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LUTHER, 2.2: beware the bogeyman

Well, that was a harrowing hour, taking episode 1's setup to the next level after the kidnapping and torture of DS Ripley (Warren Brown) by masked weirdo Cameron Pell (Lee Ingleby) in a sewer, as Luther's (Idris Elba) team desperately tried to locate their colleague while starving Pell of the oxygen he craves: attention.

A scene where Pell rang the police department and Luther chose to ignore him, against usual procedure for negotiation, was a particularly effective and tense moment. Luther's the kind of character whose insight into the scum of the earth vacillates between plausible (the handling of said phone call) and ludicrous (his deduction that Pell's purchase of bomb-making material is to cause an implosion), but somehow Idris Elba makes it all work. John Luther's a larger-than-life character, which is exactly what a show like Luther needs as its beating heart. It's probably why ITV's Whitechapel struggles at times, because it's arguably dafter but involves characters who are too everyday.

Everything involving Cameron Pell worked very well in this episode, buoyed by Ingleby's alert performance as the deranged wannabe-legend who hides behind his Punch mask in order to carry out his crimes, and is obsessed with loss and emptiness. It was a stretch for Pell's m.o to go from brutally murdering women to kidnapping a school bus of children and arranging to have them asphyxiated with van exhaust fumes, but there you go. Luther's not going to win any prizes from crime psychologists about its verisimilitude, but the way it goes about its business is relentlessly gripping. Strictly as entertainment with pulp comic-book influences, it's tough to beat.

Less successful was how the episode tried to weave a disconnected subplot through the story, with Luther dealing with the repercussion of "freeing" teenager Jenny Jones (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) from life as a sex worker and porn star. This arrived in the form of Jenny's redoubtable "boss" Baba (Pam Ferris) and her creepy son Toby (David Dawson), who tried to persuade Luther to give Jenny back by nailing his hand to a table. Given the pressure and race-against-time nature of the Pell case with Ripley's life on the line, it just felt strange that Luther would occasionally drop out of the storyline and attach himself to another one—using Mark (Paul McGann) to help him ensure Jenny's escape from her seedy past. It's understandable to include some respite from the main story, but I'm not sure this was the best way to go about it. That said, The Darling Buds Of May's Pam Ferris as a matriarchal underground porn baroness? Genius.

There continues to be wonderful production value to this show, too. London has never looked better in a drama; the show combining its architectural beauty with centuries of grubbiness, often soaked in the amber yellow of street lights. This episode's use of crumbling buildings and the abandoned docklands, with their shell-like warehouses, was particularly evocative and fit the idea that Pell's obsessed with decay and bareness.

I also like how Luther overcomes a common problem facing all BBC drama, in sustaining a story for an hour without it feeling voluminous. In most BBC shows there's 15-minutes of flab to every episode, but Luther has enough irons in the fire to keep each episode full. Here, the last 10-minutes were almost entirely taken up with another appearance from serial-killer Alice (Ruth Wilson), likening herself to Looney Tunes' Road Runner ("meep meep"), who's escaped from hospital and arrived to try and tempt Luther into eloping with her overseas. I'm intrigued to see where Alice's story is headed, as she feels like a character who belonged more in series 1, but proved so popular that she was brought back.

Overall, episode 2 was a good resolution of the Cameron Pell storyline, let down by subplots that felt a little misplaced and deserving of a full hour to themselves. I understand why they were there, and each contained some memorable moments, but because we only have four hours this year I think I'd prefer less distraction.

Asides

The song played over the end credits is this track by Joan As Police Woman called "Flash".
5.23m people watched this episode, down 370,00 from last week's premiere. A drop's always expected, but that's small enough to not really matter.
How does Jenny do her make-up in the morning? It looks like she smears a boxing glove in eye shadow and just punches herself for awhile.
I like the feeling Luther's a father figure to many people (his team, Jenny, in some ways Alice), and this episode's villain Pell was ultimately defeated the same way a parent would calm a toddler having a tantrum. Ignore them.

written by Neil Cross / directed by Sam Miller / 21 June 2011 / BBC One

Next time...

