Lucifer - Television Series

[shadowkat]

Finished watching the last four episodes of Lucifer last night, which has suddenly gotten interesting. I'm admittedly watching it for the metaphors, backstory, and mythology not the case of the week. But finally, the last episode made the case of the week personal. Actually, to a degree, each of the cases of the week have been related to or personal to...the lead and title character, Lucifer Morningstar.

For those of you out there who have never heard of the series...go HERE.

Lucifer Morningstar is based on a supporting character in the comic book series The Sandman. The character later became the protagonist in the spin-off series Lucifer. Like the comic book, Morningstar runs an Los Angeles piano bar (ummm, club) called Lux, and explores the ideas of free-will, human desire, and sin. For comic book nerds, spotting where the show deviates from the original is half the fun.

The set-up is that Lucifer Morningstar was cast off from heaven to rule hell for all eternity, until he decided to take a vacation in Los Angeles (the City of Angels) and ends up partnering up with a local detective and solving crimes. It's like Sleepy Hollow in its first season, except not as gory, violent, or melodramatic.

What I like about the series...is the title character is depicted as a contradiction. Which I just realized last night is the interesting thing about the mythology surrounding Lucifer. Light-bringer - Prince of Darkness. Light into Darkness, Dark into Light. Yin and Yang. Favorite Son - Cast-Off son.
Most Beautiful of the Angel - Devil. The idea of good bending into evil and evil bending into good.
The two concepts occupying the same space. Similar to Faith and Doubt being next door neighbors.
You can't have one without the other, and often in humanity they are bit mixed up.

The show got really interesting, when Lucifer's brother decides to talk to his psychologist, who doesn't really believe he's the devil. And Lucifer's wings get stolen. Something that indicates who he is, his actual identity. Which he deliberately cut off - to reject that identity. As a result, he's now the ultimate lost soul. Cast off and in exile from his family.
His brother is trying to convince to go back to his job, rule hell. But Lucifer has become intrigued with mortality and justice. He's changing. A few episodes back, he discovered he could be shot and could bleed. Which was nifty timing, considering his partner, Chloe, was beginning to wonder if he was actually the devil. Chloe fascinates Lucifer because she is the only woman he's met that isn't charmed by him nor attracted in any way. And he's starting to care about her, which is annoying his associate and assistant, Maize, who is a beautiful demon and top ninja.

I gave up on Gotham, which is wee bit too violent and nihilistic for my taste. Both series are based on DC Comic books. Is it just my imagination or are there a lot of television series adapted from comic books on at the moment? More so than ever before?

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Is it just my imagination or are there a lot of television series adapted from comic books on at the moment? More so than ever before?

No, they're all over the small screen - and the big one as well.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, as evidenced by the five - six super-hero/comic book movies that seem to sell out box offices every year.

Everyone seems to have their own franchise. I swear Disney has about five different movie franchises, not sure how they keep track...there's Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, The Muppets, and the Fairy Tales... half surprised they haven't attempted a massive cross-over flick.

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

And having that happen to Lucifer is an analogy to Christ being the human form of God, also learning a lot about humanity that way.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It's also a recurring theme in various religious texts and mythos...the idea of "God" becoming "man" or an "immortal" becoming "mortal". Very prevalent in the Greek, Celtic and Roman mythos. And was examined to a degree in various vampire series: Angel, Forever Knight, Moonlight, Being Human, and the Vampire Diaries. I think...it's a sort of reverse theme...humanity's fear of death and their own mortality....

God becomes man, suffers the physical torments of man, dies....and is reborn with a new understanding of what it is to suffer.

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

Yes, but obviously Lucifer in this context would be relevant to Christianity (and modern anti-hero worship trends). However, there are many ancient texts, and they have bearing on human psychology, society, and understanding.

Vampirism is often in the "vein" of "careful what you wish for", or Jinn tales where the promise of a dream come true is really a demon (entity) manipulating you to their own end. It also toys with simulacrum and facsimile before technology or aliens were a theme.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I don't know, if the character were based on Biblical myth and the writers were into Christ, maybe. But I'm not sure they are...I think they may be going another direction here. It's based on a Vertigo comic created by Neil Gaiman, entitled Lucifer, which I've read, and went in a slightly different direction than traditional Christian mythos. But Gaiman often does. The Lucifer character here is based on a supporting character in Gaiman's Sandman series. Then again, it's been awhile since I read it, so you may be right...and the story is going to be achingly formulaic in that manner, oh well. ;-)

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't matter, the mythos/character is based from source material (in this case The Bible, since the Devil has a different role in Judaism or Islam). It's repackaged for Hollywood's tastes and modern trends -- which amusingly can blind people quite easily to similarities. One slight difference being that Jesus was a real person of human history (wether or not seen as a messiah).

The message is a human truth regardless of the players, as you pointed out, with similar concepts in ancient tales, all equally "achingly formulaic" -- yet Shakespeare or Wagner continue to be performed again and again, by different actors, on different stages, and sometimes also with modern twists.

Yes, I know the author well, and that Lucifer was initially portrayed as blonde. For my money though, and as a predecessor of said formula, Cry For Dawn may be superior.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Is it just my imagination or are there a lot of television series adapted from comic books on at the moment? More so than ever before?

Definitely, on the CW especially nearly all their shows now are comic book adaptions lately, I guess because they always come with a build-in audience?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I think it's also because they are easy to film. I always wondered why they didn't do it before. Comic books come with a ready-made story-board. And of the written mediums are the closest to a visual film medium. It's mainly action pictures with dialogue. Once you have the ability to do the special effects aka F/X, no problem.

Also, as you state, built-in fan base. So really easy to market.

Actually as an aside, a few years back, someone I met at a friend's party, who'd been to various fan conventions/etc, told me that publishers were looking for online fanfic writers specializing in paranormal fantasy, science-fiction and/or romance with huge fanbases to publish their work. Because, again, built-in fanbase, and easy to market. Most of the work - ie. getting the name of the author or book out there - has already been done for them. (Which of course explains the current trend of fic to publish, iron off the serial numbers. And to a degree they've been right, 80% of those have been insane successes.)