Vertigo comics have been hot for TV adaptations lately, with varying levels of success; iZombie, despite barely resembling the comic, is funny and heartfelt. Constantine was lukewarm at best, and I have no desire to spend any more time with Fox’s Lucifer to see if it gets better. I could talk about the laughable dialogue, the pervasive sexism, and the terrible, terrible music cues, but this amazing takedown covers all of that. Instead I’d like to talk about it purely as an adaptation of one of my favourite series.
I’m earning some enemies by admitting this, but I love Lucifer more than its parent series, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Lucifer is essentially a story about free will. Like Gaiman did in Sandman, Carey (along with multiple artists, most notably Peter Gross) weaves a tapestry of characters from all points of existence to reflect on the series’ central questions about freedom and predestination. While most of the major characters are more than human, the comic shows how we lowly humans are affected by the whims of those above us. Heaven and Hell exist, but the denizens of each have other things to worry about and aren’t especially concerned with what we get up to. It’s not as bleak as it sounds, and makes the argument for us to find or make meaning for ourselves.
Thankfully the philosophy is anchored by an endlessly compelling protagonist. This version of the Prince of Darkness isn’t malevolent in the way we typically think of him. He’s motivated primarily by self-interest, so he has no time or affection for others unless they’re useful to him (with one notable exception, but more on that later). He’ll casually kill people or leave them to die if they get in his way, and he can be petty and vengeful. However, he won’t go out of his way to harm people, and never lies, part of a strict code of honour. In keeping with Vertigo tradition, Heaven isn’t a perfect paradise and it’s hard not to side with Lucifer when he’s rebelling against a rigid and controlling angelic regime. This is the Miltonic Lucifer, who some see as the real hero of Paradise Lost. Besides, he’s sarcastic and charming, so readers can’t help but like him.
It’s absurd to expect a TV show to directly adapt such a dense and philosophical comic, but I hoped for something better, or at least for a more charismatic lead. In the comics, Lucifer was ethereal and quietly intimidating – he was famously modelled after David Bowie. The version on the show is just boring. He’s generically handsome, a snarky anti-hero, as if we don’t have enough of those on TV already. He doesn’t use his incredible powers in any interesting or impressive ways; instead he just encourages people to do bad things they probably would have done anyway. And let’s not even get into how gross it is that part of his power is being irresistible to “simple” women – and only women no homo - just one of multiple reasons he’s not even likeable. I can’t engage emotionally with a character who doesn’t seem to have anything at stake, has no motivation to accomplish anything, and doesn’t even have much of a personality beyond being a jerk. (And his license plate is “FALLEN1″).
None of the other characters we meet in the pilot are much better. They’re all cardboard cut-outs, replacing fantastic characters from the comic who likely won’t find a place in this show. Maybe I’ll tune in again if they bring in Lucifer’s niece Elaine, or Gaudium and Spera, two delightfully crass fallen cherubs.
Although maybe I don’t want to see any more of the comics characters, if Mazikeen is anything to go by. She also debuted in Sandman and left an impact in only a few brief panels. She’s the only person Lucifer ever shows affection for, and she’s powerful and determined to achieve her own goals. But Mazikeen isn’t only Lucifer’s romantic partner, she’s his second-in-command, the only one he trusts to look after his affairs when he can’t do it himself. At least she made it onto the show, but she’s barely in the pilot episode and isn’t mentioned in most promo materials, even the ones aimed at Vertigo fans. Chloe, a cop who isn’t “like the other girls,” gets as much focus as Lucifer himself.
I’m not one to pit lady characters against each other, even if Lucifer and Mazikeen are one of my ultimate OTPs, but it’s clear that the writers on this show couldn’t find a way to integrate both women equally into the plot. Chloe, at least so far, is a leaden leading lady who could have been transported from a hundred other procedurals. I guess this makes her an easier figure to spend time with, but then half of her screen time is spent being undermined by everyone around her. She has no chemistry with Lucifer, romantic or otherwise, so their “banter” isn’t especially fun to watch. Mazikeen is in the first episode only briefly to scold the “hero” – that’s quite the introduction. To make matters worse, they cast a woman of colour to play Maz and sidelined her in favour of a white woman. Of course this isn’t the fault of the character, but of the writers who discarded the comics’ heavily-female supporting cast.
Now, I realize I’m judging this based on the pilot, which tend to be pretty shaky, but there wasn’t much for me to hold onto in the episode or in any of their advertising. I’m sure this show will find an audience among folks who are drawn to shows like Supernatural, given the paranormal procedural set-up, angsty white guys, and mythology drawn from Christian concepts of Heaven and Hell. At the AV Club, Alasdair Wilkins points out that this could go the way of Sleepy Hollow, pulling something watchable out of a concept that’s completely bonkers – but most fans of the original series probably won’t find that it has much to offer.
Hopefully Preacher will fare better on AMC.
//Images via Vertigo Comics
The post Book to Screen: Fox’s Lucifer appeared first on Paper Droids.