TV Ratings: LUTHER, series 2 premiere (BBC1)

BBC1's gritty crime drama Luther returned for a four-part second series last night (reviewed here), attracting an impressive 5.6 million viewers (25.2% of the audience), which matched its premiere's numbers from last summer.

This is particularly good because Luther's first series lost viewers over its six-week run, so perhaps this is a sign audiences have changed their mind about the show? Or are people just willing to give it a second chance? It probably didn't hurt that there was no real competition in the 9pm hour, with Luther easily winning its timeslot against ITV1's Baby Hospital (2.62m), BBC2's The Country House Revealed (1.42m), Channel 4's The Fairy Jobmother (1.26m), and Channel 5's CSI (908k).

Considering the premiere's effective shock-ending, I expect next week's episode to retain the majority of those 5.6m viewers. Ratings tend to slip after much-publicized premiere, but it'll be interesting to see what happens. The number may stabilize, if those catching up on iPlayer this week are inspired to watch episode 2 live next Tuesday. It's not like there are adverts to escape, is it.

If Luther maintains this level of ratings success, I suspect the BBC will soon be asking Idris Elba to return for a third series—provided he can fit it into his busy schedule! The actor's currently in contention to star in Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim movie, amongst other things. It helps that, by all accounts, Elba seems to like mixing American work with British, so I hope he'll make himself available. I'd be happy with occasional feature-length specials, if all else fails.

Review: LUTHER, 2.1: that's the way to do it!

Luther split audiences when it aired last summer, but I quickly warmed to this detective drama's heightened reality and desire to have ghoulish fun within a normally staid genre. In some ways it's even more joyously absurd than the modernized Sherlock, which debuted around the same time. Luther doesn't exist to be an accurate portrayal of modern-day policing, it exists to entertain its audience like a pulp airport novel. It has its ludicrous moments (that aren't always intentional), but they're kept oddly plausible thanks to Idris Elba's magnetic, brooding, swaggering performance as the eponymous lawman. If you treat Luther as you would a live-action graphic novel (the opening titles are animated almost as a nudge to the ribs*), then it's a great deal of outrageous fun in a genre that's often very po-faced and dreary.

It's been a year since the climactic events of series 1, where Luther's estranged wife Zoe was murdered by "dirty cop" Ian Reed, who was himself later killed by Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson), a charming sociopath Luther developed a bizarre connection with after she got away with murdering her parents. Since then, Alice has been arrested and detained in a psychiatric hospital for evaluation; Luther's only recently returned to work to investigate cold cases, thanks to the support of his former inquisitor Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley); "rising star" DS Ripley's (Warren Brown) been demoted to a uniformed job for his part in the mess; and Luther's developed an unexpected bond with his late-wife's boyfriend Mark North (Paul McGann), whom he now plays chess with. The latter was a very surprising development, and feels like it was the only way to keep McGann involved in the series, but we'll see how it plays out. I'm predicting Mark and Alice will be the angel and demons perched on Luther's shoulders over the remaining episodes.

This opening two-part story was another of the show's brazen crime stories, involving a violent maniac called Cameron Pell (Life On Mars' Lee Ingleby) who wears a creepy Mr Punch mask as he brutally kills women. Luther was quickly offered a job on the new Serious & Serial Unit by Schenk, and was quick to deduce that the perpetrator has a fascination with folklore and mythology, intending to become exalted as a modern-day myth through his crimes. In a small subplot, Luther met Caroline Jones (Kierston Wareing), the wife of a criminal who was caught by Luther, who blames Luther for how her family was subsequently torn apart. In particular, her daughter Jenny (Aimee Ffion Edwards) is on the brink of being lost to the seedy world of gonzo pornography, and Luther's guilty enough to ensure that doesn't happen. Throw in DS Erin Gray (Survivors' Nikki Amuka-Bird), an ambitious woman who's part of Luther's new team but refuses to risk her career in the same way DS Ripley did, and you have enough ingredients for something that feels refreshed but hasn't strayed far from what was enjoyable about series 1.

