Must Be Tuesday: Lucifer Reviews

The tough thing about the series finale of Lucifer is that we hate it, but we don't hate it. We leave our celestial characters, for the most part, grown and changed in an organic and positive way. Maze is finally her own person, Amenadiel has balanced humanity and divinity, Lucifer has devoted himself to helping others. Our humans are doing ok too. The bones are there, but the mechanism to get there sucks. Still, Lucifer is a fun and rewatchable show, mostly silly, sometimes touching, overall an enjoyable experience.

On this week's podcast, we're discussing Maze and Eve's wedding and Linda's new book. The first man shows up to put a wrench in the ladies' plans, but he's dispatched with ease. Ella reveals her knowledge to team celestial in a move that really, genuinely feels earned. Not earned? Literally every storyline with Rory. We don't WANT to dislike this character, but there is just nothing there. Give her likes! Dislikes! Relationships! Anything for us as viewers to hang on to. 

So, Chloe and Lucifer have a daughter. It's best if you don't question it, because the show is begging you not to. Lucifer and Chloe investigate the reasons Lucifer might take off and Lucifer later attempts to bond with Rory. In the second episode, A Lot Dirtier Than That, we revisit the racist cop from season 4, who is now a detective and has not changed his ways. Amenadiel and Harris stick their necks out to do the right thing for a young black woman, while Dan, Ella and Chloe consider their complacency.

This week on Lucifer, we're discussing season 6 episodes Yabba Dabba Do Me and Pin the Tail On the Daddy. Fair warning, the episode primarily focuses on the cartoons, hell loops and proper police procedure of the first episode and leaves Lucifer, Chloe and their maybe-daughter for a later episode discussion. Who can blame us, when the first ep contains one of the greatest things brought to a show? An Alias alum!

Must Be Tuesday is back to talk the last season of Lucifer--for real this time! These first two episodes serve mainly to summarize what happened in season 5 and to pull back and explore the developments of last season's finale. Is Lucifer God? Big fat no. Is Chloe his consultant? Also no. Is Maze queen of hell? Not so much. Dan's in hell? Not for long! And so on. There's a new big bad in town, but she's just a blip in these episodes so more on her next time.

This week MBT is busting out our questionable (and completely unspoiled) skills for Lucifer season 6. The main question is honestly: what will this season even be about? Are we really going to have god as a main character on a TV show? What would that even looks like? While we're on the subject, how would one even date god? All these questions and more discussed, plus the age-old Lucifer question: when will the season air? Who could know. 

This week MBT is talking Is This Really How It's Going To End?! and A Chance At a Happy Ending. Things get wild here at the end of Lucifer season 5: Michael takes down Dan (RIP buddy!), Chloe pulls her head out of her ass, Lucifer resets his priorities, Maze is cool with Eve dying and Linda/Ella/Amenadiel are around, too. Emotional episodes, good character work, satisfying ending. We nitpick, but Lucifer's a great show y'all. Cheers!

This week on MBT we're talking A Little Harmless Stalking and Nothing Lasts Forever. It grieves me to yadda over a Linda-centric ep, but unfortunately she takes a backseat to functional Deckerstar and the return of Eve! Missed that peppy original woman. Later, Lucifer decides he wants to be God and Maze the Queen of Hell. Nice to have goals! Chloe wouldn't know, she's quitting the LAPD, which, good, but also ... ? 

This week, Alli and Mary are discussing Lucifer season 5B's Resting Devil Face and Dan Espinoza: Naked and Afraid. First, God takes a page out of Lucifer's learn-from-humanity playbook and abandons his powers for a couple days. To his credit, he "gets it" much faster than Lucifer, and manages to fix most of his problems and relationships in one day. Good for you, God! Next up, we have one of the best filler eps in all of Lucifer featuring Dan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Xander wishes he could be as great as Dan!

Alli and Mary are back to talk Lucifer season 5B! This week we're getting to know the source of all of Lucifer's problems (or is he?): God! We're talking episodes Family Dinner and Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam. As everyone recovers from their 5A-related trauma, new trauma in the form of trauma waltzes right in. Team Celestial has daddy issues, Dan has oops-I-banged-god's-wife issues, Chloe has doormat issues and Maze has soul issues. Linda's just happy her baby is human and Ella remains in the dark. Onto the singing!

