Hell and back

“I thought the first season was a lot of fun. The tone of the show is a hard one to get right as it is part procedural, part mythology. It’s based off of a comic and it’s its own thing as well,” she said in an interview with Yahoo. “A lot has to be said for everybody involved, but Tom Ellis ... brought such a charm to the character, to the devil, who you’re supposed to dislike. It was just a really fun show to watch. They really found their stride in the second half of the season. And the way that [Mum] was set up, obviously, intrigued me right off the get-go.”

Ellis himself gets a laugh out of having to call Helfer “mum,” not only because she’s only four years older than he is, but also because he was a bit of a Helfer fan before she signed on to the series.

“I’m used to [calling Helfer ‘Mum’] now, but when she first came on board, I mean, I was a massive ‘Battlestar Galactica’ fan as well, and I used to have quite a crush on Tricia back in the day,” Ellis said in an interview with Empire.

He added that family was a major theme for “Lucifer’s” second season: “One of the reasons that our audience has bonded with the show is that there are themes and relationships that people recognize within, but they’re just represented by slightly larger-than-life characters. Everyone’s got a mom, everyone’s got a dad. It’s an interesting dynamic that that throws up — certainly the presence of Mum in the show; everyone is different around their mom. You know, behave differently and want to perhaps be perceived differently, and Lucifer’s no different.”

The family dynamic seems to be paying off so far this season, with critics leaving glowing reviews — at least compared to last season — for the first few episodes. And while the season 2 premiere didn’t fetch nearly as many viewers as its first-season counterpart, it still drew in more than seven million pairs of eyeballs and a 2.2/4 share in Live+DVR ratings. Through the first half of season 2, viewership numbers have remained respectable, staying on par with season 1’s numbers.

Thankfully for fans, there hasn’t been too much of a shakeup in the cast between seasons 1 and 2.

Aside from Kevin Rankin’s (“Dallas Buyers Club,” 2013) arc as Det. Malcolm Graham coming to an end in the first season’s finale, everyone else is back.

Kevin Alejandro (“True Blood”) returns as Det. Dan Espinoza, a homicide detective and Chloe’s exhusband, with whom he has a daughter, Trixie (Scarlett Estevez, “Daddy’s Home,” 2015), who likes Lucifer — much to the hellraiser’s dismay, as he’s not a fan of children. Lesley-Ann Brandt (“Single

Ladies”) stars as Lucifer’s ally and confidante, Maze, who is a demon herself and tries to protect Lucifer. Rachael Harris (“Suits”) rounds out the returning cast as Lucifer’s therapist, Dr. Linda Martin, and doesn’t actually believe that he is the devil, despite him admitting as much.

Helfer isn’t the only new face this year. “Dexter” star Aimee Gar cia jumps aboard the series as a forensic scientist, Ella Lopez, who works with both Chloe and Lucifer. Garcia is fresh off a stint with CBS’s television reboot of “Rush Hour,” and has some experience in the procedural drama realm, hav ing starred in NBC’s “Trauma,” which was canceled after one season.

Halfway through its sec ond season, “Lucifer” is showing no signs of slow ing down — and for good reason. From some new faces and a solid returning cast to some dysfunctional family drama, the series has viewers hooked. Catch a new episode of “Lucifer,” airing Mon day, Nov. 7, on Fox.

ACROSS

1 Honest __ (President Lincoln’s nickname)

39 Political position on CBS’ “Madam Secretary”: 3 wds.

45 Apple and lemon meringue

46 “It’s _ __ day out today, that’s for sure.”

...noted the umbrella-user

47 ‘Percent’ suffix

48 “__ cost you!”

49 Notes to follow Do: 2 wds.

50 Fuel on “Taxi”

51 Kind

52 Lead-in to ‘berry’ (Type of juice)

53 Where 2016 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton served as a Senator [acronym]

Down

1 __ Romeo (Sports car)

2 Beer, in Munich

3 Coverage on it will dominate the news on Tuesday, November 8th, 2016

4 “The Candidate” (1972) and “Wag the Dog” (1997)

5 Obsession, __ fixe

6 Mr. Puckett of the National Baseball Hall of Fame

7 Come to pass

8 Chess piece

9 Feminine suffix

10 Fruit cocktail ingredient

11 Job applicant’s ID

24 Suffix to ‘Honor’

26 “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the _-__”

27 Work to win the Presidency

28 Alphabetic trio

29 Magazine no.

33 “He & __” (Late-’60s comedy)

34 “All the President’s Men” (1976) star Mr. Hoffman

36 Joan __ __ (France’s heroine)

37 Trump __ (Building in the Big Apple for 2016 Presidential candidate Donald Trump)

39 “Spin __”

40 Self-__ book

41 “__ of Fury” (1936) starring Humphrey Bogart

42 Lettered disaster responder

43 Celebrity chef Bobby

44 Mr. Parker