SummaryDetective Chief Inspector John Luther (Idris Elba) returns to work after being suspended in another case, but soon finds his personal and professional lives becoming precarious yet again.
SummaryDetective Chief Inspector John Luther (Idris Elba) returns to work after being suspended in another case, but soon finds his personal and professional lives becoming precarious yet again.
Thanks partly to the writing, but mostly to Elba's performance, Luther rarely comes off as one of those swaggering CBS crime-show smarty-pantses, dumping wisdom on subordinates--and that's good, because even at its sharpest, Luther feels a bit too CBS for my taste.
The journey has been fascinating, and unlike in some other cop shows, the police part isn’t toss-away boilerplate. While the cases aren’t as complex as the characters, they’ve got layers.
As was the case with the second season, Season 3 of Luther is only four hours long, and the drama would probably be more satisfying if it didn't try to cover so many bases in that limited running time.
When so much of the series depends on psychological nuance, the lurch into Hollywood action thriller confrontations is an outright admission of defeat. Sensationalism trumps subtlety once more. Both Luther and Idris Elba deserve so much more.