We've made it to the end of Fringe season 2, and it is a jam-packed ride from start to finish. Olivia has finally Had It and is heading to the other universe to save Peter from certain doom, and if she has to sacrifice a couple of childhood friends on the way, well so be it. We also get to spend some time with the Alt!Fringe team, who are on the whole a more jovial and less damaged crew. Of course, this is Fringe, so it all goes to hell and poor Olivia is left holding the bag. We'll see you all in six weeks for more Fringe, 'cause in two weeks we're back to Lucifer!

First up this week, we're getting high with Walter and listening to him work out his issue through noir steampunk narrative. Brown Betty is a beautiful and fun episode, but in terms of plot and character development nothing much changes. We discuss once again the specialty episode gold standard that is Once More With Feeling. Next, Peter solos a case with Martha Plimpton, basically spewing is crazy all over her and then accidentally solving it. Most importantly, though, we meet Mr. Secretary: Walternate.

This week on Fringe, Walter's doing the hard work of being the first person to forgive him on "White Tulip" and Peter finally freaking finds out in "The Man From the Other Side". Poor oblivious Peter is truly living in his own world this week as Walter and Olivia clumsily "play it cool" with their life-altering news. We do get some dope time travel and truly excellent SFX, though, so for once the non-character moments truly shine for MBT!

This week's we're watching Peter and Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver and... oof. "Peter" is a masterclass from John Noble, who succeeds in doing what should not be possible in the middle of two episodes revealing Walter's most heinous crimes: forcing the view to empathize with him. Meanwhile, in present day, poor Peter is truly baffled as to what the frick is going on with his little family as Olivia and Walter struggle in their own ways to do the right thing. When Fringe is good, it is truly excellent.

After a rather rote and distasteful Nazi episode, we finally, FINALLY get there. We've talked about it all season. At Last. It's Jacksonville! We finally get to the other side of the Olivia's Trauma coin this week, as we take a trip to the Florida Center  for Scientifically "Necessary" Child Abuse. Poor Olivia has to pull out all the repression stops this week, and that's before she gets the final blow of Peter's otherwordly glimmer. Things can always get worse!

This week on Fringe, it's some hardcore "the X-files did it category" with a mutant town, and then we get a little too close to home as our second episode is all, hey guys, isn't it crazy to have a rogue virus? The eps are trope-y as hell, but still fun in their own ways, and our heroes get to save the day, which is always nice. Then Walter drops some accidental super-secret info on Astrid, who continues to have her life taken over by general Fringe drama.

This week we've got a gross but fun squid-alien bursting through the mouth episode of the week to start off. Although it doesn't have much meaningful impact, it's full of horror and good character work. After that, we've remembered we're dealing with a major problem: frozen head guy is back and causing trouble. He's going around de-braining people in order to re-brain Walter, which he ultimately does. He plays Olivia because he knows she's got a heart of gold, even after she straight kills his whole team. 

Fringe treads a bit of water again this week as we claw, slowly, to when the show kicks into gear. Broyles gets a chance to shine, but unfortunately the whole thing plays out in a bit of a dull cliche. After that we get an angry sociopathic kid with superpowers who turns out to be a clone. Finally, we get a peak into Observer society and their month-themed names. A rogue observer interferes with the course of events in a robot-learning-to-creepily-love story that ends with some ominous Olivia's-life-sucks chatter. 

This week on the podcast, Alli and Mary discuss that maybe by the time this episode goes up, Lucifer 5B would be out... JOKES. Man alive, did Netflix delete the film for those? What is UP with that? But anyway, back on Fringe, we've got a group of a couple decent episodes surrounding a truly good one. Momentum Deferred contains all sorts of goodies: shapeshifters, Olivia vs. Fake Charlie, and a truly fantastic guest star. Cheers!

This week on Fringe, Olivia is laid up in the hospital post-universe-hopping, so we welcome the once and future princess, Meghan Markle, to the cast! Don't get too attached, she's not long for the show. We say RIP to Charlie, who's been unceremoniously ganked by a shapeshifter. Olivia's commitment to intense repression goes into the overdrive, and she almost shoots Peter instead of the weird monster baby they're chasing. Just another day on Fringe!  

