Can the Devil be good?

‘Lucifer’ pilot review

By Lauren Paulsen, Senior Columnist

4/5

What would happen if the Devil wasn’t the bad guy? It was this intriguing thought that led me to watch the new show Lucifer.

Lucifer no longer wants to be down in Hell. As they put it in the show, he’s taking a vacation. Apparently this doesn’t sit well with the angels because he’s putting the balance out of whack. While Lucifer is up on Earth, he’s actually showing that he cares for certain humans, and that also doesn’t seem to sit well with those around him.

The idea of angels versus the Devil is nothing new, but completely switching the sides is really interesting to me. Lucifer can actually be nice and is interested in helping people—well, only a select few, but that’s beside the point. Yet everyone seems to be against him, except the one detective who his powers don’t seem to work on, and who therefore believes him to be insane. If no one wants him to be good, then why bother anyway?

The special effects in Lucifer aren’t astounding like they might be in a movie, but I think things like the angel’s wings were done really well. There’s not an enormous amount of action while Lucifer and the detective, Chloe, run around trying to solve a case, but the interesting things people blurt out when Lucifer is around are really funny. The acting is decent, with Tom Ellis playing Lucifer and Lauren German playing Chloe. I find Chloe’s daughter Trixie (Scarlett Estevez) to be completely adorable, and it is amusing how she likes Lucifer, but he hates kids.

Overall, the story is pretty straightforward and could be labelled as another supernatural crime drama, except that I find the possibilities and intrigue of where this could go make it worth watching more. With pretty much anyone who knows who he really is against him, how can Lucifer possibly rise above it and be the opposite of what everyone expects him to be? We’ll have to watch and find out.