Luther is a British BBC crime drama TV series, starring Idris Elba as a
near-genius murder detective whose brilliant mind can't always save him from the
dangerous violence of his passions.
John Luther is a maverick detective working for London's Serious Crime Unit
in this gripping, intelligent and hard hitting drama. Luther is a dedicated
policeman, an inspired maker of connections and a whirlwind genious. He is
dazzling, obsessive and sometimes dangerous in the violence of his
fixations.
This boxed set features all three explosive series which sees Idris Elba play
the lead role superbly and features an excellent supporting cast, including Ruth
Wilson, Warren Brown and Steven Mackintosh.
Awards for series
- Won Royal Television Society UK Award, Best Drama Series (2012)
- Nominated for Satellite Award, Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for
Television (2012)
- Nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for: Outstanding Miniseries or Movie,
Outstanding Directing, Outstanding writing (2012)
- Won Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Television Episode Teleplay (2011)
- Nominated for Image Award, Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or
Dramatic Special (2012 & 2011)
- Won Vision Award, Drama (2011)
- Won Golden Globe Award, Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series/TV
Film, Idris Elba (2012)
- Won Image Award, Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or
Dramatic Special Idris Elba (2011)
- Won Black Reel Award, Outstanding Television or Mini-Series Performance
Idris Elba (2012)
Luther TV Show Review
"The initial premise of Luther was almost amusingly conventional: a
detective is great at his job, but struggles with quite a few issues in his
personal life? And he has a different case to solve every week? We've only seen
that show a few thousand times at this point. However, the first season of
Luther quickly established a number of elements that permitted it to stand out
as its own beast. First and foremost was the relationship between Luther and
devilish killer Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson, The Prisoner), which offered an
entertaining variation on the Hannibal Lecter/Clarice Starling dynamic. Despite
their obvious differences of opinion on the law and, y'know, whether it's cool
to just kill people, the fact that the two understand each other is often enough
to outweigh all of that. It's an unlikely relationship which is nearly
impossible to believe at times, but Elba and Wilson make it work.
The second big thing—something which accentuated to an even greater
degree in Luther 2—is the fact that this show is flat-out crazy. Luther is
fearless when it comes to its willingness to look ridiculous, and many subplots
on the show have a tendency to leap from zero to one hundred at any given
moment. There's a scene in this season in which Luther walks into a room, is
grabbed by a thug and has his hand nailed to a table. His hand gets nailed to a
table. This isn't the finale of an episode or even its climactic moment,
it's just something that happens. In fact, after Luther's hand is nailed to
the table, the man simply carries on a conversation as if nothing has happened.
That's the way Luther works. His showdowns with villains don't involve two guys
pointing guns at each other; they involve Luther covering himself in gasoline,
handing the bad guy (decked out in explosives, I might add) a lighter and
playing a dice game for his life. This is the kind of show which has absolutely
no qualms about putting a bus filled with doe-eyed school children in severe
danger for the sake of raising the emotional stakes.
Elba sells all of this wildness with steely conviction and considerable
charisma; beautifully capturing the unstable blend of heartbreak and rage
swirling beneath the surface of slick professionalism. Zoe's death seems to
have instilled in him a new level of fearlessness, and the title character
storms through these mysteries with such reckless abandon that we fear he might
just get himself killed at any moment (this is British television, after all).
His scenes with Wilson remain a highlight (and even more Hannibal n' Clarice
than ever, considering that Alice begins this season behind bars), but her
strangely stabilizing presence goes AWOL for the back half of this ultra-lean,
gritty season (a mere four episodes, as opposed to the six offered in season
one), leaving Luther careening out of control. There are certainly moments in
which the show seems flat-out silly, but the sheer “did they really just do
that?” factor adds a level of entertainment which more than compensates for
the missteps. The quality of the performances ensures that you care about the
characters, and the show's eager willingness to have its assorted players shot,
stabbed or blown up leaves your nerves frazzled as you wait for
Luther's violent chess games to play out.
One major improvement between this season and the last: the done-in-one
plots have been substituted with more protracted cases, giving Luther 2 the
feeling of being a proper miniseries rather than just a collection of episodes.
The first two episodes focus on the masked killer, the latter two episodes focus
on the role playing killer, and Luther's attempts to aid a troubled young woman
(along with a handful of other, smaller subplots) take the entire season to
resolve. As a result, the show feels bigger, more cinematic and the inevitable
showdowns manage to achieve a greater weight than before.
Both seasons of Luther have concluded with the same line of dialogue:
“So now what?” As was the case at the conclusion of the first season,
I have no idea where this show is going next. However, I'm really looking
forward to finding out. This is immensely entertaining television." DVD
Verdict (reviewing season 2)
