Lucifer

This series is centred on a super hero who is immensely physically strong, almost invulnerable, immortal, and, as it happens, is Satan himself. However this is not the Devil of the Old Testament , but rather a mutinous son who, as a punishment for his rebellion, is sent to be the warden of Hell, but is not himself the origin of evil. The condemned souls are there because of their own guilt caused by their own freely chosen actions.

The series very sensibly ignores the New Testament, and treats the celestial personalities of the Old as being similar to the gods of ancient Rome, or Greece, in other words, as a frequently quarrelling family. It borrows a device from The Sopranos, in that a psychiatrist initially treats Lucifer, although, by the end of the series she has had biblical figures such Adam and Eve, on her couch, culminating in hosting God and the Devil, as she tries to effect a reconciliation between them.

The series contains a great deal of humour, and Lucifer is a sympathetic character. As anyone such as myself who attends church each week knows, the one thing biblical figures lack is a sense of humour, something which is also evident in the New Testament, as no one could regard St Paul as a laugh a minute!

The actors are excellent. Tom Ellis as Lucifer, despite being Welsh, uses Received Pronunciation throughout the series, and is clearly a very talented person, as he also takes the part of Lucifer's evil twin, the American accented Archangel St Michael, which would come as a surprise for the congregations of all those churches named St Michael and All Angels!

The series is very much a love story between Lucifer and the police detective Chloe Decker, brilliantly acted by Lauren German, which lasts from the first episode to the last, while D B Woodside, familiar to aficionados of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, plays the part of Amenadiel, God's oldest son, as he travels from critic of Lucifer to his confident. Rachael Harris is superb as the psychiatrist, and, as a comedian, she adds a great deal of humour to her role. Lesley-Ann Brandt plays Mazikeen, the sexist demon from hell one could wish to meet, and Aimee Garcia is equally attractive as Ella Lopez, the bubbly forensics expert. Kevin Alejandro is the somewhat hapless, but decent ex husband of Chloe,.

In other parts Michael Imperioli moves from playing a murderous gangster in The Sopranos to being the Archangel Uriel, although he retains a great deal of the former's aggressiveness, Dennis Haysbert is God, Tricia Helfer is his wife, the Goddess of all creation, and Inbar Lavi is Eve, the first woman. Scarlett Estevez is Trixie, Chloe and Dan's daughter.

It is somewhat satisfying when arrogant villains, confident in their power to act as they please, come up against celestial beings, who can take them down without difficulty. There are some more serious aspects to the premises upon which the series is built. The question of free will is of greater concern when one looks at the New Testament, as, if Pilate and Judas had used theirs to act differently, this would have brought the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets into question. It is also possible that youngsters raised in a secular household might confuse the fiction of the TV series with the actual religious facts.

Nevertheless the series is very entertaining, and well worth watching.