Spoilers ahead for Season 4 of Lucifer on Netflix.
Lucifer made its long-awaited and quite devilish return to television this month with its Netflix premiere. The first three seasons aired on Fox, but the network shocked and devastated fans when it cancelled the series, and it didn't help that the Season 3 finale ended on a killer cliffhanger. Well, Netflix stepped in with the rescue, and releasing on Netflix means that it can push boundaries that could not be pushed on network television. More swearing, more violence, and much more nudity.
That said, none of the characters were going full frontal and dropping F-bombs at every opportunity. There were some instances of star Tom Ellis and other actors losing all their clothes, but they were only shot from behind in those instances. The nudist colony scenes were even carefully blocked so that nothing too racy showed. There was some careful positioning for Tom Ellis from the front, and Aimee Garcia's long hair came in very handy.
Why didn't Lucifer unleash itself more once it had the freedom of Netflix rather than Fox? Tom Ellis chatted with CinemaBlend about Lucifer on Netflix, and he said this when I noted that Lucifer still felt like the Lucifer fans had come to know and love:
That's something we were quite mindful of when everything happened with the show, and the whole 'Save Lucifer' campaign. We became really aware of how much people loved the show but also the broad appeal of the show, and how big our audience is in terms of age ranges, from kids right around to grandparents. Lots of people watch the show with members of their family and stuff. It takes us to a lot of people. So we didn't want to kind of like change it too much even though we have potential new boundaries to push it. And Netflix were adamant that they wanted the show that had already been on. So we didn't really want to change it. And we didn't need to change it, but we've sort of used our new boundaries and pushed it in certain areas, just enough.
Could Lucifer have shown a lot more skin of the various characters? Technically, sure. The orgy scenes from the episode aptly titled "Orgy Pants to Work" hinted at a lot but didn't show a ton, although the orgy pants themselves were missing a back. Apparently, a very handy design for devilish orgies. When Lucifer showed up to a crime scene wearing his orgy pants, Chloe was understandably mortified and not thrilled at the influence Eve was having on him.
Was it all racier than would have happened on Fox? Absolutely. Was it so racy that Lucifer no longer resembled Lucifer, and fans of all ages couldn't enjoy the show? Definitely not. That's not to say that I would want to watch a scene about orgy pants with kids or my grandparents, but nobody was walking around full frontal.
Tom Ellis explained what it was like filming the nudist colony scenes, comparing it to a sequence from Austin Powers and noting that Lucifer is an interesting show that can go with "sort of a fun, silly sequence like that" to "talking about sex trafficking at the end" of the episode.
He also explained that he's so used to walking around without his clothes on for Lucifer -- even if it's not shown on screen -- that he just laughs about it. In fact, he and Aimee Garcia laughed their way through the nudist colony filming, which could have been awkward otherwise. So, fans can enjoy the sequence without worrying that the actors were uncomfortable with it!
Unfortunately, there's no news at this point about whether or not Lucifer could get a Season 5 after its hellish Season 4 cliffhanger. The season ended with Lucifer back in Hell, ruling over the demons to prevent them from escaping to Earth and wreaking havoc there. Tom Ellis did confirm that the cast would be on board for more, and they "don't think we feel like we've finished telling our story yet."
The best thing you can do to encourage Netflix to renew Lucifer is probably to watch and even rewatch the series streaming. Social media campaigns certainly don't hurt, as the #SaveLucifer effort following the cancellation by Fox guaranteed that people kept talking about the show until Netflix finally announced the good news. All four seasons are currently streaming on Netflix.
