Luther - TV Series

Luther is a BBC drama series, currently four seasons long. Last aired in 2015, a fifth series is set to be released in 2018, and there is an American TV movie adaptation in the pre-production stages. It won a Golden Globe in 2012 for Idris Elba's performance in the title role. Elba is also the associate producer of the series.

Essentially, Luther is a crime drama/cop thriller. The show explores themes of morality, lawfulness, and justice in a world that never even pretends to be perfect or comfortable in any way.

This story visits some dark places, both literally and figuratively. Aside from pitting John Luther against occult practitioners and mentally disturbed killers, the show goes deep into the minds of many different character types and personalities. A recurring theme is the unique psychological conditions displayed in many of the criminal characters, and the twisted sense of logic and reasoning that they possess. There are similarities and parallels to be drawn to Sherlock, in that mind games and psychological sparring are commonplace.

Elba's character of John Luther is an interesting one. He has a strong sense of duty and always wants to do the right thing; however, his methods can be questionable. He goes to great and sometimes violent lengths to exact justice and fairness and to protect the guilty from an unfair law. For example, when a man is guilty of murdering the killer and abuser of his daughter, Luther advises him to destroy his own fingerprints in order to keep himself out of prison. It is this grey area between right and wrong that asks, what is really the right thing to do? In the process, these questions start to reveal that justice and morality may not be as black and white as we think.

It is these elements of psychology and moral judgement that make Luther so fascinating as a TV series. I am often blown away by how much entertaining material the BBC manages to create. Ultimately it comes down to the writing and the performance. While Idris Elba is one of the only big-name actors on the show, he is clearly not the only one with bags of acting skill. Every character is written well, is organic and believable, and even the most minor roles are delivered convincingly.

The plot can be predictable at times. You do sometimes reach a certain point in the episode and then just know what is coming next. Other times, you feel the same thing, but are then taken by surprise as an outcome plays out that you never would have thought possible. In that regard, there is an element of inconsistency, although in this context it's debatable as to whether or not this is a detriment to the show as a whole.

The production style has a very fast-paced, guerrilla-filmmaker feel to it. Filmed on location in London, parts of it have a very public, organic vibe, which adds to the realism and the drama. Handheld cameras and instinctive framing provides a sense of urgency at the critical moments. In contrast, the calmer stretches are usually much more tailored and streamlined, giving you space to think and get your bearings, just like the characters in the scene.

Luther is a show that isn't afraid to get its hands dirty. Instead of provoking thought about contentious issues, it prefers to present ugly situations in a way that seems hopeless, and then take you on a ride through what can be an equally ugly chain of events, all the way through to a resolution that (most of the time) you didn't see coming. The question you are left with, however, is "is everything really better now, or have the characters been left scarred?"