believe the script is very well written, there’s is a clear structure with the inciting incident introducing an important character to the story and a resolution phase which very clearly follows the story arch well. The character are very clear we can understand them, see their morales and characteristics and how this reflects on the story. This also links to the conflict, its clear that Lucifer is in conflict with his understanding of humanity and who Chloe is to him.