Episode Rankings: Lucifer

I'm going to be frank here, I never loved Lucifer as much as I had hoped I would. Where I expected a fun-as-hell fantastical story about devils and angels and stuff, I ended up getting a procedural crime show with only minor fantasy elements. Disappointments aside, however, if you go in with your expectations slightly tempered, you'll probably still be enamored with the lovable cast, and some of the later seasons are genuinely quite fantastic. Here's my ranking of its episodes:

1. Who's Da New King Of Hell? (S4.10)
2. A Devil Of My Word (S3.24)
3. Save The Devil, Save The World (S6.08)
4. Off The Record (S3.07)
5. A Good Day To Die (S2.13)
6. Quintessential Deckerstar (S3.23)
7. Spoiler Alert (S5.08)
8. Take Me Back To Hell (S1.13)
9. God Johnson (S2.16)
   
10. Save Lucifer (S4.09)
11. Is This Really How It's Going To End?! (S5.15)
12. A Priest Walks Into A Bar (S1.09)
13. Expire Erect (S4.05)
14. Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam (S5.10)
15. Weaponizer (S2.05)
16. #TeamLucifer (S1.12)
17. Wingman (S1.07)
18. Homewrecker (S2.09)
19. A Chance At A Happy Ending (S5.16)
20. The Sinnerman (S3.09)
21. The Good, The Bad, And The Crispy (S2.18)
    
22. A Lot Dirtier Than That (S6.06)
23. Nothing Lasts Forever (S5.06)
24. Devil Is As Devil Does (S4.07)
25. Goodbye, Lucifer (S6.09)
26. O, Ye Of Little Faith, Father (S4.03)
27. Monster (S2.06)
28. Til Death Do Us Part (S3.13)
29. Our Mojo (S5.07)
30. Quid Pro Ho (S2.10)
31. Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress On Fire (S2.02)
32. Candy Morningstar (S2.14)
33. The Sin Bin (S3.10)
34. Lucifer! Lucifer! Lucifer! (S5.02)
35. Favorite Son (S1.06)
36. My Best Fiend's Wedding (S6.07)
37. Family Dinner (S5.09)
38. Super Bad Boyfriend (S4.08)
39. The Angel Of San Bernardino (S3.20)
40. My Little Monkey (S2.07)
41. Partners Til The End (S6.10)
42. Love Handles (S2.12)
43. Manly Whatnots (S1.04)
44. Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards (S3.05)
45. A Little Harmless Stalking (S5.05)
46. Lady Parts (S2.04)
47. Everything's Okay (S4.01)
48. BlueBallz (S5.06)
49. My Brother's Keeper (S3.14)
50. Sympathy For The Goddess (S2.17)
51. Et Tu, Doctor? (S1.08)
52. Infernal Guinea Pig (S3.16)
53. Yabba Dabba Do Me (S6.03)
54. All About Eve (S4.04)
55. Diablo! (S5.03)
56. Everything's Coming Up Lucifer (S2.01)
57. Resting Devil Face (S5.11)
58. All Hands On Decker (S3.22)
59. Pops (S1.10)
60. The One With The Baby Carrot (S3.02)
61. Somebody's Been Reading Dante's Inferno (S4.02)
62. Detective Amenadiel (S5.05)
63. Sin-Eater (S2.03)
64. Chloe Does Lucifer (S3.08)
65. Pilot (S1.01)
    
66. Deceptive Little Parasite (S2.15)
67. Vegas With Some Radish (S3.06)
68. Trip To Stabby Town (S2.08)
69. Really Sad Devil Guy (S5.01)
70. Orgy Pants To Work (S4.06)
71. Orange Is The New Maze (S3.19)
72. City Of Angels (S3.11)
73. The Murder Of Lucifer Morningstar (S6.05)
74. St Lucifer (S1.11)
75. They're Back, Aren't They? (S3.01)
76. Stewardess Interruptus (S2.11)
77. Mr And Mrs Mazikeen Smith (S3.03)
78. Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil. (S1.02)
79. Nothing Ever Changes Around Here (S6.01)
80. Let Pinhead Sing (S3.17)
81. Sweet Kicks (S1.05)
82. Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better (S3.21)
83. Pin The Tail On The Baddie (S6.04)
84. All About Her (S3.12)
85. Daniel Espinoza: Naked And Afraid (S5.12)
86. What Would Lucifer Do? (S3.04)
87. Buckets Of Baggage (S6.02)
88. The Would-Be Prince Of Darkness (S1.03)
89. High School Poppycock (S3.15)
90. The Last Heartbreak (S3.18)
91. It Never Ends Well For The Chicken (S5.04)

