This Netflix Hack Will Let You Catch Up on Long-Running Shows like ‘Lucifer’

There’s a helluva problem with the TV heaven we’re currently enjoying: there are too many good shows. Shows release whole seasons at once, requiring you to spend a day watching a dozen episodes–and then you have to go a year or more between installments! If your memory can keep track of all the TV drama while you watch new shows, old shows, weekly shows, and streaming shows an episode or a season at a time simultaneously, then you have a better mind than me. And since this job right here requires me to keep up with the flood of content (Netflix’s output alone would lift Noah’s Ark and carry it away), I have to come up with hacks just to stay on top of everything.

That was definitely the case with Lucifer, a show I’d only seen once when I half paid attention to the pilot screening at Comic Con yeeeears ago. But since Netflix saved the fan favorite show from the damnation of cancellation, I wanted to get up to speed before it returns for Season 4 this Wednesday. But how? For a newbie like me, this show comes carrying the burden of three seasons–and not truncated Netflix seasons, either. I’m talking network-length seasons! I had to somehow binge 57 episodes of twisty-turny supernatural crime while also watching the new episodes of the million other shows on right now (as well as Dharma & Greg on Hulu–BTW, Dharma & Greg is on Hulu!).

The solution to this devilish Lucifer problem? Just watch the “previously ons.”

Since Lucifer Seasons 1-3 originally aired in weekly installments on Fox, each episode mercifully comes with a 30-45 second recap of what you need to know. Since Netflix’s house is built on a foundation of binge, the streaming service offers up a “skip recap” option at the beginning of every episode.

Thanks but no thanks, Netflix! I ignored that button 57 times and instead got a master overview of what Lucifer is all about in advance of Season 4. With this method, I got a pretty comprehensive overview of the show’s major arcs and character dynamics, and it only took me around 35 minutes! Yep, a binge that would have taken me 41 hours was whittled down to just 35 minutes.

Here’s why this works: every “previously on” is edited for maximum clarity. The whole point is to get you up to speed on only what you need to know when you need to know it. The more a thing is repeated (for instance, Tricia Helfer’s sudden arrival as that character in Season 2) in a recap the more important it is. Plus that repetition, seeing Lucifer sell his abilities to Det. Chloe over and over again in a new recap every 30 seconds, makes it impossible to forget fundamental things like character motivation and the show’s premise. Whereas something like Lucifer’s vulnerability around Chloe may fly by in the midst of a sprawling wikipedia summary, I know it’s a big deal because I saw that reveal happen in a dozen or more recaps. This method easily outdoes a Wikipedia deep dive because you’re actually seeing footage from the show. You see how charismatic Tom Ellis is as Lucifer, which is something text on a screen just cannot capture. The same goes for every supporting character, too!

None of this is to shade the actual hard work a show like Lucifer did over the course of three years on Fox. Obviously you don’t get an idea of a show’s pace or overall vibe from watching a half hour of recaps. But in today’s world where so much TV vies for your attention, and with so much of that TV being heavily serialized, it can be really daunting to jump into a new show when there are so many old episodes. This method will get you on track and in the know anytime a show comes back for more–that is, if it’s a network show. Netflix originals often don’t do the episode-by-episode recap gig, or they pop up sporadically depending on whether or not Netflix can tell if you’re bingeing. Instead, Netflix does this before every new season of one of their originals. But really, its the network shows, with their 20+ episode seasons, that require this level of repetitive recapping. To this hack I give a hearty hallelujah–and now I’m ready for Lucifer Season 4.

Stream Lucifer on Netflix