“Lucifer” Episode 8 Review: “Lucifer” Takes a Step Backwards in “Et Tu, Doctor?”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Lucifer could be a spectacular show if it could just dig itself out of the “procedural cop” rut into which it has fallen. For goodness sake, we have a show revolving around the Prince of Darkness himself running amok on Earth; therefore, Lucifer should be rich with supernatural deliciousness and cosmic clashes. Instead, I feel like I’m watching another CSI rip-off every week, which is incredibly disappointing.
The fact of the matter is: I’m tired of these rich characters being wasted on mundane case-of-the-week storylines. This show has good characters—no, great characters—who are played by fantastic actors and actresses, but they’re not being challenged in the way that they should be. Over the last two episodes, I thought we were finally starting to make progress. The characters were allowed to express an impressive amount of emotional range because the cases-of-the-week took a backseat to their development. Moreover, the show seemed to embrace its supernatural potential. Now, however, it seems like we’ve gone back to the place where it started. Once again, Lucifer and Chloe are forced to work together on a lackluster case—this time revolving around the murder of a couple’s therapist who recommends cheating as a way to mend fraught relationships—and once again, Lucifer has a personal issue that requires the majority of his attention. He’s experiencing an emotion with which he is utterly unfamiliar: jealousy. He’s jealous of Chloe’s ex, Dan, and, in true Lucifer fashion, tries to lay the blame for his feelings at Chloe’s feet. According to him, there must be something wrong with Chloe (sexist much, Luci?), and in order to prove it, he manipulates a judge to approve Dr. Linda to become a consultant on the case.
This was the only bright spot of “Et Tu, Doctor?” because I’ve been waiting for the writers to give Dr. Linda something to do besides sitting in her office and psychoanalyzing Lucifer. Moreover, I enjoyed watching Dr. Linda and Chloe gang up on Lucifer so to speak. In my opinion, Lucifer needs to do some serious self-reflection regarding his own character because he’s not exactly relationship material. As a matter of fact, I actually find him to be douchier than “Dr. Douche” aka Dan, so maybe he shouldn’t be so eager to point fingers at others.
Altogether, “Et Tu, Doctor?” failed to impress. The case was predictable; Lucifer’s “jealousy” in regard to Dan was predictable; his growing affection for Chloe was predictable; and, even the Palmetto bombshell that Dan was actually the dirty cop who shot Malcolm was predictable. To me, the most intriguing moment in this lukewarm episode was Lucifer discovering that Dr. Linda’s new neighbor, Dr. Canaan, is actually Amenadiel, which leads him to deduce that Maze must have been the one to tell Amenadiel about Dr. Linda in the first place. In a shocking move, he tells Maze that they are through. But will Maze actually give up? Methinks not, which leaves me with the hope that this show could get more interesting after all.
New episodes of Lucifer air on Mondays at 9:00 pm ET/PT on Fox.