Luther [** Spoilers From Post #175 Onwards **]

MagicMarker

Suits isn't bad, but Luther is on another level.

You may as well be comparing The Bill with The Wire.

Cartel Mike

Well that's that then.


Thanks lads.

MagicMarker

That was pretty ****ing intense.

dr gonzo

Fantastic episode there! Things seem to be coming to a bit of a head. Two crime storylines were bloody excellent as well.

Basq

Girlfriend's making me watch 'True Blood' before I can watch 'Luther'..

. used to love this show, but good god.. it's gotten terrible!

** watches runtime til this vampire-werewolf-fairy muck is over **

mike65

Whoa! Great stuff bar the taster coming before anyone had time to avert their eyes and ears, Missed most of it thankfully. Really hate that practice

Snoopy1

Cant believe there's only 4 episodes.
How is he going to solve it all?
I wish it was on for longer
I actually jumped off my sofa in fright at one point, no sleep for me tonight

Mr E

I jumped about half a foot off my couch at that

attic scene

. Holy crap!

Snoopy1

I knew it was coming but I jumped at that scene too
Now im laying in bed looking at the ceiling

dr gonzo

Mr E wrote: »

I jumped about half a foot off my couch at that

attic scene

. Holy crap!

What I thought was so so good about that scene is that the setup makes whats coming as clear as day, even to the victim, and was way more scary because of it.

Kiwi_knock

Never remember the show being as scary as that, was a big scaredy cat watching the attic scene. Very good season opener. Like the dimension between Justin and Luther, not sure about the potential girlfriend storyline though.

leggo

I still don't get the fawning over this. Some of the writing is absolutely shocking. For example:

1) His partner is wearing a wire, what, all of five minutes and Luther is holding a suspect off a balcony and alluding to stitching him up? Good writers don't need to convolute that much to make their point.
2) The love story...
3) The murder scenes aren't consistent with the tone of the rest of the story. Your man is being built up as a Mike Myers type character with elaborate plots in a show that tries to play on real-life rawness in the next scene. Am I supposed to take it as an OTT horror and suspend my disbelief...or give a **** about the human interest stories? Do even the people who make this show know?
4) After four seasons...we're supposed to believe that this partnership that's been built up between the pair is done just because of what? Because Luther helped out a guy who murdered a sick RIP troll? How can I take a show seriously if it doesn't respect itself?

That said, Idris Elba still manages to tie all of that together despite being surrounded by a cast who were probably rejected by The Bill for not being able to say the words "Tea, Gov?" convincingly. They obviously spent the budget on Elba and the slick camerawork and had to make do with non-speaking extras from the depths of botched ITV drama attempts.

I don't hate the show...it's grand for a Tuesday evening like (and that's a massive credit to Idris Elba considering its gaping holes), but it's definitely not worth the love that it gets here and elsewhere.

K-9

Blenders

.

dr gonzo

leggo wrote: »

I still don't get the fawning over this. Some of the writing is absolutely shocking. For example:

1) His partner is wearing a wire, what, all of five minutes and Luther is holding a suspect off a balcony and alluding to stitching him up? Good writers don't need to convolute that much to make their point.
2) The love story...
3) The murder scenes aren't consistent with the tone of the rest of the story. Your man is being built up as a Mike Myers type character with elaborate plots in a show that tries to play on real-life rawness in the next scene. Am I supposed to take it as an OTT horror and suspend my disbelief...or give a **** about the human interest stories? Do even the people who make this show know?
4) After four seasons...we're supposed to believe that this partnership that's been built up between the pair is done just because of what? Because Luther helped out a guy who murdered a sick RIP troll? How can I take a show seriously if it doesn't respect itself?

That said, Idris Elba still manages to tie all of that together despite being surrounded by a cast who were probably rejected by The Bill for not being able to say the words "Tea, Gov?" convincingly. They obviously spent the budget on Elba and the slick camerawork and had to make do with non-speaking extras from the depths of botched ITV drama attempts.

I don't hate the show...it's grand for a Tuesday evening like (and that's a massive credit to Idris Elba considering its gaping holes), but it's definitely not worth the love that it gets here and elsewhere.

Tbh, I'd be inclined to agree with some of your points. Certainly there are elements of inconsistency which can run against the flow of the show, but I would definitely disagree with you on other points. For example, within the context of the story, number 4 is a way bigger deal than you seem to think it is. Luther is ultimately a good man but hes also an ends justify the means type, which is obviously what this show is all about. In this case he

perverst the course of justice by giving a murderer the means to evade arrest. Luther's partner has a serious issue with his commanding officer meting out justice where he sees fit.

On top of that I find the cast very good. Idris Elba is obviously fantastic, as you say, but a number of others are excellent. I love the Irish CO, hes a nicely layer character, well played; Paul McGann was great; Michael Smiley is always good etc. Admittedly some of the others are weak alright.

Tom.D.BJJ

leggo wrote: »

2) The love story...

Everything is not as it seems. Alice Morgan will pop up very soon.

I really enjoyed this episode. I love the opening sequence where the woman gets home to a quiet apartment. It was genuinely creepy. So dark, so Luther.

Footoo

Loved the lingering wideshot looking into the kitchen. The fact that nothing happened made it all the more tense.