The actual storyline was pretty thin, mainly because Luther doesn’t always take the typical approach to detective dramas by keeping the week's criminal a secret. Mr Punch wasn't an inscrutable killer to be exposed, he was a known boogieman to capture. That means the show isn't so focused on detective work, but more on cat-and-mouse thrills: like Luther nearly catching Pell, only to have a can of mace spray emptied into his face; or Pell taunting the authorities by filming a random doorstep attack and streaming it on the internet.

Plus there's the Silence Of The Lambs gender-reversal of Luther and Alice's abnormal relationship. Ruth Wilson is absolutely fantastic fun as the pouting serial killer (resembling an evil schoolgirl, as drawn by Quentin Blake), and arguably even more unnerving now Alice is under lock and key. It's here that Luther showed its hand as a televised pulp crime novel, as it's so clearly removed from reality and instead edging towards an urban mythology. Luther (his name not dissimilar to Lucifer) is a good man with streak of vigilantism coursing through his veins (signified by his red tie?), and bewitched by the devilish Alice Morgan—so much so that he's helping her escape from the asylum by tossing a half-eaten apple into the facility's garden that contains a tool to aide a breakout. Apple, garden... ring any bells?

Overall, this opening hour (of a truncated four-part series, telling two stories) was exactly the kind of muscularly told and deliciously silly cop drama we've come to expect from Luther. If you value realism above all else in this genre, you may spend most episodes gnashing your teeth in frustration—particularly because the tone feels intended to convince you Luther's gritty and accurate. But it's clearly not. It's an adult comic strip with Idris Elba as the brooding nucleus keeping everything from spinning apart, and if you accept that ambition it's crazy fun. It's Hellblazer-meets-Millennium-meets-Prime Suspect.

written by Neil Cross / directed by Sam Miller / 14 June 2011 / BBC One

Next time...

* Not to mention the fact the BBC have released this tie-in comic.

Trailer: LUTHER, series 2 (BBC1)

Hell is empty... and all the devils are here...

The BBC have released a full trailer for series 2 of LUTHER, which I've handily embedded above. It's a really effective and atmospheric tease of what's to come. I've actually seen the first episode already and can assure fans the show's back in fine style. As you can perhaps tell from the tone of the trailer, its weird imagery, humming soundtrack, and spine-tingling voice-over, Luther appears to have decided what it wants to be. If you share its heightened mindset, you're going to have some grisly fun very soon...

Luther returns to BBC1 on Tuesday 14 June for 2 two-part stories.

Trailer: 'Luther' (BBC1)

The BBC have released a short promotion for Luther, which returns for its second series in the near-future. It's a rather tedious and obvious piece of marketing, showing Idris Elba demolishing his office in snapshots played backwards. The BBC seem to love promo's that involve reverse-photography and slow-motion, don't they? Sadly, there's no actual footage from the new series, which will also see the return of Ruth Wilson as serial-killer confidant Alice Morgan, so this is just an alert that Luther will soon be back for two 2-hour episodes.

Opinion here was very mixed about the first series. It took me a few episodes to buy into the show's curious tone and direction, but once I did I found it great fun and, for a few episodes, very exciting. I wasn't a lone voice, but many people disagreed with me. Luther felt like it was better received in the US, where it aired on BBC America -- perhaps because of exoticism? I tend to think quite a few British shows "click" with American critics because their DNA is so different to that of US shows, in ways the UK audience don't care about or notice.

'Luther' returns in 2011

BBC1 Controller Jay Hunt confirmed at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that cop show Luther will return in 2011 with two two-hour specials. I assume the reduction in episodes from six to four hours (telling just two stories) is because Idris Elba's a busy actor with a tight schedule to work around. I know the series didn't connect with everyone, but I personally found it enjoyably daft and surprisingly gripping towards the end, so I'm glad we'll be seeing more.