We're finally entering the ZFT endgame, which ends up being a bit of a bust: Nina is shot, but she's fine. Everyone is looking for William Bell, who we now think is the ZFT leader. Walter yoinked by the Observer, mostly so he can reminisce on the """something""" he lost and check out the grave of ... Peter? ZFT is stopped and Olivia is off to meet Belly, who's taken up residence on a parallel earth. 

This week on Fringe we knock out the required mid-2000s animal rights episode, which is meh at best, but then we get back to the real shit: Olivia's messed up childhood! We meet with Nick Lane, who is like Olivia but less functional, which is saying something since Olivia spends a large portion of this episode convinced she's dream killing people. After that we move into a little ZFT and vampire action; also, Rachel's getting a divorce. 

This week on Fringe, we're going through another big chunk of season one. We reminisce a bit on the benefits of a weekly schedule vs. binging, and how a "see what sticks" mentality can lead to awesome, discussable benefits but also frustrating dead ends. Back in the Fringe universe, we get Fringe's first really great overarching plotty episode in Ability, which explores Olivia's past (and implied future!). We also get a bit more Observer content, and we say a not-so-fond farewell to JOHN SCOTT. Cheers!

Things get meta here on MBT's Fringe 4, as we discuss not knowing when to release Fringe and also guessing Lucifer might not be out until... February, gasp! Lol forever, what optimism. Anyway, back on Fringe, Peter's got some dull issues because his character hasn't been totally figured out yet and Olivia is still focused primarily on our pal JOHN SCOTT. He basically gave her a consciousness STD and she's infected with his memories, so we have some more tank fun. Happy days for Walter!

This week on the Fringe, we've electromagnetism, RF bursts,  heart parasite monsters, and Britta from Community. Additionally, we're still working through the mystery of JOHN SCOTT and he and Olivia's special merged consciousness bond. Was he good? Was he bad? Once you get past season one will you even remember him? Meanwhile, we finally get some real plot going as we meet David Robert Jones and his shady FBI-traitor crew. #LittleHill

We continue easing into Fringe this week, which is at this point just barely dipping its toe into the weird scifi universe it's destined to become. These episodes tread and re-tread ground: hey, did you know Walter used to be in a mental institution? Did you know Olivia had a thing with her former partner, John Scott (drink!)? Did you know Peter is... here I guess? Well anyway, the show is still fun and it's only going to get better, so there's that to look forward to!

So here at MBT we really thought Lucifer 5B would be out by now, & that our Fringe eps would drop after that. But, it's not to be since as far as we can tell Lucifer 5B may never release (jokes! ... unless?). Anyway, we're thrilled to be back on our bullshit discussing female-led shows. Fringe is the spiritual successor to the X-Files and, in many ways, a spiritual predecessor to shows like Lucifer. Come for Joshua Jackson, stay for crazy family dynamics, parallel universes & Olivia Dunham's gun. Cheers!

This week on the pod we're predicting the fate of each of the characters. We don't know any spoilers, so it's all speculation on our end. The big questions: how long is Ella going to have be the odd man out celestial info-wise? Can Maze finally progress? Are we being foreshadowed about Lucifer's potential mortality, or is it just a red herring? Will Linda give god therapy?? We discuss. 

All this talk about getting mojo, losing mojo, stealing mojo... how could we not make an Austin Powers reference? Anyway, powers and their meaning are the talk of the episodes here; misunderstandings abound and Chloe tragically assumes Lucifer knows what the f*ck he's talking about. Meanwhile, Amenadiel angsts about human baby Charlie, Ella's boning a murderer, Michael's causing chaos and Maze well, the plot needs her for things so there she is. Oh, and God has arrived. 

Would that I could attach gifs to this description section, so you will just have to imagine the gif of Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine yelling BOOOOONNNNNEEE??? Because that's where we're at! Finally! But before we can get there, we have to have the celestial himbo squad confusing poor Chloe about her ostensible "gift" status, Amenadiel pulling an explanation from his ass that Chloe is horny enough to go with, Chloe freaking out and Lucifer acting like a dumbass, so pretty much business as usual over at the LAPD. 

