The creativity of TV producers constantly amazes me. It’s a show about a charming rogue who meets a by-the-book female detective. She’s very serious about her job, but he seems to think that rules don’t apply to him. Nevertheless, he has some amazing skills that are very helpful in solving cases, so he gets a job as a consultant to the department.
So they’ll be working on cases together, against her better judgement. And of course, although she finds him exasperating, there’s chemistry between them.
And now for the creative twist. This will knock your socks off.
His name isn’t Patrick Jane!!!
But god help me, I’m so starved for a good TV show, I’ll watch it again next week.
I haven’t heard of this but I looked it up and FYI it’s based on an old source material. I never got around to Sandman so I don’t know how accurate it is to a specific part of the story, but…
…in other news, Neil Gaiman got an adaptation beyond the speculative stage!? Holy crap!
Well, I think there might’ve been a little prior art somewhere that he drew on
Anyhoo, “Detective Satan” sounds like one of the made up TV pilots Jack makes up to save NBC on 30 Rock, rather then a real show. But I guess you never know.
I liked it a lot. I find the mythology a bit confusing–Lucifer keeps referring to his father–apparently God–yet this would seem to directly conflict with John 3:16.
I’m not entirely sure who the black guy with the wings is supposed to be.
I’ll put it on the watch list and see where it goes…
Call me a snob, but Lucifer was an extremely imaginative, mind-bending, and sometimes terrifying book… Second, perhaps, only to Sandman itself. To hear the adaptation is another goddamned cop show just makes me want to cry.
Jesus is the only begotten son. Lucifer and the other angels were created, so I guess like Milton the Monster, they call their creator “Daddy.”
According to the closed caption on my TV, Lucifer called him Amenadiel, who AFAIK is just made up. I guess he’s supposed to be from heaven, since it makes no sense to have one of hell’s minions treat Lucifer the way he does. But he sure doesn’t look like the cute chubby guys hovering around the baby Jesus.
It was better than I had been led to believed. Yes, the first episode was a police procedural with a twist, but I’d think that would be just the way to establish the situation before they introduce a story arc (that angel appears to be where it’s going).
The fact that the detective is immune to his charms is going to be important down the road.
I did like Maze better when she only had half a face, though.
Tom Ellis isn’t exactly like the Gaiman/Carey version of Lucifer. He’s more smarmy, snarky and cocky. He doesn’t attempt to hide his identity at all. He can get anybody (except the detective chick) to tell him their greatest desires and confess their sins. He has an obsession with punishing the guilty. He also can’t stand children, but for some reason the detective chick’s daughter loves him.
I’m really digging this series so far, even if it is pretty much a carbon copy of the premise of Castle. In the next week’s teaser, they show him getting in an elevator with the detective chick. He says something rude, and she slaps him. “That actually hurt,” he says in a crybaby voice. “Do it again!”
Well, DC Entertainment is credited, but it looks like Jerry Bruckheimer’s company is involved in production. The company involved with The Flash, Arrow and Supergirl is not involved.
I enjoyed the first episode, and will continue to watch. The chemistry between the lead characters was good, and Lucifer was highly entertaining to watch. And I don’t know who the actress playing the detective was, but she is gorgeous!
I take it this is a spin-off of Gaiman’s Lucifer. If so, I was disappointed. Instead of the most bad-ass being in existence, we get a smug, unshaven, supernatural Patrick Jayne helping out another female cop who can’t do without.
I can watch it as TV entertainment, but this could have been so much better!
Unfortunately, the twist appears to be “police procedure is boring and takes a long time, so we gave the one of the detectives invulnerability and the ability to magically make people tell him whatever he wants to know.”
I’ll keep watching because the source material is so good, but I’m not terribly impressed with the first episode.
According to the Mike Carey books, Amenadiel is an angel, of roughly the same status as Lucifer. He and Lucifer have never been friends, and don’t appear to like each other much, if at all.
They will work together if they absolutely must though. It’s been a long while since I’ve read the books, but I seem to recall that Amenadiel asked Lucifer to do some job for him. Lucifer did, then Amenadiel refused to make good on his part of the contract. Naturally, Lucifer was not happy, and decided to operate in spite of what Heaven wanted. But it was this occurrence that set the events of the books in motion. Amenadiel appears from time to time, mostly as a thorn in Lucifer’s side.
So much for the books, but I hope that helps with understanding Amenadiel.
I did like the show, though I hope it won’t be another standard police procedural. I’d like to see a larger role for Maze, for example (in the books, she is Lucifer’s right-hand woman, who can kick ass pretty well on her own); and I’l like them to explore more of the “Lucifer got tired of ruling Hell, so he packed up, moved to LA, and opened a piano bar” side of things.
At any rate, let’s see what happens in the coming episodes.
I didn’t know that there was such a corpus behind this. But the writers have evidently pounded it into the square hole of a police procedural, to the lament of the Mike Carey fans.
So my question is, why use the Carey stuff at all? They’re clearly just making it a Mentalist/Castle/Lethal Weapon clone, and the name and powers of Lucifer are about as public domain as you can get, so why not just make up a random demon or archangel when it’s useful to have one, and otherwise just do what they’re doing anyway, without having to pay any royalties?
They could be playing it very smart - first build the audience (clearly there is one for castle/mentalist/etc type shows) - get them watching and hooked, then start playing to the other bits.
Look at Constantine and others, where they went to far in the other direction and not quite found the audience needed to sustain it.