'LUTHER' 1.6

WRITER: Neil Cross
DIRECTOR: Stefan Schwartz
GUEST CAST: Ruth Wilson, Steven Mackintosh, Indira Varma, Paul McGann, Saskia Reeves, Warren Brown, Dermot Crowley & Matthew Marsh

[SPOILERS] Luther's finale was as overblown and insane as we've come to expect from this series, feeling more like an episode of Spooks (which writer Neil Cross wrote for) than a cop show. The way this show has embraced its genre's clichés, then sutured them to crazy storylines and characters has been a lure for me, simply because there are plenty of American shows that put free-wheeling entertainment above somber realism, so why sneer when a British show attempts to do the same?

That said, this conclusion to last week's story suffered from the lack of a story you could truly believe in. Instead it was an hour of wild set-pieces (some better than others), building towards a climax that was great fun but rather silly in the harsh light of day. Picking up from episode 5, Luther (Idris Elba) found himself framed for the murder of his wife by partner Reed (Steven Mackintosh) and forced to go on the run, turning to serial-killer Alice (Ruth Wilson) for help proving his innocence. To do this, cop-n'-killer first had to prevent a gun (the retrieved "murder weapon" Reed had plied with Luther's fingerprints) arriving at a lab for forensic tests, before bringing Zoe's grieving boyfriend Mark (Paul McGann) into their confidence with a plan to expose Reed's crimes with the stolen diamonds.

Meanwhile, SCU's workforce were in shock that Luther's apparently cracked and his psychosis is making him blame Reed for Zoe's death, with Teller (Saskia Reeves) angry for ever letting the troubled Luther return to work. And throughout the unit's attempts to find and arrest Luther, Reed had to try and keep his composure to convinced everyone that he's the innocent party, while receiving taunting calls from Luther who was determined to ensure the truth came out. Fortunately, inside help later came from Ripley (Warren Brown), who started noticing discrepancies at the crime scene to made him doubt Luther's guilt.

Credit where it's due, I never thought Luther's finale would resemble this back when the first episode debuted. The show has twisted and contorted very nicely over six weeks; retaining the clichés that caused eye-rolls and head-slaps early on, but rising above it through pure force of will, some good performances, and uniqueness in a crowded genre. Luther's odd friendship with the deliciously creepy Alice doesn't make much rational sense, but it's pulp comic-book fun that's been very enjoyable to see develop, and having them join forces as a Bonnie & Clyde-esque duo was satisfying. The Luther/Reed antagonism also played very well, with Steve Mackintosh giving a convincing performance as a good-cop-turned-bad to save his own skin. But I can't help thinking it's a shame earlier episodes didn't do a tidier job making the Luther/Reed partnership something prominent and involving, so his betrayal would hit harder emotionally, but that's perhaps to be expected with a brief six-part drama throwing so many balls in the air.

Overall, it all ended with mad dash after Mark had stolen Reed's diamonds from his locker, resulting in Luther once again having a life-or-death decision (a not entirely successful echo of his dilemma with the child-killer in the premiere), before being knifed when he let his guard slip, allowing crazy Alice to satisfy her bloodlust by blasting Reed in the chest with a shotgun. A moment almost cheered on by Mark; the inference being that Luther has learned to control his temper and emotions (knowing the damage they can cause), whereas Mark's first taste of life's horrors has turned him into someone who allows vigilante justice. And with that we leave the injured Luther shuffling away from the crime scene, hopefully to return in a second series.

I know this show remains divisive, but was its unruly temperament and knowing silliness enough to counteract its flaws, or was this just a soulless cop show turned into a gritty pantomime?

8 JUNE 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

'LUTHER' 1.5

WRITER: Neil Cross
DIRECTOR: Stefan Schwartz
GUEST CAST: Michael Smiley, Alexander Morton, Graham Turner, Thomas Lockyer, Donatienne Dupont, Ross McCall, Lee Wynter & Ania Sowinski

[SPOILERS] A marvelously entertaining and shocking hour from this dark, bonkers detective drama, with enough brio to power London for a week. There were still daft moments (not least the diminishing returns of psycho Alice in a church), but overall it felt like writer Neil Cross is starting to find the right balance between taut, efficient detective drama and heightened, grisly melodrama.