Lucifer (Season 6)

Season 5 of Lucifer was originally intended to be the final season until the show got renewed for a sixth. Season 6 was the perfect chance to tie up loose ends and bring everyone to a satisfying resolution, and it does do that... except for the title character.

Lucifer's final season has Lucifer prepare to become God, only for his child from the future Rory appears with the intention of killing him, claiming that he left her at a young age and never returned. As a storyline to hinge Lucifer's final season on, I don't think it's very good. First of all, I'm not a fan of Rory. Her stubborness and bitter attitude reminded me more of Connor from Angel, and you all know how I felt about Connor (her bladed wings are pretty badass though). I also think this show falls into the pit of "introducing time travel without understanding the full ramifications" that Rebels fell in. But the weakest thing about this storyline is the ending, where Lucifer has to return to hell to preserve the time loop that Rory caused (meaning he did the same exact thing his father did), leaving Chloe a single mom with two kids for the rest of her life. So not only was Rory the cause of her own abandonment, but Lucifer wasn't able to break the cycle his father caused, and Chloe ends up living a pretty awful life. Yeah, very satisfying ending there. The pacing was also a bit off in Season 6, it's like every major plot development took place at the end of an episode, meaning that there was a lot of treading water, especially near the start. On the other hand, this is the first season to completely drop the procedural aspect to focus on the characters and main story arc, but it's a shame it happened so late, and at the worst possible time for it.

Thankfully, most of the subplots fare pretty well. I think pretty much all of the side cast gets a satisfying final storyline for the season. The obvious highlight is Ella, who is finally let in on the celestial stuff once and for all. She also has a subplot about actually ending up in a healthy relationship with fellow officer Carol, but I never found him too interesting. Linda writing a story about Lucifer and Maze and Eve getting married was both adorable. Dan returning from hell and finally finding a way to go to heaven was a perfect ending for him. And I liked seeing Amenadiel (and Chloe) learn just how corrupt the LAPD is. I think Lucifer definitely dealt with the subject matter better than B99 did since it didn't have to water things down to maintain a wholly light-hearted tone. The only subplot that felt off this season was Chloe getting drunk on the celestial power she borrowed at the end of Season 5. I'm the rare sort that didn't hate Willow's magic addiction plot in Buffy since it had been built up for a whopping four seasons and foreshadowed in several episodes. In Chloe's case, it felt kinda out of character. Otherwise, the side characters were the best parts of the season, and had some of my favorite scenes like Maze and Eve's wedding, Ella's drunken outburst, and Dan finally getting to eat his pudding cup.

There aren't too many standout episodes this season, with the exception of:

Save The Devil, Save The World: In a show that's so centered on mental health, it only makes sense that we'd get the ultimate therapy session, and that it would end up being one of my favorite episodes of the whole show and the one high point of Season 6. This is the type of character-driven episode I want from every series. The story of Linda's book was fantastic, with the cast seeing Lucifer's unfiltered thoughts and finally learning all of the big secrets in the air. The flashbacks, references, and reenactments were meta to the point of reminding me of the also amazing Ember Island Players, but the emotional payoffs were just as strong. Rory finally accepts that Lucifer cares about her, Ella forgives the others for leaving her in the dust, Dan realizes how to get out of hell, Lucifer tells Linda she did do a good job, and Lucifer realizes he doesn't want to be God. If only the rest of the season was this good.

