Warning: spoilers ahead for Season 4 of Lucifer on Netflix.
Lucifer made its long-awaited return to television on May 8 after being cancelled last spring by Fox and then rescued by Netflix for a fourth season. Releasing on Netflix means that Lucifer can push some boundaries that definitely couldn't have been pushed on network television. Lucifer embraced its new freedom in the fourth season by showing a whole lot more of good old Lucifer and other characters than ever before, especially in a certain episode that saw an investigation take them to a nudist colony.
Awesomely called "Orgy Pants to Work," the episode sees Lucifer, Ella, and Chloe chase a murder investigation to a nudist colony, and two of those three were happier to embrace the naturalist way of life than the other. Lucifer was of course ready to shed his clothes, and it was a bucket list opportunity for Ella, so actors Tom Ellis and Aimee Garcia bared it all. Ellis chatted with CinemaBlend about Season 4, and he shared this about filming the nudist colony sequence:
The entire sequence would never have happened on Fox! I don't think they would have been able to show the walk away of myself and Aimee as we entered the colony. The whole Austin Powers sequence, I don't think that would have happened. It was funny, because it's a fun sequence, but I was watching it the other day, that episode. This is such an interesting show, with sort of a fun, silly sequence like that. We're talking about sex trafficking at the end of it, and really horrible scenes. Dealing with really horrible people. It goes from really light and silly to really heavy, and pulls the rug from under your feet. Really quickly. It's interesting.
Lucifer and Ella don't waste any time in shedding their clothes as soon as they arrived at the nudist colony, much to Chloe's dismay. The episode didn't give any full frontal shots of any of the actors appearing in the nudist colony scenes, but there was a shot of both Tom Ellis and Aimee Garcia nude from the back as they walked away from Chloe.
Lucifer avoided showing anything too risqué thanks to some strategically placed objects and pieces of furniture as Lucifer and Ella questioned potential witnesses to a crime, and Aimee Garcia's hair was long enough to provide some coverage for her in the front, so it was a really fun way to embrace the nudist colony lifestyle more explicitly than could have happened on Fox but without getting gratuitous.
As Tom Ellis said, it was reminiscent of a similar scene from Austin Powers, when convenient blocking kept anything too explicit from appearing on screen. Considering the episode's unexpected turn from nudist colony shenanigans and orgies to sex trafficking and a very dark twist for Lucifer by the time the credits rolled, the silliness definitely prevents the episode from feeling too dark and depressing. Lucifer is still Lucifer; it just has the freedom to embrace extremes more.
As viewers know, Lucifer didn't play Ella and Lucifer hanging out together in the buff as anything other than two friends working a case and just so happening to be naked for it. When I noted that the scene was hilariously casual between Lucifer and Ella, Tom Ellis elaborated:
Exactly. That's exactly how Aimee and I felt on the day as well… Do you know what? I'm so used to doing that sort of stuff, especially on this show, that even when they're not showing it on camera I'm still having to be basically naked in front of people with a bag on my privates. It's not glamorous. And so you've just got to find a way to laugh about it, and so that's what I do. One thing that Aimee and I do very well is laugh. So we just kind of got on with it, really.
As Lucifer fans who got the show renewed know, Lucifer is naked or at least partly naked fairly often; the camera just conveniently pans away from showing too much. That doesn't mean that Tom Ellis isn't walking around set without much of anything on.
Just as actors have spoken out about how love scenes can be awkward and even kissing scenes are far from romantic to film, nudity on the Lucifer set isn't anything glamorous. Fortunately, Tom Ellis and Aimee Garcia, in this case, were able to laugh about it.
Honestly, how could you not laugh about it? Lucifer excels at embracing the absurd in incredibly fun ways. How many shows can send the Devil into a nudist colony to investigate a crime by the side of his forensic scientist friend, who also enthusiastically shed her clothes, and have it make sense? As unfortunate as it was last spring during the time between Fox's cancellation and Netflix's rescue, I think it's safe to say that Netflix is the perfect new home for the Devil.
Ahead of Lucifer Season 4, Tom Ellis went through an extensive workout process that resulted in some ripped and shirtless photos on Instagram. When I asked if he enjoyed getting to show off all his hard work with the increased nudity in Season 4, he said this:
I certainly felt much more confident being naked in front of people than I ever have done. It wasn't like I was going around flaunting it, but I kind of for the first time did feel really like I'd achieved something, on the workout front. I felt different. It was quite interesting actually when I first got to Season 4, because I hadn't seen everyone for a long time, and during that time I'd been working out. I think my makeup artist said it best. She went, 'Oh my God, you look like you've eaten yourself!' It was quite a bit different to look to when they'd last seen me. It was something my trainer challenged me to, and I just decided I was going to do. It kept me really focused.
Thanks to Tom Ellis' hard work on the workout front between the end of Season 3 and the beginning of Season 4, Lucifer showed off some serious muscles whenever he took off his clothes in Season 4.
His new look apparently impressed folks on set just as much as fans who checked out his appearance after Lucifer was gone for so much longer than usual! Kudos to Ellis for staying focused and achieving a goal set by his trailer. All presumably without making any deals with the Devil!
You can catch the full fourth season of Lucifer (as well as the first three that originally aired on Fox) streaming on Netflix now.
