BBC LUTHER: The Hype explained

0 Thursday June 16 2011 Written by flyprints
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After an explosive first series ‘Luther’, the nation’s favourite quick tempered detective is back! For more…detectiving (I know that’s not a word). ‘Luther’, played by Idris Elba is about a brilliant yet troubled man who bends the rules to solve the most dangerous crimes often at the expense of his personal life. Part of me is like Yes! Finally something good to watch and part of me is like ‘sigh’ sequels are never good (look at Heroes).

DCI John Luther

Played by Idris Elba, strong parallels can be drawn between, DCI John Luther and Christoper Nolans ‘BatMan’. Both characters have strong moral codes and an unhealthy obsession with justice, both characters don’t mind breaking rules to do the right thing and because of this both charaters have strained relationships with the ones they love.

In the previous series Luther’s wife was killed by his best friend (DCI Ian Reed) , who was then hunted down by Luther and killed by Alice Morgan against Luther’s wishes.In this series Luther is a suicidal man plagued by guilt, his only goal in life now is to help his friend DS Justin Ripley get his career back on track.

Luther represents selflessness.

Alice Morgan

My favourite character Alice Morgan is a cold emotionless genius, she attended Cambridge at the age of 13 and has killed several characters in the first series (including DCI Ian Reed). In Luther Alice has found a worthy adversary and therefore comes to like him. Her and Luther have a strange yet special relationship. If Luther is like Bruce Wane then Alice Morgan is like Dr. Hannibal Lecter (from Hannibal) in the sense that she helps Luther solve crimes but is a psycopath her self.

Alice Morgan represents selfishness, with exceptions to Luther.

Erin Grey

New to the show Erin Grey is a gifted yet naive police officer . I am really interested by this character as she has explicitly stated that she will not get her hands dirty, it will be interesting to see how she will respond when confronted by situations where the right thing to do isn’t always black and white.

Jenny Jones (prostitute)

Plays a teenage girl who looses her way after her dad is sent to prison by Luther, now a sex slave / prostitute Luther must save her at the request of her mother. Jenny Jones represent Luthers guilt and the negative impact Luther has on others.

SO, WHAT’S ALL THE HYPE ABOUT?

Any one with a twitter account would have witness the social media storm created by this show. So why is there so much hype over this detective drama? Two reasons firstly, the first season was quite simpley amazing . Story, story,story. It’s not often you come across a show where in which the story is so strong that the cast of Goerdie shaw could have played the characters and it still would have been good.

There’s something inherently interesting about watching a catastrophe unfold before your eyes, the sheer unpredictability kept us all wanting more in series one. Secondly Idris Elba plays the lead, and that’s enough to pull in the female audience (says bobby jealously).

‘Luther’ is about sacrifice and loss. The main character is despretly trying to create order is a world of chaos. Hope is what kept the last series interesting, the hope that Luther would eventually quit his job and get back with his wife(who is now deceased). Luther has lost everything and so wheres the hope in this series? Without the hope luther has nothing to loose and so, what will be his happy ending Luther can fight for, DS Ripley’s career?

For me the chaos, the loss and Luthors weird relationship with Alice makes this show worth watching. I’m not sure that this season ticks all the boxes, well not yet any way but its worth the wait. This show is slow burning and not for the impatient TV watcher.

The next episode is on Tuesday 21^st on June. If you missed the last episode check out BBC Iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vk2lp . Also be sure to catch the first series.

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Tags: Angry boys, bbc luther, good tv show, good tv shows, the apprentice 2011, the inbetweeners

flyprints

Quality AND Quantity

Anonymous June 23, 2011 at 5:42 pm
hmmm I agree that this show has a brilliance which hugs the soul but, it's a bit controversial/racist to say that "the series wouldn't be the same with a white actor", Idris Elba Is an international movie star and i think his talent transcends his race. Not only that the story/cinematography is on another level

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Anonymous June 23, 2011 at 4:42 pm
hmmm I agree that this show has a brilliance which hugs the soul but, it’s a bit controversial/racist to say that “the series wouldn’t be the same with a white actor”, Idris Elba Is an international movie star and i think his talent transcends his race. Not only that the story/cinematography is on another level

Reply
Hope07 June 24, 2011 at 3:31 pm
I think that having a black detective adds to the peculiar and depth of the series.

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- Anonymous June 24, 2011 at 10:44 pm
  Idris adds a depth to the series, he just happens to be black
  
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  - Hope07 June 28, 2011 at 11:17 pm
    I disagree. Black detectives on TV are rare. It makes watching the series more enjoyable because it's so unique.
  - Anonymous June 29, 2011 at 9:43 am
    i agree that it's rare but the story line is equally as rare. I dont think any of us expected the jenny( ex prostitute ) to kill that guy. plus the mad twins who seem to be playing real world of Warcraft are genius
  - Hope07 June 29, 2011 at 1:56 pm
    Yeah I agree. It was good last episode, a bit violent again though. But the best bit was me thinking Luther was going to catch that guy who was trying to rape Jenny, and beat the living daylights out of him . It's a good thing Jenny killed him because Luther would've pummeled the guy, lol. I like everything about Luther, the characters, the storyline, the script – but, I want Alice back involved. There's a Luther wiki actually, I've been working on it lately but it does need a bit of work. My name is Lutherandruth, and I incorporated some things from this blog on there i.e. Luther representing selflessness etc.
Anonymous June 24, 2011 at 10:43 pm
I agree that Idris's carrer is based on going to the states but, if he wasn't good he wouldnt have made a big impact over there. i doubt that max would have done the luther role any justice lol.

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Rhoward July 26, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Quite Simply I think Ebris Elba is one of the most sucessful Black Actors in Britain today.
I think with Ebris we are well on our way of having a Black British Denzel Washington.
When he starred in that film with Beyonce;every Black Actor in the history of Black British Actors in this country was Jealous.
WHO WOULDN'T BE STARRING IN A MAJOR HOLYWOOD FILM,WITH THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BLACK GIRL IN THE WORLD.

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