Luther’s first season intoxicates

I am seriously in love with Idris Elba. He is amazing as the titular character in BBC One’s Luther. Everything he does – his walk, talk, and mannerisms all portray the fragmented shell of a man desperate to hold onto a wife desperate to leave him; desperate to hold onto a tenuous sanity; and desperate to hold onto a job that represents all that’s familiar.

If you haven’t seen Luther, Elba plays brilliant serial killer investigator, John Luther. After not saving a child murderer (possibly deliberately), he mentally implodes, sequestering himself away for his safety, his family’s safety and his colleagues’ safety. Yet, when he returns, his wife reveals she moved on and his co-workers continuously watch him, fearing his fragile mentality and eggshell temper will erupt. Season one’s plots follow Luther post-suspension as he tracks cases of patricide, serial cop killing, taxi driver murderers and American gangs. For Luther, walking in the darkness means holding the darkness inside of you and hoping it doesn’t absorb those around you.

Idris Elba’s talent always impressed me. However, in Luther, he doesn’t just play a brilliant investigator, he inhabits Luther’s psyche through his crouching posture, his hyper-cheeky East London accent, his slouched body and his constantly mobile face. I totally believed a 6’2” well-muscled Idris Elba would fear a beatdown from a physically unimpressive would-be murderer. I loved watching Elba portray Luther’s tenuous mental stability which enabled Luther to understand the psychotic killer. Throughout the series, I couldn’t stop worrying about Luther’s safety or his career. He continuously attracts insanity, which others use against him. If serial killers didn’t destroy him, uber-aggressive internal affairs investigators would.

I also appreciated Luther’s relationship with his wife, Zoe (Indira Varma). Varma’s a hit or miss actress. In Human Target, she over-exaggerated her accent to hyper-posh levels while playing a milquetoast character. However, in Torchwood’s “They Keep Killing Susie,” I loved her utterly delicious insanity. Although she doesn’t reach Luther’s brilliance, she’s an amazingly sharp lawyer who’s fearless of the dark things in Luther’s life that go bump at her door. At the same time, I couldn’t understand her. She leaves Luther not because of his mental breakdown, not because she thinks he killed a killer (or cares), but because she hated when he shut her out. Um, Lady, your husband thinks he almost KILLED someone. His colleagues think he almost KILLED someone. And, possibly KILLING someone goes against his own moral and ethical code as a cop. OF COURSE, he’s going to mentally withdraw!!!

However, rather than possibly re-experience the relationship torture, she moves on … to Mark. This is where Zoe and I parted company. Her husband looks like well, IDRIS ELBA, who feels sorry for NOT KILLING a child murderer and is as BRILLIANT as Sherlock Holmes. But, instead of reuniting with him, she consistently turns back to … MARK, a pale, jealous, scrawny man who consistently claims that Luther’s lying and instigates unnecessary fights with him. Then, she wonders why Luther can’t move on. Um, HELLO, your husband can’t move on because when in sequestration you consistently promised his tortured mind a marital reunion!!!! So, YEA, it’ll take him a week to realize you totally dumped him for the Pillsbury not-dough boy.

Yet, outside of Luther’s ongoing Zoe angst, the relationship I truly loved included the bond between Luther and Ian. Ian was Luther’s dogsbody, his right hand dirty jobs man and his confidant. After Luther, Ian understood the criminal mind best. And, out of all his colleagues (and Zoe), he understood Luther. He didn’t shy away from the darkness beating within his best mate or the dark jobs Luther required to catch the latest serial killer. He’s frequently the one who talks Luther off the ledge — actual and metaphysical.

However, towards the series’ conclusion I started to wonder how much the producers HATED Ian or the actor, Steven Mackintosh. Ian wasn’t just a dirty cop. Ian didn’t just deliberately kill MULTIPLE people in cold blood; he killed his old partner in crime, killed his old partner’s boss, killed his current partner’s wife, tried to frame his current partner and then tortured the men who loved that woman with tales of her death. In the final two episodes, the worse Ian’s action grew the more I thought he must’ve kicked the producers’ puppies and pushed their kittens off a cliff. At the same time, I understood. Luther surrounds himself with insanity. Of course, the one most able to follow him unflinchingly into the darkness had already fallen.

Luther’s first season is amazing. Anyone with a brain should go out and watch it. Seasons one and two are available on Amazon’s Instant Video (free if you’re a prime member) as well as Netflix. Luther season three should return in the Fall.