The first season of Lucifer was, to me, uneven, to be polite. In Season 1 the show focused, as far as I was concerned, on the wrong aspects and characters. I stuck through it because there were flashes of a cool show hidden under the boring police procedural the writers saddled us with, and those flashes were really good. (And Netflix has taught the world to binge, meaning I could save up episodes and watch several at a time, versus being chained to the show on a weekly basis.) But I hadn’t planned to watch past the end of Season 1 – until the last three episodes redeemed the show. So I was cautiously optimistic to watch Season 2.

A quick recap of the Season 1 – Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) has left Hell and now lives in Los Angeles, where he runs a swanky nightclub, LUX, assisted by his demon protector/bartender, Mazikeen, aka Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt). Complications in the form of Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German), her precocious young daughter, Trixie (Scarlett Estevez), and her estranged husband, Dan (Kevin Alejandro), who’s also a police detective show up, right about the same time as Lucifer’s brother, Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) comes around to create issues. So many that Lucifer starts seeing psychiatrist Dr. Linda Martin (Rachel Harris). Lucifer also becomes Chloe’s police consultant because of Reasons.

Mercifully, Season 1 resolved the utterly uninteresting Chloe’s Big Case She Can’t Let Go Despite The Danger storyline. It was completely unsatisfying all the way through to completion, and, other than showing us that Dan really loves Chloe enough to sacrifice for her (not that he gets any credit for this from anyone), it was uninteresting, too. The few twists didn’t make up for this tired, nay exhausted, plotline being forced upon viewers for weeks. Basically, the writers are unable to actually write a good mystery or police procedural.

Happily, at least based on the first five episodes of Season 2, they’ve stopped trying, and have gone back to what actually makes this show interesting – the Devil and all his friends and relations hanging out on Earth.

What got me to stick around with anticipation was the Season 1 cliffhanger ending – someone terrifying had escaped Hell. We knew it was Lucifer and Amenadiel’s mother, but beyond that, we knew nothing else.

Well, now we know that Mum is hot (she’s played by Tricia Helfer) because she’s inhabiting the body of Charlotte, a woman who was dead but got better. Mum is quite estranged from Dad (aka God) but she wants to see her sons and “be a family”. Mum clearly has more going on than just wanting to be somewhat maternal, but first she has to learn to live in a human body – a body that’s married and has young children. She’s not used to this and is having issues, but she’s not the only one.

All the characters have been shaken up in some way. Lucifer because his mother’s here and he’s still dealing with all his Daddy Issues, Maze because she and Lucifer are no longer tightly bonded and she used to torture Mum for fun, Amenadiel because he’s starting to lose his divinity and wants to be with Maze, Dan because he’s been demoted and is trying to apologize and atone for all he’s done wrong, Chloe because she’s been allowed to smile occasionally and Lucifer’s broken a promise to God about her that’s going to have significant consequences, and Dr. Linda because half of these characters are all visiting her to share their problems.

The show has only used the police storylines to assist with the supernatural storylines this season, not the other way around, and it’s vastly better for it. Oh, sure, Los Angeles apparently still has no traffic at any time of day or night, the L.A.P.D. has scored the super light, airy, and futuristic set from Almost Human as its one and only police precinct, and the two leads still have zero chemistry with each other. But we’re getting more of everyone else, and in ways that are both fun and interesting.

This isn’t a perfect show, but it’s made major improvements. Each episode so far has focused on the supernatural first and the very unrealistic L.A.P.D. second. We’ve had humor, pathos, danger, fun, and a mythology – what really went on in Heaven with this “family” and what is God’s actual plan – that hasn’t been done to death and is also intriguing. As long as the writers keep us focused on Lucifer and Family and keep the religious storyline going, Lucifer will be a show worth watching.

Rating: 4 Stars