I've gone down a YouTube rabbit hole of recaps of movies and shows. Most recently this led me to recaps and clips from a Fox/Netflix show called Lucifer that I hadn't heard of before.
It turned out that the lead actor, Tom Elliot, is also an accomplished musician, which they worked into the show. I found this YouTube video of his playing piano and singing
(Turns out someone else is playing the piano)
For a long time, I wasn't very sensitive to what drew other people into particular performances. I would look at what other people liked and scratch my head.
Here, though-- partly because I like the style of performance, but partly because I've learned a bit more about conveying emotions through performance -- I am totally blown away.
The Lucifer character is very complex. He is famous, powerful, and supernatural -- yet also conflicted, vulnerable, insecure, hungry for love yet fearing love, wanting to overcome his background -- and dealing with a large, dysfunctional family. It seems like a lot of the angels and demons seem to be actual siblings -- if not all of them. Their mother is a powerful, yet troubled, spirit who possesses human bodies.
Tom Elliott is so brilliant in conveying this complex character. He is really drawing me in. His performance is all the more brilliant when he plays the piano and/or sings, because he maintains the character in the music.
When he sings "Creep" it gains new depth. "I will survive" becomes an actual conversation.
Sadly, it seems that this brilliant performer does not give concerts. I wish he did. I would like to go to one.
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Addenda 260118
I took some screen shots of the "devil face" of Lucifer. I note that it doesn't always look quite the same. Apparently, in the rubric of the show, it reflects his own inner dislike of himself and his sense of guilt. It's not an apearance foisted upon him from the outside. It's his own projection of his feelings -- tho he doesn't at first recognize this.
The actor is so powerful conveying the complexity of this character -- his charisma, his inner torment, his vacillations between confidence in his own power and his sense of inadequacy, his reluctance to fall in love; but the drama of his emotions is hypnotizing.
He's coming out with a new movie, soon, I think. I'm almost afraid to watch it -- afraid that it will break the spell of this role.
The Chloe character is not gripping me as much. I'm more curious to see what she would be like in another role.
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I'm wondering about the the theology of the show. It doesn't seem to be Christian, except once when Dan crosses himself kneeling in front of God. Christ is never mentioned. Is this a Jewish view -- what God and the angels would be like without Christ?
Is a belief in angels & demons integral to Judaism and/or Christianity? What about the idea of God retiring?
Somehow when I imagine the prime mover, I don't see him as an aging man who might need to retire and might have become forgetful -- like not remembering where he left his powers.
Also what about this human vision of God and the angels. I know the Bible says that God made men in his own image -- but somehow I've never really adopted that literally as a view of God. To me there's something much more transcendent about the divine.
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Strangely, I get a sense of comfort from watching Lucifer with Chloe -- a sense of rightness about the world, rather than a scary devil.