Overall, Season 6 suffered from a half-baked main storyline and odd pacing. All the side characters got some pretty satisfying resolutions, but when the main duo gets the bulk of the focus and the short end of the stick, I can't quite say this was a strong final season for the series.

2/5 Stars

My ranking of the Lucifer seasons is:

4 > 2 > 5 > 1 > 3 > 6

My ranking of the Lucifer finales is:

3 > 4 > 5A > 1 > 5B > 2 > 6

Lucifer (Season 5)

Season 4 was easily the best Lucifer season to date, and while this season isn't quite as tight, it continues the momentum and justifies that the shift to Netflix was a good idea.

Season 5 has a lot of great things going for it. The main storyline about Lucifer's rivalry with his twin brother Michael is fantastic, mostly because he's the most outwardly antagonistic villain we've had in Lucifer to date. Tom Ellis does a great job of making Michael feel squirmy and hatable. And once God shows up, this season becomes even better! The decision to have President David Palmer play God was a stroke of genius, and getting to finally see the culmination of all the family drama in the series thus far was fantastic. Some of the subplots were also great too. Dan learning about Lucifer's true nature is heartbreaking, as is Ella learning her boyfriend is a serial murderer. Eve's brief return is great and her relationship with Maze is adorable, and I really liked seeing Amenadiel have to deal with learning his kid is a mortal. The season's pacing is also really brisk, never lingering on storylines for too long and drawing them out, showing how much the series has grown past Season 3. Season 5a did feel like more of a buildup and can seem a bit directionless since Michael hadn't revealed his goal of taking over God's position, but Season 5b was absolutely bonkers, especially once we get to meet every single angel, and I just loved it!

However, I do have some pretty big issues with Season 5 as well that prevents it from really surpassing Season 4 for me. While It's great that Lucifer and Chloe finally get together, they still have so many problems throughout the season that it's gotten completely ridiculous. First, Chloe learns she's a gift from God, then they can't have sex, then Lucifer can't say "I love you", and then I stopped caring. Some of the cliffhangers also got some pretty lame copouts this season, like hell suddenly not needing a warden anymore, and Lucifer suddenly getting his mojo back after the titular episode. Finally, Maze's character arc this season was incredibly frustrating. While her abandonment issues at least make her empathetic compared to Season 3, it still doesn't excuse Maze from turning coat again. There were also some episodes I found weaker than usual like the poorly-acted noir parody episode, and the incredibly uncomfortable pranking Dan episode. Seriously, can't Dan just get a break for once?

Still, overall I liked this season, and there were a lot of strong episodes:

Spoiler Alert: After the slow buildup that was Season 5a, all of the tensions between the characters come to an explosive head that's stuffed to the brim with twists and cliffhangers. Charlie is mortal! Pete is the Whisper Killer! Amenadiel froze time! Maze switched sides again! And biggest of all, God finally makes his first appearance. This is a massive and fast-paced midseason finale that also manages to shove in one of the coolest fights in the series (that one in the frozen precinct).

Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam: I went into this episode fully expecting to despise it. Not only is it a musical episode, but one that couldn't even write its own songs. However, I actually enjoyed it a lot. Sure, most of the cast can't sing, but it seems like they were having a great time, and some of the performances kinda slapped (Dan singing "Hell" especially surprised me). The musical aspect was at least fun and entertaining, the script was easily one of the funniest in the series, and the emotional hook with Lucifer and his father was still really compelling. 

Is This Really How It's Going To End?: This episode was just painful. The first half was fairly standard (if to a fault), but Dan's death completely changed the trajectory and tone of the episode. I like that it wasn't saved for the final scene like most death scenes in TV, rather the entire second half of the episode was focused on the characters dealing with his death, the heartbreaking reveal that he went to hell, and Lucifer declaring why he wants to become God. Easily the show's heaviest episode.

A Chance At A Happy Ending: As a final battle, this episode was kinda lackluster. You can tell COVID took its toll with the open empty location, large stretches of nothing happening, and the fact that we don't even get to see most of the fighting. However, on an emotional level, this finale works great. Lucifer saving Chloe from heaven, Maze and Eve starting to date again, Michael losing his wings, Lucifer becoming god, it's a fantastic end to the main conflict of the whole show, and left me wondering just how Season 6 would follow it up.

