On Air Luther (Series 5) [BBC]

[Groo The Perverted]

NOTE: This series has wrapped production on Season 2, and will be airing sometime in the coming year.

The Wire actor Idris Elba is to star in a new BBC1 crime drama, Luther, about a detective who is "simmering with anger and rage".

London-born Elba, who played the drug dealer Stringer Bell in the acclaimed Baltimore crime drama, will play the title role of John Luther in the new six-part BBC1 drama.

The series will take the crime genre and turn it on its head, according to the BBC, with viewers knowing the identity of the murderer from the start of each episode in a bid to focus the drama on the "psychic duel between hunter and quarry, who sometimes have more in common than either would like to think".

Elba said: "He's a challenging and exciting character because he's so complex. While he's capable of great kindness and loyalty, sometimes he steps over the edge of madness – simmering with anger and rage."

Elba previously complained in a Guardian interview in May about the lack of roles on British TV for black actors, saying he had to go to Hollywood to get his break. "Unlike here, in the US there are lead roles for black actors … I realised that if I wanted to be all I could be, I would have to go to the US," he said.

The drama is being written by the suspense novelist Neil Cross, who was the lead writer on Spooks for the last two series, and it will be made in-house by the BBC. Filming begins this autumn for transmission next year.

"It's an intense psychological thriller which examines not only human depravity but the complex nature of love … and how it's often this – our finest attribute – that leads us into darkness," said Cross.

---------- Post added at 10:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 PM ----------

I just finished watching this series yesterday, and it was really good. Partly a run of the mill procedural, with a few alterations.

First and foremost, the M.O. of these shows is flipped, by having you know who the killer is from the opening of the show.

And also, the extreme unpredictability of the lead, Idris Elba, as a detective who is simply unable to control the rage inside him, even when he KNOWS he is being exploited or used.

Below is my review of the show, on my blog. I've included a snippet, and then if you want you can read the rest on my blog.

http://www.searchingforchetbaker.com/2011/04/review-luther-season-1.html

As I was watching it I was thinking that there was something about it that intrigued me, although I wasn't sure why, and then somewhere around the midway mark of the six episode series, I realized what it was. On the surface this was a standard police crime show. You have all the markings of a by the books series. The cop who's back off suspension over questionable tactics in pursuing a criminal, his marriage has fallen apart, he's partnered up with a new rookie cop, his boss is understanding and putting her job on the line to support him, etc, etc. The one departure from most shows, is that you know from the jump who the killer is, with the remaining part of the show depicting the cat and mouse action between the killer and Luther.

However, where it departs from that, at least for me, and what makes this truly engrossing and not exactly the same cookie cutter show, is in the roles of John Luther, and Alice Morgan. Both of these characters are extremely volatile and unpredictable, respectively. Luther has this rage bubbling just below the surface and he is absolutely unable to control it. Even when he seems that he knows very well that he's being baited, he still jumps at the bait.

Case in point, when his wife, the lovely and talented Indira Varma (Human Target, Hustle) and declared that it's over, despite having a two day fling, and that she's going back to her new boyfriend, Luther knows that she came to his job to deliver the news, specifically because it was viewed as a "safe place" for her. He even mentions this, and notes that there was less chance of a violent outburst from him. Considering he exploded and trashed her house earlier in the series when she explained she had found someone else, that was a smart plan.

Even though he knew that she did this for that reason, even though he knew he was in a police station and was surrounded by his co-workers and bosses, he still erupted in rage, and trashed his office and smashed a window. He can't help it, and he can not control it, no matter how hard he tries. This is what makes him such an interesting person, and what makes the show more than a predictable by the books procedural.

SEASON 1 TRAILER

​

 

[jefXfree]

IDK if I could watch this... I HATED him in the office.

 

[Groo The Perverted]

IDK if I could watch this... I HATED him in the office.

Never watched the office, but this is a straight performance. Not much humor to him. Did you ever see The Wire? He played Stringer Bell there. Or on American Gangster. Those would probably give you more of a reference point than The Office.

 

[jefXfree]

Never watched the office, but this is a straight performance. Not much humor to him. Did you ever see The Wire? He played Stringer Bell there. Or on American Gangster. Those would probably give you more of a reference point than The Office.

He wasn't comedic in the office... Also, I don't remember him in American Gangster... But I do remember him in Takers. He was actually alright in that movie.

 

[Groo The Perverted]

He wasn't comedic in the office... Also, I don't remember him in American Gangster... But I do remember him in Takers. He was actually alright in that movie.

In American Gangster, he was the dude who came to Denzel in the coffee shop and said that Denzel owed him a piece of his profits for being in the area. And then denzel went out and shot him in the middle of the street.

Just added the season 1 trailer.

 

[jefXfree]

In American Gangster, he was the dude who came to Denzel in the coffee shop and said that Denzel owed him a piece of his profits for being in the area. And then denzel went out and shot him in the middle of the street.

Just added the season 1 trailer.

Oh I remember him. lol... But barely.

 

[dboy99]

Glad to see him use his natural accent everything sounds better in that accent.this looks like something i could follow.

 

[Groo The Perverted]

Glad to see him use his natural accent everything sounds better in that accent.this looks like something i could follow.

Yeah it's a cool show. Only six episodes, and this coming season is going to be 2 two hour episodes.

 

[Che]

I just started watching this show. It's bonkers. I love it. I'm shocked nobody really talks about it at all. It's really good from the episodes I have seen.

 

[SlimJim24]

Yeah but it's over after season three. There's talks of a movie (I believe the script is already written) that will actually take place before the first season starts. I don't like that at all lol

Alice is the ****!!!!!!!!

 

[kaw]

 

[kaw]

TRAILER!

 

[Noodles]