As for the criticisims above, Luther has always been a scizophrenic show. Part old fashioned british cop show, oart seedy thriller, part pure horror. But ti works because it embraces it fully and has fun with it.

krieture

I watched all episodes including the new one in the last week. I cant remember a recent show having the same intensity as Luther. While i agree some of the writing is weak in points, the acting and cinematography is A+. I personally dont mind the "love story". makes Luther vunerablle on another front. Im looking forward to Alice Morgan being re-introduced. Can't wait for next week

Ciaran_B

"Luther. That's an unusual name."
"Not in my house."

ixoy

Very happy to see this back and it's been a particularly long wait as I watched the first two seasons back-to-back.

Some good tension in this episode, Idris Elba was great, and some beautiful cinematography (agree especially on the wide shot of the house).
On the criticism side, I do agree that it felt a little bit like

Michael Myers serial killer on the loose. Seemed like a horror movie, especially when the boyfriend comes through the ceiling. Well directed and all but felt a bit out of touch.

My biggest criticism though is one outlined above:

How quickly Justin switched sides. I mean he's always known Luther's take on cases and the ends justifying the means. Why such a quick turn of heart, especially after defending him so much last season? It just didn't wash with me.

leggo

ixoy wrote: »

My biggest criticism though is one outlined above:

How quickly Justin switched sides. I mean he's always known Luther's take on cases and the ends justifying the means. Why such a quick turn of heart, especially after defending him so much last season? It just didn't wash with me.

Exactly, like we've known since S01E01 that Luther

doesn't play by the rules but ultimately comes out on the right side of the moral compass. That was pretty much the sales pitch for the show when it began...this isn't a new development.

So to suggest that his closest friend was previously oblivious to this until now (til someone put him in a sleeper hold) is insulting to the viewer, especially if you gave a **** about that character (whose now become a dumb twat on a moral high horse). It's contriving things for the sake of a plot device and just lazy writing.

Like I said, I'm not slamming the show or calling it muck. But, to me, it's more classified as a 'fun watch' or 'guilty pleasure' than the flat out 'great show' some make it out to be. If it was a movie, it'd be Die Hard 2: you'd always enjoy watching it but know in the back of your mind that it's a bit crap all the same.

Basq

As another site mentioned this morning, it's a show that, while entertaining, that's not very grounded in reality.

It's enthralling, engaging, occassionally terrifying but completely inplausible and often silly.

It's a glorified comic book.. but I love that about it.

pixelburp

I've yet to see the new episode - so avoiding those grey bars like the plague - but just thought I'd mention that the first two seasons of Luther are now up on UK Netflix, for those who haven't yet had the chance to catch up

steve_r

Basq wrote: »

As another site mentioned this morning, it's a show that, while entertaining, that's not very grounded in reality.

It's enthralling, engaging, occassionally terrifying but completely inplausible and often silly.

It's a glorified comic book.. but I love that about it.

That's it exactly - it's got a larger than life character that will somehow always beat the odds, just maybe not straight away.

I watched the first episode on record yesterday. I enjoyed it, not perfect, but certainly well worth a watch.

dr gonzo

ixoy wrote: »

My biggest criticism though is one outlined above:

How quickly Justin switched sides. I mean he's always known Luther's take on cases and the ends justifying the means. Why such a quick turn of heart, especially after defending him so much last season? It just didn't wash with me.

This is definitely a huge issue for me. Firstly for the reasons you describe, but also because

We've seen this setup a million times before. The minute Justin met with this internal affairs guy, I knew the storyline that was coming, and its just not what i want from this show. Its going to end up being more about hunting Luther, and trying to catch him out, than it will be about people actually solving crimes.

MagicMarker

Can we add spoilers to the thread title? Don't really see any reason why should keep stuff spoilerfied.

MagicMarker

Bit quiet in here.... No comments on last night's episode?

mike65

Commented elsewhere so forgot!

The creepy highlight was deffo the toothbrushes in the mouth moment in the nurses (far too expensive for such people) house. What oral-hygiene based horror could have followed that!? Did anyone really think Loofa was going to be sold down the river by his disciple?

Mr E

Didn't think it was great, TBH. Actually fell asleep on the couch watching it. I'll try again this evening.

K-9

Mr E wrote: »

Didn't think it was great, TBH. Actually fell asleep on the couch watching it. I'll try again this evening.

Bit bored for this one, they did the childhood nightmare stuff so well for the first episode, totally failed in this.

First episode had monster under the bed and monster in the attic, this one had monster in the wardrobe, but totally ruined it.

We had In the Line of Fire for Internal Affairs stuff last year, plus Sherlock did the gorgeous, expansive, panoramic, exposed glass fronted building scene last year.

The old guy was genuinely terrifying, the protege never worked. I've read this type of plot in a few books, it never seems real to me.

leggo

I swear to god I'm not being contrary for the sake of it...but I actually enjoyed this week's episode a lot more (though I also fell asleep trying to watch it first time around, but put that down to old age more than anything else). They double-bluffed me in the nurses' house when Luther appeared: I thought they'd made it so obvious that he would that I didn't believe it. That isn't even a slight...it actually ended up working.

The problem for me is: where do they go from here? They kinda wrapped up the series' major plot points only halfway through it. I'm sure they'll have a twist next week to drag us back in (probably something to do with the love interest) but jeez...there are only four episodes as it is. Do the writers' have serious ADHD in that they can't stretch two strong storylines out for that long without having to press the reset button?