Overall, Season 5 was a really good season, if a bit uneven. The main God/Michael storyline was fantastic, and some of the subplots were too, but the season had a bit of a slow start and some character arcs just weren't as strong as they should have been.

Season 5a: 3/5

Season 5b: 4/5

4/5 Stars

Lucifer (Season 4)

At the end of Season 3, Chloe finally learns that Lucifer is, in fact, the real devil, only for the show to get canceled on FOX and moved to Netflix. I think both of these changes were for the better, because this was easily the best season yet.

Season 4 continues Lucifer's self-perception struggle from last season, and Chloe's reaction to learning he's the devil leaves him feeling more and more like that's the case. Early on in the season, his ex-girlfriend Eve (yes, that Eve) appears and gets back together with him, since she embraces his devil side, and subtly manipulates him into embracing it as well. I really liked Eve as an antagonist. She manages to still be likable in spite of her manipulation due to her sheer naivety (and realization she messed up in the finale). Meanwhile, Chloe's grief about Lucifer causes her to contact a priest who intended to send Lucifer to hell to stop a prophecy where he gets together with his "first love". I'm glad that Chloe got more to do in the celestial stuff, even if I still think she's a bit of a stick in the mud at times. The season does a great job of tying all of its storylines together, and everything thing feels so well-crafted. Lucifer's own character arc fits in the series perfectly, and I'm glad Season 4 finally gets to explore his devilish side, which leads to one of the best things about this season.

While Lucifer still isn't a "TV-MA" show, the shift to Netflix means that the show can now get away with things it couldn't have on FOX. Season 4 as a whole has a much darker tone, even aside from the increased sex, violence, and cursing, but rather than feeling forced or edgy, it fits the show like a glove. Lucifer was already a slickly production show, but the increased budget also means it looks so much nicer. The special effects have improved, and even the fight scenes are the best yet (especially that bar fight scene in Episode 4). The shift to Netflix also led to a much shorter season with only ten episodes, which led to easily the tightest pacing in the series. Unlike Season 3, not a single storyline was drawn out, and the cases of the week were given a much smaller focus to all of the more character-heavy subplots. Speaking of which, the character work is much better than last season as well. Aside from Lucifer's fantastic arc, it feels like a lot of the cast are exploring their darker sides, with Dan's grief over Charlotte causing him to go back to being a dirty cop, Ella losing her faith in God, and Chloe initially trying to exorcise Lucifer. I also really like the subplot of Linda and Amenadiel having a child (especially once Remiel appears), and Maze is pretty much back to her likable state in Season 2. The only plot point I didn't like was Dan/Ella, but thankfully it didn't get much screentime.

While this season was really consistent, there were a few episodes that really stuck out to me:

Expire Erect: Continuing the trend of hostage situation episodes being absolute bangers, Expire Erect was just a ton of fun. It managed to be both hilarious and tense at the same time, between that bizarre In Medias Res opening, the great twists, and Eve and a drugged Ella being friends, all grounded by the emotional hook of Lucifer fearing a last case with Chloe. 

Devil Is As Devil Does: While most of the episode was solid, what really made it for me was the fantastic twist at the end. The reveal of the true nature of the prophecy intercut with Lucifer realizing he has devil wings was just so well-executed and kicked the tension into overdrive.

Save Lucifer: This was the point at which the plots were starting to converge, and it did so expertly. Lucifer's transformation was a tense time bomb that finally forced him to confront his self-hatred, and I like that Chloe was the one who brought him back. Eve trying to make Lucifer jealous was entertaining, and I especially liked seeing her and Maze spend time together. Linda giving birth didn't waste too much time, and the ending sets up a massive cliffhanger for the finale.

