Episode 93: Lucifer Is Our Therapist Now
Lucifer singing “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen in season five, episode 10
Lucifer just came to an end after six seasons, and to celebrate we're talking to showrunners Ildy Modrovich and Joe Henderson about all the ways this Satanic procedural was really all about therapy. Are you ready to self-actualize and embrace your true desires? Plus we talk about three of our all-time favorite stories about Satan, which show very different sides of the Prince of Darkness. Warning: spoilers for season six ahead!
Notes, citations, & etc.
In Lucifer, the titular main character has the power to make people admit their true desires, and meanwhile angels self-actualize and people are sent to Hell because of their own feelings of guilt and unworthiness.
The Good Place also dealt with similar themes around Hell and who deserves to be there, especially in its finale.
In His Dark Materials, God is a major jerk.
Lucifer makes clear that Hitler is in Hell and Donald Trump will end up there, even though they might not feel any guilt or remorse.
The final season of Lucifer features an episode that deals more directly with Black Lives Matter.
Lucifer proudly celebrates the main character's bisexuality
Satan is a huge phenomenon in pop culture lately
Lucifer started airing at the same time as a show called Damian, plus Satan was a major character in Supernatural. Satan shows up in Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim books, and the Antichrist is a character in The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
The series of TV miniseries Quatermass was remade in movie form as Quatermass and the Pit (1967), which was released in the United States as Five Million Years to Earth. And the aliens in Quatermass manifest as a giant glowing Devil over London.
Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars all feature aliens who look like Satan, or who inspired our legends of Satan. And Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End also features aliens who resemble the Devil.
The original 1967 Bedazzled shows a sympathetic, downtrodden Satan who is forced to harvest souls. A year later, the Rolling Stones put out "Sympathy for the Devil."
Satan also puts in a huge appearance at the end of the book and TV versions of Good Omens, in which he's a giant red Benedict Cumberbatch.