This week, an American thief called Daniel Sugarman (Ross McCall) took art dealer James Carrodus (Thomas Lockyer) and his wife Jessica (Donatienne Dupont) hostage in their home, demanding the handover of expensive diamonds. James refused to give into Sugarman's demand, resulting in the removal of his wife's tongue and freedom to acquire the jewels or condemn his spouse to a nasty death should he fail to deliver the goods. Naturally, a desperate James turned to the police for help, and Luther (Idris Elba) tried to find a way to catch Sugarman and save Jessica's life -- all without actually handing over the diamonds, as they'd been swallowed by Jessica and Sugarman wouldn't be above gutting her for the loot.

Adding a level of complexity was Luther's partner DCI Ian Reed (Steven Mackintosh), who was aware the Carrodus robbery was going to happen, having negotiated a percentage of the takings via underworld contact Bill (Alexander Morton). Reed didn't realize the situation would become a blood-stained hostage crisis, so spent the episode trying to distance himself from the mess by furtively eliminating those who could link him to events. Racked with nerves, a fear of losing his job, and the possibility that his outing as a "bent cop" might give all the criminals he's ever arrested a reason to contest their imprisonment, Reed's compose quickly vanished and he started taking increasingly desperate measures to protect his secret. This led to him strangling Bill, shooting Sugarman dead during Luther's arrest, and taking Luther's wife Zoe (Indira Varma) hostage in an attempt to get Luther to hear his side of the story, then half-accidentally shooting her dead and tampering with the murder scene to frame Luther when he arrived home to find her.

It was a real maelstrom of excitement and tension, certainly the series' most compelling episode so far, and a great lead-in to next week's finale. There were still plenty of silly moments and unconvincing distractions (did we really need to have Luther discussing "Paradise Lost" with Alice (Ruth Wilson)?), but the core storyline was very engrossing and the final act's events felt like a grenade going off. I still wish the series had a core of seriousness that felt realistic, but can't deny that Luther's mix of clichéd cop show with sub-Thomas Harris intrigues is an appetizing, sometimes nonsensical dish. Idris Elba's fierce determination to keep things grounded doesn't always work, and I'm not always sold on his flinty performance, but the way he tugs against Neil Cross's scripts is part of the joy.

Overall, I still appreciate why some people dislike Luther, but it's turning in weekly hours of grand guignol crime-based horror and procedural clichés that have coalesced into a surprisingly potent, enjoyable TV series. It's certainly the first homegrown detective show I can remember actually wanting to tune into for many years.

1 JUNE 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

LUTHER 1.4

WRITER: Neil Cross
DIRECTOR: Sam Miller
GUEST CAST: Warren Brown, Dermot Crowley, Rob Jarvis, Linda Walker, Anton Saunders, Michael Smiley, Johann Meyer, Stacey Sampson, Okorie Chukwu & Matti Houghton

[SPOILERS] A more typical crime investigation this week, with a killer who wasn't close to anything like a femme fatale getting away with familicide or a creepy "vampire", but instead an everyday husband (Rob Jarvis) with a handbag fetish whose marriage has staled and provoked him into posing as a taxi driver to befriend stray women and kill them. It wasn't a great story in terms of developing Luther's (Idris Elba) character, who was anchored to the office for most of it, but it was less reliant on silly deductive leaps to drive the plot forward and it had more credibility because of that.

The supporting storyline with Alice (Ruth Wilson) continued quite nicely, although I'm not sold on the idea she's Luther's kindred spirit he can't resist giving face-time to. He's indulging her far too much, and it's getting ridiculous, but there is something inherently enjoyable about such a devious character taking a special interest in the only person (a detective, no less) who "gets" her.

Here, Alice infiltrated the hospital where the paedophile Luther let fall to his near-death has awoken from a coma and is muttering Luther's name over and over, choosing to help her "friend" by evacuating the building and suffocating him in his bed to keep Luther's career safe. A surprising move, given how I expected the comatose child-killer to wake up in the finale, and certainly not be eliminated so early. It would seem Luther's got away with severe malpractice (thanks to Alice's unwanted help), but I predict he'll decide to come clean about what happened to exorcise his personal demons.