Who's Da New King Of Hell?: Lucifer always knew how to end a season, but this was one of the best finales yet! The cast uniting to stop a bunch of rampaging demons was exactly the type of high stakes fantasy plot I'd wanted from the show this whole time, and everyone manages to get a moment to complete their character arcs, even Dan and Ella who weren't involved in the demon stuff. There was Ella's apology, the fantastic opening dance sequence, the crazy demon fight, and an emotional ending that brings Lucifer and Chloe together only to tear them apart. 

Overall, Season 4 was easily the best season of Lucifer yet. It was edgy, slick, briskly-paced, well-plotted, and took some of the characters to their darkest places to date.

5/5 Stars

Lucifer (Season 3)

Lucifer had been undergoing a steady climb for its first two seasons, slowly ironing out all of its flaws and living up to its potential. Season 3, however, completely reverses all of that progress, resulting in a regressive and drawn-out season with some high points but a lot of low points as well.

The main storyline of Season 3 was incredibly uneven, with just as many good points as there were bad. The first half of the season involves a mystery about Lucifer trying to find the "Sinnerman" who gave him his wings back. While the payoff is great, the mystery was dragged for twelve episodes, while also not being addressed in about half of them. Eventually, we learn that the one responsible is the biblical Cain, who took the form of Chloe's new police chief, Pierce. Once again, this storyline has potential. I like the stretch of episodes where Lucifer tries to remove Pierce's immortality and kill him. However, that storyline eventually devolves into a silly love triangle between him, Lucifer, and Chloe which is, once again, padded out for half of the season. Look, I've never been one to complain about "filler episodes", but I really don't think Cain's storyline could be sustained over an entire 24-episode-long season, and it shows. We got a flashback episode, an episode focused on a one-off character, and plenty of dull cases of the week. (side note: Lucifer's cases of the week could be more interesting if they were fantasy-driven like Buffy's monsters or The Flash's metahumans, but the fact that they're average crimes is why I'm so bored with them). Thankfully, the final two episodes manage to be a fantastic end to the season that actually changes the status quo for once, if only it wasn't so late.

The character arcs are also pretty hit or miss this time around as well. Lucifer and Chloe's relationship has completely lost me. Their "Will They Won't They" got annoying last season, but I just don't even care anymore this season. Once Pierce entered the fray creating a love triangle, it all just became frustrating melodrama for me. It doesn't help that Pierce is just not an interesting character. He was briefly cool when he wanted to find a way to die, but I've mostly found him dull more often than not. Maze probably fared the worst of the bunch, completely going back on her character development last season and turning into a complete brat. She was one of my favorite characters, but when she forced Linda and Amenadiel to break up, I completely lost any sympathy towards her. It's not all bad, though. Charlotte Richards was a serious highlight for her arc about dealing with her possession last season and trying to become a better person, Ella and Dan are still as likable as ever, and I actually really liked seeing Linda and Amenadiel together while it lasted. It's just a shame that, for most of this season, I generally preferred watching the side characters rather than the main cast.

Despite my misgivings with Season 3, its best episodes were some of the best in the whole show:

Off The Record: Given how drawn-out this season is, you'd think I wouldn't like such an inconsequential episode. However, Off The Record did the one thing this season struggled to do: take risks. Reese is a fleshed-out and well-acted character, and the sudden shift to a really dark tone in the second half is fantastic. I also really liked the twist that this was all a hell loop, which ties the episode together, explains its idiosyncrasies, and indirectly shows us more of hell, a location that should appear far more often.

Quintessential Deckerstar: This penultimate episode was so good, I couldn't believe I was still watching Season 3. The show finally cut the BS and got Lucifer and Chloe together, in a fantastic manner to boot. I also liked seeing how Amenadiel got his powers back, and the implication that the loss of powers comes down to self-actualization. Pierce actually feels like a genuinely threatening antagonist, and shows it when he kills Charlotte, a heartbreaking death that completes her character arc and solidifies her as the best thing this season.

A Devil Of My Word: The finale that was so well-received, it managed to get renewed for three more seasons. This is a fantastic ending as easily the show's best episode to date. Everyone gets a chance to deal with the grief from Charlotte's death, and the cat-and-mouse game to prove Pierce as the murderer is a ton of fun and gives the whole cast something to do. Lucifer tearing through mooks with his wings was super badass, and finally, Chloe learns the truth about Lucifer! It's about damn time...

