Lucifer
I was going to make a big, long post the other day about all the movies I've watched recently (mostly on long haul flights), but it just got too unwieldy, and then I sort of lost the will to live and deleted it. ;) So, since yourlibrarian asked me what I thought about the show, some thoughts behind cut on Lucifer season 1.
Spoilers.
Should firstly say I've never read the comics series this show is based on (though I intend to), but have gathered enough (thanks, Wikipedia) to know that the show is very, very different from them.
For a start, I'm pretty sure the comics are not a police procedural, and (to my knowledge) there is no improbably beautiful female cop character with a slightly too cute daughter and a cop ex-husband in them.
That makes it sound like I don't like any of these characters, when I'm okay with them really. I mean, they're a bit cliched, but that doesn't mean they can't be interesting. What I do dislike, though is the conceit of Chloe being so good and pure and noble, or whatever, that she's immune to Lucifer's powers - mostly because it means the show can spin out the whole Chloe Doesn't Believe Lucifer Is Who He Says He Is thing ad infinitum, and I'm tired of it. In fact, I was tired of it the minute Chloe accidentally shot Lucifer and he ended up with an actual gunshot wound.
Of course, the whole denial thing works both ways, but I find the Lucifer Is In Love With Chloe But Won't Admit It To Himself plotline equally tedious, not to mention a bit unconvincing. Though of course the person who is perceptive about everyone but themselves is another well-used cliche and this is just another iteration of it.
Anyway, I'm not a Chloe hater, or anything, even though I find Lucifer's interactions with Amenadiel (and potentially Maze, on which more in a moment), and his love/hate relationship with 'Dad' more interesting.
Speaking of Maze, I've been very disappointed with how that character's been written. I don't think the actress is particularly good, and I really dislike that she's been made (I assume) to play Maze as this awful racial stereotype of the over-sexed, half-savage POC woman. Whoever was responsible for that should be ashamed of themselves. I also don't like (don't like at all) that her relationship with Lucifer has been downgraded from consort and fearsome warrior queen in the comics to some sort of superior servant - though I think if the actress were better, or the writing for the character were more nuanced, that effect could have been partially mitigated at least.
But despite the above (which the people making the show could rectify quite easily if they wanted, but that assumes anyone but me has a problem with it), I did (mostly) enjoy the show, though I found some of the MotW episodes somewhat dull. That I do enjoy it is pretty much all down to Tom Ellis as Lucifer, who injects just the right amount of menace into his louche, decadent persona to give the character an edge the show has so far failed to find.
Because it could do with more of that - edge, I mean. As long as it can get it without descending into Game of Thrones levels of horrific violence, or whatever.
I also really like the sparring between Lucifer and Amenadiel, and admit I get a kick out of their puzzlement when people don't believe they're brothers. It's all a bit Spike/Angel in AtS season 5 (though I couldn't say which of them is which). I do hope it turns out 'Mum' is the mother of both of them. I'd like it even more if (as I saw suggested somewhere) Gina Torres were cast in the role.
So yeah, (mostly) enjoyable fluff with potential. If the potential will ever be realised, who knows? I suspect not, but I live in hope.
Spoilers.
Should firstly say I've never read the comics series this show is based on (though I intend to), but have gathered enough (thanks, Wikipedia) to know that the show is very, very different from them.
For a start, I'm pretty sure the comics are not a police procedural, and (to my knowledge) there is no improbably beautiful female cop character with a slightly too cute daughter and a cop ex-husband in them.
That makes it sound like I don't like any of these characters, when I'm okay with them really. I mean, they're a bit cliched, but that doesn't mean they can't be interesting. What I do dislike, though is the conceit of Chloe being so good and pure and noble, or whatever, that she's immune to Lucifer's powers - mostly because it means the show can spin out the whole Chloe Doesn't Believe Lucifer Is Who He Says He Is thing ad infinitum, and I'm tired of it. In fact, I was tired of it the minute Chloe accidentally shot Lucifer and he ended up with an actual gunshot wound.
Of course, the whole denial thing works both ways, but I find the Lucifer Is In Love With Chloe But Won't Admit It To Himself plotline equally tedious, not to mention a bit unconvincing. Though of course the person who is perceptive about everyone but themselves is another well-used cliche and this is just another iteration of it.
Anyway, I'm not a Chloe hater, or anything, even though I find Lucifer's interactions with Amenadiel (and potentially Maze, on which more in a moment), and his love/hate relationship with 'Dad' more interesting.
Speaking of Maze, I've been very disappointed with how that character's been written. I don't think the actress is particularly good, and I really dislike that she's been made (I assume) to play Maze as this awful racial stereotype of the over-sexed, half-savage POC woman. Whoever was responsible for that should be ashamed of themselves. I also don't like (don't like at all) that her relationship with Lucifer has been downgraded from consort and fearsome warrior queen in the comics to some sort of superior servant - though I think if the actress were better, or the writing for the character were more nuanced, that effect could have been partially mitigated at least.
But despite the above (which the people making the show could rectify quite easily if they wanted, but that assumes anyone but me has a problem with it), I did (mostly) enjoy the show, though I found some of the MotW episodes somewhat dull. That I do enjoy it is pretty much all down to Tom Ellis as Lucifer, who injects just the right amount of menace into his louche, decadent persona to give the character an edge the show has so far failed to find.
Because it could do with more of that - edge, I mean. As long as it can get it without descending into Game of Thrones levels of horrific violence, or whatever.
I also really like the sparring between Lucifer and Amenadiel, and admit I get a kick out of their puzzlement when people don't believe they're brothers. It's all a bit Spike/Angel in AtS season 5 (though I couldn't say which of them is which). I do hope it turns out 'Mum' is the mother of both of them. I'd like it even more if (as I saw suggested somewhere) Gina Torres were cast in the role.
So yeah, (mostly) enjoyable fluff with potential. If the potential will ever be realised, who knows? I suspect not, but I live in hope.