The main story was routine and unoriginal (the kind of thing any number of detective drama have tackled before), but it was told well and there was great acting from Linda Walker as the wife whose affair with another man (Johann Meyers) tipped her impotent husband Graham over the edge. The scene where she was intentionally left alone in an interview room with the case-file on the murders Graham's committed, unable to resist sneaking a look at the horrors contained within, was particularly well done. Although I still don't understand why that tactic was necessary on Luther's part; wouldn't she have been as cooperative if you'd just told her what other half's been doing at night?

The climax of this episode was ghoulish fun, essentially turning the episode into a horror movie; Graham beating his wife's lover to death with a hammer, calling an escort girl to the house to kill her, only for the cops to warn the call girl and have her hide in the bathroom, which Graham proceeded to smash down in a full-on homage to The Shining. Much to enjoy, but the episode's unexceptional premise, lack of insight into Luther himself, and the increasingly ridiculous Luther/Alice dynamic, made it less interesting overall.

Aside

Luther sometimes tries to crack cases by mixing up crime scene photos on the office floor, out of order, as David Bowie does with song lyrics. Later, it's revealed that Alice has heterochromia (mismatched eye colour), as does Bowie. I'm not sure what that's trying to say, but it can't have been coincidence.

25 MAY 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

LUTHER 1.3

WRITER: Neil Cross
DIRECTOR: Sam Miller
GUEST CAST: Ruth Wilson, Steven Mackintosh, Indira Varma, Paul McGann, Saskia Reeves, Warren Brow, Dermot Crowley, Paul Rhys, Catherine Hamilton, Andrew Tiernan, Michael Smiley & Mark Redguard

[SPOILERS] A man called Lucien Burgess (Paul Rhys) posed as a detective to gain access to a house, kidnapped the residence's babysitter after licking her face, daubed the walls with occult ramblings written in the blood of a previous victim, locked his current quarry in a refrigerator, and regularly drained her blood to drink. Well, what did you expect from a man called Lucien?

Once again, I'm not ashamed to admit I found this very entertaining for all its arch silliness. Luther may be littered with clichés, but it's still unlike any other detective drama on TV right now. It's a partly-serialized gender-reversal on the Hannibal Lecter/Clarice Starling relationship, with Luther (Idris Elba) getting "takes one to know one" advice from serial-killer Alice (Ruth Wilson) on this week's Satanist, while also contending with Alice's mind-games when she had his wife's boyfriend happy-slapped by a gang of girls. Strangely, Alice apparently did it to reunite him with his estranged wife (Indira Varma) -- a plan Luther dismisses as unlikely to succeed, but is proven wrong when he's smooching Zoe by the episode's end.

Luther isn't much of a mystery show, as the audience know who the culprits are very early, and Luther's not far behind. This week, it wasn't difficult for the SCU team to match the kidnapper's m.o to Lucien, who was revealed to be a notorious killer who got away with the same murder a decade ago because the police botched an undercover operation into his activities that gave him a legal escape route. Now an infamous cult hero, Lucien runs a shop selling controversial crime-related paraphernalia (like signed prison letters from the Yorkshire Ripper to his female admirers), so the episode was again more focused on how Luther will make Lucien slip-up. And yes, Luther employed laughable means to confirm his theory that Lucien was the felon, by spotting he's naturally left-handed.

It was another broadly-told story, and there's certainly some discomfort in the fact Luther treats its serial-killers as pantomime-esque boo-hiss villains. There was little exploration of Lucien as a three-dimensional personality (he was just an icy creep who wanted respect), and absolutely nothing about how his victim's family are coping with this nightmare. Luther is a very simplifying show, really. It's Ridley Scott's Hannibal when it should be Jonathan Demme's Silence Of The Lambs. But if you enjoy your crime drama with a thick streak of dumb entertainment and an almost comic-book temperament (even the opening titles are like an animated graphic novel), Luther can still be enjoyed on that base level.