Overall, Lucifer's third season was really rough. It took a storyline with potential and stretched it out to the point where it became boring, messed up quite a few of the characters, and doubles down on all of Season 2's worst problems. While it had some really high points like the ending, Charlotte's arc, and Lucifer trying to kill Pierce, this was by far the worst season yet.

2/5 Stars

Lucifer (Season 2)

While I really liked the first season of Lucifer, I did have a lot of issues with it. Season 2 is definitely an improvement, but it still isn't able to fix everything.

Lucifer's second season focuses on Lucifer's mother (who I'll just called Goddess) showing up on Earth. As obsessed with justice as he is, Lucifer wants to keep Goddess on Earth to serve her sentence, while Goddess wants to go home and stick it to her husband. It's a solid storyline to base the season around, giving more of a focus to the celestial family dynamics at the core of the show. There is definitely a lot more fantastical aspects this season, between the introduction of Lucifer's brother Uriel, the stuff around the blade of Azrael, and that whole episode where Lucifer purposefully goes to hell. However, the real highlight of the season was actually the subplots. The whole cast gets interesting storylines that develop them so much more, like Amenadiel dealing with being a fallen angel, Maze adjusting to Earth and getting a job as a bounty hunter, Linda learning Lucifer's the devil and dealing with it, and Chloe trying to put the man who killed her father in jail. We even get a new character in the perky Ella, and while she doesn't get too much to do, she's a really likable addition to the cast who plays off the other characters really well. 

However, I actually have quite a few issues with the season. First of all, while I definitely enjoy her character, the Goddess isn't quite as threatening of a villain as Malcolm was back in Season 1. Sure, I hated Malcolm, but I was also incredibly tense any time he showed up on screen. The Goddess feels like more of a mustache-twirling villain, constantly plotting to get Lucifer to return home. Don't get me wrong, she's hilarious, but she's not a very good villain. The same issue applies to Lucifer and Amenadiel too. The whole family is plotting against each other, but their motivations are so inconsistent that it just doesn't work as a major conflict for me. Another problem I had was with how strictly Lucifer tries to stick to the status quo a lot of the time. Chloe and Lucifer's romantic subplot started to drag on, as the show resorted to some pretty cheap tricks to prevent them from ending up together, Dan gets no noticable consequences for turning himself in last season, and the season ends with Lucifer just about to tell Chloe the truth only for the obligatory cliffhanger to stop him from doing so. And even with the added celestial stuff, pretty much every episode also had a (rather forgettable) case of the week regardless of whether or not it fit.

Still, this is generally a better season than the first, and it had even more great episodes than it:

Weaponizer: Uriel is easily the best one-off villain in the series to date, because he's actually a celestial. His powers (not unlike Domino's from Deadpool 2) are pretty visually stunning, and more importantly, intimidating. He's a serious danger to Chloe, and the tension slowly builds until the devastating ending where Lucifer has to kill him.

A Good Day To Die: I want more episodes like this one! Instead of a big case of the week, the main conflict of the whole episode was the cast working together to save Chloe's life. Lucifer going to hell was fantastic since we got to see more of the place and how it works, and while I'm not a massive fan of "Unsteady", that final sequence utilized the song perfectly.

God Johnson: I love the concept of this episode. As obvious as it was that "God Johnson" wasn't really God, it did lead to a lot of fantastic scenes. Aside from the dramatic tension between Lucifer and his father, there's the attempt to parent trap him and Goddess, the distraction in the mental hospital, and Linda being there to witness the whole thing. It's both funny and character-driven, so I liked it a lot.

The Good, The Bad, And The Crispy: This was a pretty solid season finale, if not quite as satisfying as last season's. Amenadiel and Charlotte both get really strong resolutions to their storylines, with the former getting his powers back and the latter getting sent away to make her own world. The cliffhanger was also really intriguing, even if it meant Chloe is still completely in the dark about everything.

