Lucifer S4 & Barry S1
May. 18th, 2019 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatSo, I binge watched Lucifer S4 today and it is a lot better than season 3, and about on par with Season 2. The only weakness is the procedural element, but as Tom Ellis states in the Reunion special -- they sort of had to do it that way, they can't veer too far away from the original concept because the fans campaigned to save the show they loved. If they change it too much they could lose those fans.
So they have to keep a balance -- not get too gratuitous with the nudity and the violence, and not lose the procedural format completely.
That said, the move to Netflix did open the show up a bit more and took a bit darker, and allowed more of Gaiman's world-building and take on Judea/Christian mythology to come back into it.
Also I REALLY want a fifth season. Netflix better fricking renew for a fifth season. I'll be pissed off at them if they don't. And I want it by early next year.
They surprised me a bit with it. Eve and the whole prophecy wasn't what I expected. It's really about Lucifer coming to terms with his role in the verse, and his responsibilities, and why he has them. That his father sent him to hell not as punishment per se, but because someone had to rule over the sinners -- and Lucifer caused the first sin to occur, or did he?
The series questions Judea/Christian mythology. How Eve was given no free will -- made from Adam for Adam, with no decision in the matter -- so she went for Lucifer, who well, anyone would fall for. Because Lucifer accepted her for herself. But Lucifer never loved her -- he doesn't discover love until he meets Chloe, and it's his love for her and for Amendail, Charlie, and Dr. Linda that makes him realize he has to go back to hell -- to keep the demons in check. As long as he's on earth, they are at risk.
I like how the show questions the metaphors of the old testament, and reworks them with a twist -- this is so Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman is among the few novelists who have handled Christian mythology well. Most people take it too literally or don't satirize.
Eve is handled well here -- she talks about how she was made for Adam and hated it.
And how she didn't like her son, Cain at all. She's a far more complex villain than Pierce/Cain was, and the actress is so much better in how she plays the layers and managed to have chemistry with everyone. I was surprised and expected to be offended, I wasn't. Really surprised.
They pave the way for Lilith to show up. Stating she's dead -- but apparently she's alive in the Dreaming. Wonder if they will go there? I'd love to see Dream enter the show.
Anyhow there's two story threads, which for a bit, I did not think would work. But they do. Amendial/Linda and Maze and Linda/Amendial's baby. Next to Chloe/Eve/and Lucifer...then there's Dan/Elle. All four sort of come together at the end.
With Lucifer's identify crisis syncing with Amendial's struggle with becoming a father. Chloe's struggle accepting Lucifer syncing with Linda's struggle accepting being pregnant, and Maze trying to find someone. Plus Lucifer's guilt syncing with Dan's.
What they dropped, and I was glad they did was the inappropriate comedic stand-a-lone episodes that was often jarring -- such as Elle and the Ghost who was really one of the Angels, and Dan/Lucifer solving a case together -- which doesn't work after Charlotte's death and Dan's rage towards Lucifer regarding it.
This season fits the characters better. Dan and Lucifer aren't going to be friends any time soon. And Elle questioning her faith, while Chloe discovering hers, works well. Also they made Elle Lopez less quirky and nutty, and more realistic.
I also loved how Ella tells Chloe that the Bible is contradictory, "take the devil for instance -- he's an angle, pure good, then becomes the devil? How can someone who was good become pure evil?" And Chloe realizes for the first time, he's not the devil -- he's an angel.
And at the end, Lucifer lets go of the facade -- the monster and is able to show her that he is in fact an angle with his white wings, as he flies off to rule hell and keep the demons in check, from his high throne above the desolation.
I loved the final episode. My only quibble is the procedural bits, which I still find annoying -- although they do for the most part fit with the comics, which had little snippets of people doing horrible shit to one another. Showing that Lucifer has zip to do with it. People make these choices on their own.
One of the best seasons to date. Helped greatly by the limited number -- 10 instead of 22, so it's tighter. And the ability to binge watch all of them.
As an aside, I binge-watched Barry S1 and while it takes a few episodes to get into, after about episode 6, it takes off. It's at its best when it focuses on the acting classes, and uses the hitman bit as background. I binge watched all of season 1, tonight, and now I'm hooked. It's compelling in an odd way.
Not funny all the time, more a dramedy. It wasn't until about the 7th episode that I laughed, and after that I found it absurdly amusing.
Not for everyone though -- very dark, anti-hero series -- but also rather brilliant.
Henry Wrinkler's portrayal of the acting teacher is spot on -- and he reminds me a great deal of several that I've known.
I didn't like it at first, but I stuck with it, and am glad I did. The reason I stuck with it? The acting class bits are marvelous, and I'd read various critics on it, including various people on my flist who have highly rec'd it. So decided to give it another chance.
Again, not for everyone. Very dark, and violent satire. It's basically about a hitman who decides he wants to become an actor instead -- and takes acting classes. But leaving behind his career as a hitman proves a tad difficult.
So they have to keep a balance -- not get too gratuitous with the nudity and the violence, and not lose the procedural format completely.
That said, the move to Netflix did open the show up a bit more and took a bit darker, and allowed more of Gaiman's world-building and take on Judea/Christian mythology to come back into it.
Also I REALLY want a fifth season. Netflix better fricking renew for a fifth season. I'll be pissed off at them if they don't. And I want it by early next year.
