Lucifer may be the supernatural story about the King of Hell living in LA, but it’s also a romance and a crime procedural, which leads to very clear formulas in each episode. Lucifer started airing on Fox in 2016, where it ran for three seasons before the show was ultimately canceled. However, the writers had suspected that the series was potentially going to be axed and made the third season finale a massive cliffhanger for fans and launched a social media campaign to try and save the series.
Shortly after the series was canceled, it was picked up by Netflix, where it released its final three seasons in the following years. The character Lucifer is a loosely adapted version of the character, Lucifer Morningstar, from Neil Gaiman’s DC comic books which ran under the same name. While the series is technically a comic book adaptation and supernatural in nature, the show is on its face a police procedural with a cop and a consultant dynamic, which leads to each episode having the same core beats.
Lucifer may be the literal devil, but he is also a sensitive soul who feels insecure about his position in life. Banished to Hell as a fallen angel, Lucifer has significant daddy issues and a strained relationship with his family. While he held power in Hell, he also grew tired of the monotony and repetition he experienced with humans constantly being tortured and demons doing the torturing. As a result, he chooses to leave Hell behind, unsupervised, and join the living in LA to enjoy his eternal life.
However, Lucifer ultimately just wants to be loved and appreciated for who he is. Rather than falling into a pattern and being told what his destiny will be, Lucifer wants freedom of choice, and to experience life like the humans do. He frequently feels unworthy of love, incapable of understanding the human experience, and forever exiled and excommunicated from his family. All of this leads to Luci having a lot of issues to process and work through, but he is also easily distracted.
Lucifer loves to spend his time trying to use his gifts to help others, and when he meets detective Chloe Decker, he is desperate to try and impress her. Luci learns about Decker’s career, and finds the idea of investigating homicide incredibly interesting, as well as an opportunity for him to dish out some justice on the wicked while they are still living. As a crime procedural show set in the bustling city of LA, there is no shortage of crimes for Luci and Decker to investigate, and every episode will feature a murder early on.
The aftermath of the crime is typically shown, but not the person behind the crime, so that the audience can attempt to unravel the mystery along with Luci and Decker. Decker will investigate, while Luci manages to get in and take a closer look at the crime scene, and they will be joined by other officers and agents like Ella as they look for clues and witnesses to start their investigation. This is a pivotal part of the show, and the very thing that makes it a crime procedural.
For many crime drama shows, the investigation can go a number of ways. In some cases, the show will conceal the identity of the killer until later in the episode, making the actual crime more mysterious and challenging to make sense of. Then, in others, the killer is introduced very early on as a witness or someone else close to the crime or the victim. Lucifer falls into the latter of the two types of crime show, with the guilty party normally shown near the beginning of the episode.
Often, the show will attempt to provide two suspects, and Luci will be leaning towards the wrong person as the killer, digging up ambiguous evidence that could point to them being guilty. However, this is usually a fake out, and the other potential suspect that appears more innocent winds up being the killer. While this can be monotonous if audiences are watching for the crime and murder mystery, the crimes are more a tool to further Lucifer’s story, rather than the actual essence of each episode.
Just as Lucifer begins each episode with a personal issue, he also finds a way to make most of the situations about him, which evidently, the show is. Lucifer becomes deeply involved in the case, and usually finds ways in which he is connected to the killings, believing he is in some way a complicating factor in the case. Otherwise, Lucifer also finds ways to see hidden meanings in the case that could be interpreted as divine intervention, and he tries to run away in these moments.
However, most of the cases are ultimately proven to be detached from Lucifer, and thus help to prove that he is not as important or pivotal in these matters as he thinks. While Lucifer is motivated to feel that he is important, he also wants to escape from some larger purpose and calling, such as being the King of Hell, or being a fallen angel. Lucifer wants to live like the humans, and his belief that the world revolves around him is slowly crumbled with each new case, but then reinforced with other supernatural elements.
A big part of Luci’s growth in the show comes from his regular sessions with his therapist and friend, Linda Martin. Linda is insightful, observant, and incredibly honest with the man who once ruled Hell, trying to help him find his purpose in life and accept his flaws. Lucifer frequently hijacks Linda’s time, and kicks out other patients in order to see her and discuss things that he believes are urgent and pressing, considering his position in the universe. Of course, Linda initially believes he is human, and advises accordingly.
However, despite his willingness to go and visit with Linda on a regular basis, the appointments rarely go as intended for Linda. Luci will reveal major concerns, toxic behaviors, or traumas from his lengthy life, and Linda will give incredibly insightful responses. However, Luci is the father of pride, and frequently runs ahead of what Linda says, coming up with some twisted explanation that entirely misunderstands what Linda was trying to tell him.
Often, the issues will be tied into Luci’s need for love and affection, or his belief that he is not worthy of either thing and will only ever be lusted over rather than loved. Luci has deep wounds from the very public falling out between him and his family, and it leaves him desperately reaching out for acceptance anywhere that he can find it.
It is frequently at this point that Lucifer uses his powers to tease out the desires of others, and as a fallen angel, he finds pleasure in helping people achieve their darkest, filthiest desires, when they align with his complex and unique moral system. However, Decker is also unique in that she can’t be compelled by Lucifer, and he becomes more vulnerable and mortal around her. This immediately bonds him to her as he wishes to experience this mortality, and fulfill her desires honestly without cheap tricks.
Speaking of Lucifer’s powers, he frequently uses them in order to persuade the potential suspects to reveal their desires to him in the hopes of cracking open the case. Whether a disgruntled wife wants her husband’s insurance money, or someone is having an affair, Lucifer can draw it out of them with his gift. This compelling power has people open up about lusts and desires of the most intimate nature, and helps Lucifer to see the truth behind peoples words.
However, while Luci uses his powers on the suspects in the hopes of learning about their guilt, it’s usually revealed that Luci has been chasing the wrong suspect, and the person he compels has insignificant or comical confessions. This is the beginning of the end for each episode, as Lucifer is able to see his error in judgment, reflect on the things he has learned and done up to that point, and attempt to grow as a result. However, he always manages to find another lesson to be learned.
Usually with minimal input and help from Lucifer, but his actions do end up sending Decker and Luci in the right direction, they catch the real killer. This payoff in each episode is simply a way of tying up loose ends with what essentially amounts to being the B storyline. With the murder mystery out of the way and the criminal detained, the story can edge forward with Luci and Decker as their romance slowly develops, or with Luci and his celestial family as they communicate about more eternal matters.
While the crime storyline may appear innocuous, the mark of these stories being well-integrated is how much they reflect the issues Luci is facing. Lucifer’s relationship with Chloe, his sessions with Chloe, and his gradual understanding that he is not the center of the universe, or at least not the way he thinks he is, are all at the core of the show, and the crimes help to develop these further. Ultimately, thanks to these elements in each episode of Lucifer, the characters take steps along their heroes’ journey.