Overall, Season 2 of Lucifer is an improvement on the first with better character work, more celestial elements, and some fun new characters. However, the show's refusal to evolve lead to plenty of really frustrating plot directions.

4/5 Stars

Lucifer (Season 1)

Lucifer is an odd show. It's an adaptation of a comic that completely changes its genre to a procedural crime drama. A strange choice, for sure, but this first season shows that it has a lot of potential. 

Lucifer is about the titular angel escaping hell and running a club in Los Angeles, during which he meets a detective named Chloe Decker who he starts to solve cases with. At least in this season, Lucifer is basically a procedural crime drama, though it does have some running storylines throughout the season. There's Lucifer's brother Amenadiel who wants to bring him back to hell, and there's Chloe investigating the Palmetto case even if it puts her at odds with the entire station. Both storylines weave together halfway through the season when Amenadiel resurrects a cop involved in the case, but even then, one of these plots is far more interesting than the others. Amenadiel is an interesting character and strong antagonist for the season, and pretty much everything having to do with hell and the fantastical topics is really interesting. The more procedural elements, however, can be a bit rote at times, and the Palmetto case never really gripped me. It's not even that a show being procedural is bad, it's just odd that a show with such a fantastical premise settles for crimes that could easily be in any other show. I hope later seasons can put a bit more emphasis on the fantasy stuff because it's by far the most fascinating part of the series, and having Lucifer be a grounded procedural feels like a bit of a waste of potential.

Thankfully, even in the weaker elements, I did find myself really liking the characters. Obviously, the highlight is Lucifer himself. Tom Ellis does a fantastic job of making the character his own. He's just as charismatic and egotistical as you'd expect the devil to be, but the best moments are whenever he drops his guard and shows his vulnerability a bit. I also really liked Amenadiel, partly because he's pretty much the most fantastical character in the season, and partly because his banter and conflict with Lucifer is genuinely entertaining. The rest of the cast all gets chances to gain a bit more depth throughout the season as well, with characters I didn't love in the pilot (Dan and Linda in particular) winning me over by the finale. Lucifer's production values are also stellar for a TV show, with the soundtrack alone probably being incredibly expensive (unless Ellis happens to be performing the music himself). The action was particularly surprising. There isn't too much of it, but all the fight scenes in Lucifer are shot really clearly compared to many other series that just settle for fast-cutting-shaky-cam. A particular highlight was a Maze fight that was partially depicted through shadows on the wall.

In spite of the growing pains, there were a few particularly good episodes:

A Priest Walks Into A Bar: While I didn't love most of the "Cases Of The Week" this season, this was the main exception for how it was used to further Lucifer's development. This was an emotional rollercoaster of an episode, starting pretty funny as Lucifer tries to prove Father Frank is a criminal, then goes to wholesome as he befriends the priest, and ends on a tearjerker as Frank sacrifices himself and leaves Lucifer heartbroken. I also like the hints given about Lucifer's father, along with the fact that it took Lucifer meeting a father (priest) to start dealing with his actual father. 

#TeamLucifer: This was just a nonstop train of suffering and betrayal for poor Lucifer. I really like the concept of Lucifer dealing with misguided satanists, and the episode does a good job of exploring how everyone seems to blame him for the evil in the world. The final few minutes are especially fantastic, from the final fight between Lucifer and Amenadiel and the gutpunch of Chloe falsely arresting Lucifer.

Take Me Back To Hell: With all its problems, Lucifer's first season ended on a fantastic note. Lucifer working with Amenadiel, Chloe working with Maze, and Malcolm finally being taken down for good. The action is great, the whole cast gets moments to shine, and all the setups in play like the feather, the dagger, and the coin are paid off. The twists are fantastic too, like Dan turning himself in, and the cliffhanger of Lucifer's mom escaping hell. This is how you do a finale!

Overall, this was a solid first season for Lucifer, with slick production, likable characters, and a strong ending. However, it suffers from relying too heavily on the crime drama aspect of the series when the fantastical aspects are far more interesting.

3/5 Stars