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.
Series 3 reflects on the story of prior series to deliver strongly on themes of moral ambiguity as a team examines John Luther's past actions to the point that it interferes with the crises of the present. Although there is perhaps some correlation with the events of the first series the narrative is additive and it engages the audience.
Jaw dropping. The best series of the best show ever made. My only problem is that there isn't going to be another series. With a bit of luck, they'll listen to the fans and carry on making this excellent show.
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.
Simply put, these are four of the best hours of dramatic television that I have ever watched. Idris Elba continues to gow as an actor, and I see a great future for him on the big screen. Don't miss the final four episodes of Luther.
Just finished the series and all I'm left with is pure joy. The finale from this season was one of the most uplifting and clever episodes i saw in the history of TV. I'm not spoiling here but there will be the one and other surprise for the audience. The progression of this series is a huge one and fans from the first two series will not be disappointed! Go see this!
Luther is such a strange show to me as I am fully aware that if I was being really critical of it does have some quite big plot contrivances and it wears all its genre influences and tropes on its sleeve, but I just can't help loving it. It's so moody and full of grey morality and urban decay, in many ways the actual city of London is as much of a character as any of the cast in this show. Of course Idris excels again and whilst Ruth Wilson is a little missed this season the show is strong enough to not rely on her as a crutch. I guess my only real criticism is kind of on a meta level but it probably does rely a bit too much on the dead wife cliche and there is a definite fact of like half the women in Luther being either killed or in constant need of protection.
However it is still a shining example of how genre shows can very much excel within their box and, whilst I love fresh, off-kilter watches, there's something to be said about things that just execute their vision to a very high degree.
Not as strong as the first two seasons, with the first two episodes deviating from what made the first two seasons of Luther great by having a heavy focus on horror, which I found ineffective and at times, cheesy. However, the final two episodes, although still feeling different from the first two seasons, are still great in their own right and save this season.
Does the music and look of a show and its first season or so story and characters make up for a really weak, lazily written third season? I say no. I know Neil Cross is busy but this is lazy writing. When in doubt, kill someone. Make everything about Luther (a vigilante decides he's a serial killer who is really killing everyone Luther loves, that's the ticket) then, how farfetched can it get, have Luther arrested for having arranged for people to be in a position to be killed by someone he is chasing. Bizarre.