**LUCIFER 5B SPOILERS**: we briefly discuss the genre of an episode in 5B from 2:00 to 5:30. If you've watched the promo for 5B this will not spoil you.  This week we're discussing two episodes that are admittedly not our favorite of the season. Lucifer's back, but things are not as copacetic with his friends in LA as he might have hoped. After we trudge through some meta, Chloe lays down the facts. In the next ep, we travel back to 1946 and learn about Lilith and not much else. 

We are back and pumped to be talking about Lucifer's long-awaited S5! This week we've got our cocktails ready to discuss Chloe's bangs, celestial "genius", Maze's growth and kind of specifically none of the episode of the week stuff. The Mars plot was cool & all, but but there's so much more going on, especially with our new season villain: twin bro Michael. Although he's found out basically immediately (hurrah!), he does succeed in sowing the seeds of fear in the main cast, just in time for Lucifer's return. 

Well, we recorded this about three days before the promo dropped, so feel free to listen in on our guesses good and bad. Obviously, this episode contains NO SPOILERS, but does contain speculation about where season 5 might go, and what we hope to see out of our main characters. When will Lucifer escape hell? How is Chloe going to react? Will Dan and Ella finally find out the truth? Can Maze finally come into her own? One month to go before we officially find out. Cheers!

Hey guys! In May we had the pleasure of speaking with Sheri Elwood, a writer and executive producer for season 1-3 of Lucifer. We had cocktails and chatted about the show via zoom, from behind the scenes writers room action to what she hoped might one day make it into the show. If you like getting into the heads of the people that bring you TV, listen in! Big thanks to Sheri for digging in with us. Cheers!

Lucifer works on forgiving himself just in time for everything to fall apart: adorable baby Charlie is kidnapped, and hell has come to Earth. Everyone needs to work on their decision making and communication in these eps, but that's ok, the drama is pretty fun. We get a musical number (meh), a fight scene, and Lucifer going full devil. Hard to complain too much about a great season. Check us out next week for our interview with Sheri Elwood, followed by a season 5 predictions ep. Cheers!

On today's episodes, Lucifer breaks up with Eve and begins to define himself outside of his relationship with her or Chloe. After going to bat for humanity, Amenadiel is faced with his first experience with systemic racism and police brutality. During the course of this discussion, the movie Mary mentions is The Hate U Give and the case Alli discusses of the wrongfully imprisoned black teen is Kalief Browder. You can read more about him here or watch the Netflix documentary series telling his story (tw: prison abuse and suicide).

After Chloe puts her life on the line to save him, Lucifer realizes that he's maybe, not quite ready to be done with their partnership. This leads to an attempt to split his life in half: relishing in his devilish ways outside of work via partying with Eve and responsibility/maturity via his work with Chloe. Go back to therapy, Lucifer! You need it bud! Over with team angel baby, Linda assures Maze she's part of the family, while Amenadiel grows further from his. Up with Demon Auntie!

This week we're introduced to someone I like to think of as the anti-Cain: a side to a love triangle that doesn't suck. Welcome to the show, Eve! Chloe and Lucifer's relationship implodes after Chloe considers poisoning Lucifer, lies to him and remains generally freaked out by his devil-ness. Linda, Maze and Amenadiel have a wonderful B plot involving Linda's pregnancy. Ella and Dan are also there, but... are they though? Eve shows up just in time to encourage all of Lucifer's bad behaviors in the best way. Cheers!

After discussing what it means to be an admittedly imperfect & blithe podcast about a (supernatural) police procedural, we have decided to continue on with Lucifer. That being said, we will be discussing the implicit pro-police bias that a show like has a byproduct of its heroes being cops. Dissecting this bias is something we should have been doing before, & will be a feature of the show from here on out. We wanted to jump into this topic immediately, and as such postponed our Sheri Elwood interview. 

Hello listeners! We had planned on releasing our interview with Sheri Elwood this week, but circumstances in the United States being what they are, we did not feel it's the appropriate time for our general lighthearted discussion, when the focus should be on the protests and Black Lives Matter. Television is a reprieve, but there are times when we have to look at painful reality, and we feel this is one of them. We will reassess next week. Best, Alli and Mary. 

