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At times when watching this first episode, I felt that the writer must have had his tongue in his cheek at some point creating the main character. Luther is an amalgamation of all the great TV detective clichés: he’s got the brutal methods of Gene Hunt, the deductive genius of Sherlock Holmes, the psychological brilliance of Law and Order: Criminal Intent’s Goren, the general maverick nature of Murphy and the difficult home life of, well, just about every detective that has ever graced our screens. But my problems with the character go deeper than that. On top of feeling like I’ve seen it all before (or maybe as an extension of that fact) the character doesn’t feel believable. His decision that Alice killed her parents simply because she doesn’t yawn when he does is clearly meant as dramatic shorthand to prove Luther’s genius to the audience, but it just feels silly.
Irdis Elba is compelling to watch as Luther, but there’s only so much he can do with a character that so far feels underwritten. Some of the supporting cast have similar problems. Poor Indira Varma, a brilliant actress, is once again left playing plot-device bitch rather than a real character. The whole “cheating wife” subplot feels unnecessary and frankly quite dull, although anything that gets Paul McGann on my TV screen is never entirely unwelcome. It’s also good to see Steven Mackintosh as Luther’s colleague and friend Ian Reed. Mackintosh has been a favourite actor of mine ever since his performance in the BBC adaptation of Our Mutual Friend, and if anything, it’s Reed’s relationship with Luther that I’d like to see given greater prominence.
The main villain of the piece is Alice Morgan, a former child genius who appears to have killed her parents in the perfect crime. Ruth Wilson is mesmerising, but the character again doesn’t feel real. Her scenes with Luther range from the sublime to the ridiculous, the ridiculous mostly being a forced sexual tension between the two characters. In general, though, these are the scenes that work the best in the programme, and are the main thing that would keep me tuning in.
Elba and Wilson are brilliant, but the whole thing feels like it’s been done before – over the next five episodes, I fully expect Luther to either hit the bottle at some point or be told that he’s off the case but continue investigating. I love a maverick TV detective as much as the next person, but at the moment, a chance to “spot the cliché” would probably be the only reason for me to watch again.
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