They surprised me a bit with it. Eve and the whole prophecy wasn't what I expected. It's really about Lucifer coming to terms with his role in the verse, and his responsibilities, and why he has them. That his father sent him to hell not as punishment per se, but because someone had to rule over the sinners -- and Lucifer caused the first sin to occur, or did he?
The series questions Judea/Christian mythology. How Eve was given no free will -- made from Adam for Adam, with no decision in the matter -- so she went for Lucifer, who well, anyone would fall for. Because Lucifer accepted her for herself. But Lucifer never loved her -- he doesn't discover love until he meets Chloe, and it's his love for her and for Amendail, Charlie, and Dr. Linda that makes him realize he has to go back to hell -- to keep the demons in check. As long as he's on earth, they are at risk.
I like how the show questions the metaphors of the old testament, and reworks them with a twist -- this is so Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman is among the few novelists who have handled Christian mythology well. Most people take it too literally or don't satirize.
Eve is handled well here -- she talks about how she was made for Adam and hated it.
And how she didn't like her son, Cain at all. She's a far more complex villain than Pierce/Cain was, and the actress is so much better in how she plays the layers and managed to have chemistry with everyone. I was surprised and expected to be offended, I wasn't. Really surprised.
They pave the way for Lilith to show up. Stating she's dead -- but apparently she's alive in the Dreaming. Wonder if they will go there? I'd love to see Dream enter the show.
Anyhow there's two story threads, which for a bit, I did not think would work. But they do. Amendial/Linda and Maze and Linda/Amendial's baby. Next to Chloe/Eve/and Lucifer...then there's Dan/Elle. All four sort of come together at the end.
With Lucifer's identify crisis syncing with Amendial's struggle with becoming a father. Chloe's struggle accepting Lucifer syncing with Linda's struggle accepting being pregnant, and Maze trying to find someone. Plus Lucifer's guilt syncing with Dan's.
What they dropped, and I was glad they did was the inappropriate comedic stand-a-lone episodes that was often jarring -- such as Elle and the Ghost who was really one of the Angels, and Dan/Lucifer solving a case together -- which doesn't work after Charlotte's death and Dan's rage towards Lucifer regarding it.
This season fits the characters better. Dan and Lucifer aren't going to be friends any time soon. And Elle questioning her faith, while Chloe discovering hers, works well. Also they made Elle Lopez less quirky and nutty, and more realistic.
I also loved how Ella tells Chloe that the Bible is contradictory, "take the devil for instance -- he's an angle, pure good, then becomes the devil? How can someone who was good become pure evil?" And Chloe realizes for the first time, he's not the devil -- he's an angel.
And at the end, Lucifer lets go of the facade -- the monster and is able to show her that he is in fact an angle with his white wings, as he flies off to rule hell and keep the demons in check, from his high throne above the desolation.
I loved the final episode. My only quibble is the procedural bits, which I still find annoying -- although they do for the most part fit with the comics, which had little snippets of people doing horrible shit to one another. Showing that Lucifer has zip to do with it. People make these choices on their own.
One of the best seasons to date. Helped greatly by the limited number -- 10 instead of 22, so it's tighter. And the ability to binge watch all of them.
As an aside, I binge-watched Barry S1 and while it takes a few episodes to get into, after about episode 6, it takes off. It's at its best when it focuses on the acting classes, and uses the hitman bit as background. I binge watched all of season 1, tonight, and now I'm hooked. It's compelling in an odd way.
Not funny all the time, more a dramedy. It wasn't until about the 7th episode that I laughed, and after that I found it absurdly amusing.
Not for everyone though -- very dark, anti-hero series -- but also rather brilliant.
Henry Wrinkler's portrayal of the acting teacher is spot on -- and he reminds me a great deal of several that I've known.
I didn't like it at first, but I stuck with it, and am glad I did. The reason I stuck with it? The acting class bits are marvelous, and I'd read various critics on it, including various people on my flist who have highly rec'd it. So decided to give it another chance.
Again, not for everyone. Very dark, and violent satire. It's basically about a hitman who decides he wants to become an actor instead -- and takes acting classes. But leaving behind his career as a hitman proves a tad difficult.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-19 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-19 04:12 am (UTC)But it worked. And at first the actress playing Eve annoyed me, then she really grew on me. She's an extremely good actress -- and able to play the role with quite a few interesting nuances. She made a role that could have been played strictly for laughs or one-note, layered and interesting. I'm surprised at how much I loved her character in this -- I did not expect to.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 01:35 am (UTC)It was a rather good metacommentary on the role of women in so many Hollywood texts, I thought!
One thing that was also of interest was her reference to how she was able to come back to Earth because she had been created directly by God (unlike most humans).
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 01:49 am (UTC)Eve in the comics is more of meta-commentary on how Biblical and Religious text view women, not just Hollywood ones. And the idea of free will -- Eve basically loved Lucifer because he asked her what she wanted, he provided her with free will. He didn't see her as an extension of himself or Adam, but just Eve. Which is very desirable. And explains why everyone falls for the Devil or Lucifer.
I loved the dichotomy in the text..Lucifer is considered the incarnation of all evil, yet, as Ella points out, he's also an angel, and pure good. How is that contradiction resolved? Netflix allowed the writers more freedom to play with this and state it directly than Fox did, or appears to, which I found really interesting. Also Eve -- is considered created from Adam, yet she's very feminine, and bisexual, she has no sexual preference and no issues having sex with men and women, much like Maze.