Things are AMPED for the season three Lucifer finale: Pierce is exposed as a dick and Lucifer is exposed as the devil. Other big changes are afoot as Charlotte shuffles off this mortal coil to heaven, with Amenadiel regaining his angel wings to escort her. RIP girl! These episodes are a wall to wall blast. Also, stay tuned for a special ep next week: our interview with former Lucifer writer and exec producer, Sheri Elwood! Cheers. 

This week on the pod, we discuss the semi-dreaded Chloe/Cain relationship, which goes from 0 to 80 back to 0 to 100 and finally back once again to 0. While Chloe is dealing with the emotional whiplash, Lucifer is off losing his sh*t during an attempt at an emotional breakthrough. Maze is still pissed, Charlotte and Amenadiel are friends now, and Dan is somehow the most emotionally mature around. Congrats on your win by default, Dan!

Season three continues its own little hell loop for Lucifer, as he gets close to chloe-->get scared and push chloe away-->oops she's too far away--->looks like I've blown it. Unfortunately for him, Pierce/Marcus/Cain is there to pick up the pieces as Chloe semi-reluctantly agrees to date him. Meanwhile, Maze takes a dive off the deep end and Charlotte gets the deets on her missing time.

Lucifer and Chloe work through their issues while Pierce/Cain becomes moderately more interesting this week, but that's sure to change again soon enough. Amenadiel is on fire this week: he kicks Cain's ass, successfully predicts the end of the season and avoids getting dumped. Congrats pal! Cheers.

Lucifer S3's first arc comes to an end, & while it's not exactly a whimper, it's also definitely not a bang. The sinnerman is just some guy, working for Cain, who is Pierce & actually the Sinnerman, except we don't really care about the sinnerman now. Linda & Amenadiel are horny & Maze notices; she's displeased. Chloe agrees to an Ocean's 11-style stunt to appease Lucifer, only for him to double back and betray her trust. But really, all you need to know is Pierce=Cain and the sinnerman is nothing. Cheers!

Lucifer season three continues it's flirtation with an overall plot; this week, we're in the playing hard-to-get phase. Sinnerman who? Never heard of him. Instead, we're spending some time getting to know the real Charlotte Richards while Lucifer regresses to his early season two emotional state. Still, there are some great eps and moments here so we're nowhere near iZombie levels of plot frustration. Cheers to that!

We're getting into Lucifer season 3 this week by talking about the first four episodes. The season plot isn't much more than a blip on the radar: we're briefly introduced to the concept of the sinnerman, but it's mostly dropped for episodic murders. Lucifer has wings, but no devil face; Chloe's got problems with Pierce, the new boss; and everyone else is mostly just treading water. Kinda makes you miss mum, doesn't it? But hey, it's quarantine, so grab a drink and let's get through it together. Cheers!

We've reached the end of Lucifer season two, and the end our time with Mum, long may she reign in her own universe. Chloe investigates mum's various accidental crimes while team supernatural is deciding what to do with mum and the blade. Linda gets caught in the crossfire, with Amenadiel to the rescue. Lucifer boots mum out of our reality, and promises Chloe that for real this time, he's gonna come clean. But oops, he's dropped into the desert with a back full of surprise. 

Week two of remote recording continues as we near the end of Lucifer season 2. Lucifer, in what we discuss as misguided attempt to protect Chloe's power of choice, gets married to someone else. Chloe is endlessly forgiving, so they return to being work partners. Later, in one of the show's best one-off eps, we meet God. Or do we?? Send us your thoughts if you have them! Cheers.

To start, we want to acknowledge the audio quality for this ep is not up to our usual standard. Due to COVID-19, we are under a safer in place order here in LA & are working through recording remotely. Things will improve every ep. Thanks for sticking with us! Over on Lucifer, things have escalated greatly. Deckerstar is basically a go, until Chloe's miracle status is revealed. Lucifer takes a quick trip to hell with the help from team supernatural, & then peaces from Los Angeles entirely. Poor Chloe.