Overall, I'm still enjoying this series more than my head says I should be. Idris Elba's a watchable lead, I relish Rush Wilson turning up with her quivering lips, Paul Rhys (playing his second vampire this year after Being Human) made for a chilling villain, and there were a few scenes that surprised me (the best being the moment Luther found Lucien's "kill room" and dead babysitter, but had to pretend he didn't because protocol was ignored and his actions would be a loophole for Lucien to go free during a trial.)

Are you warming to it, or is it too silly for your taste?

18 MAY 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

LUTHER 1.2

WRITER: Neil Cross
DIRECTOR: Brian Kirk
GUEST CAST: Ruth Wilson, Sean Pertwee, Sam Spruell, Anton Saunders, Matthew Marsh, Geoffrey Lumb, Diveen Henry, Gary Shelford & Louise Rose

[SPOILERS] It's silly, but I like it. The twaddle in Luther isn't exasperating to me, because it's just written with a slight disregard for logic and desire to deliver something different. It mixes the ridiculous with cliché to create something that looks and feels like an everyday cop drama, but refuses to be as boring as that implies.

In episode 2, Luther (Idris Elba) and the Serious Crimes Unit are after a gunman who's shooting cops in cold blood on the streets of London. Having exposed a killer by their inability to yawn last week, here Luther realizes the killer has a military background because he walks with confidence on CCTV footage. Heaven help if you scratch your groin, Luther will probably determine you're a sex pest.

I don't have a lot to say about the finer workings of Luther, because there isn't any. It's just an entertaining ramble of provocative events. The story opens with Luther standing on the precipice of a rooftop like Batman, symbolizing he's a "man on the edge." Get it? The shooter, Owen Lynch (Sam Spruell) plays sniper with a bunch of cops who arrive at a crime scene to investigate the death of a colleague. Sean Pertwee is revealed as the shooter's jailbird dad Terry, blackmailed into helping Luther when he threatens to plant child porn in his cell. The climax involves a tense game of Russian Roulette between Luther and Owen. All fun stuff.

It's also unusual that last week's storyline with femme fatale Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) isn't over, as she lurks on the edge of this story because she's started her own investigation into Luther's actions when apprehending a child killer who fell from a gantry and into a coma. Wilson's fantastic value as a devious genius, treating her mind-games as a kind of flirtation with Luther, even claiming their "friends" when her investigation into Luther's wife Zoe (Indira Varma) concludes. And she has a peculiar, froggy mouth that's oddly inviting.

Overall, I like the idea of a detective who tries to psychologically manipulate villains into making mistakes, the show looks good visually, the simple story kept my interest, there were a few memorable scenes, and Elba and Wilson are putting in an effort with stereotyped characters. It's nowhere near as well-written and clever as this material needs to be for it to fly, the supporting characters are all very weak, and it's shot through with silliness (made worse because that's clearly not intended), but Luther's still a surprisingly likeable hour of drama. It may be dumb, but at least it's not dull.

Asides

Cliché watch: Ex-soldier Owen will only gives his name, rank and number when interviewed by the police. Luther standing on the edge of a rooftop overlooking the city (see also: Captain Jack in Torchwood), although Luther at least had a psychological reason. Any more?
How odd is Saskia Reeves' cockney accent? Worse than that, her character's a very ineffective boss. Indeed, everyone at SCU appear to be lobotomized and just chasing Luther's shirttails. The serious crime rate must have skyrocketed when Luther was off duty. I hope he doesn't take many holidays.

11 MAY 2010: BBC1/HD, 9PM

LUTHER 1.1

Over at Obsessed With Film, my review of BBC1's new detective drama LUTHER, starring The Wire's Idris Elba.

"Unquestionably, Luther has nothing new to offer its overworked genre as a detective series featuring a "maverick" who's "battling personal demons" and is considered a "wild card" by his colleagues. We've seen it before, and we've seen it done better. But for all that, there was a screwy conviction to some of its performances and enough peculiar creative decisions that made the hour slip by rather smoothly." Continue reading...

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