Luther – Dark Drama at it's best

The most amazing part of Luther is it’s gripping story line and it’s equally gripping characters. The central character of ‘Luther’ played by Idris Alba, is just amazing, the range of emotions he displays in the drama is amazing, and opposite him is an equally astonishing character of ‘Alice Morgan’ played by Ruth Wilson.
Luther is not your typical detective series with a long story arc,
With the Sherlock series, detective plots have been characterized by wit and the ability of the central character to deduce brilliantly from vague clues, an exhibition of intellect, the plots tend to have real pace to them.
Luther stands in stark contrast to such series, the arc develops more slowly, more than a reveal, it’s a gradual peeling of layers. We are taken through the emotional journey of the character, which encompasses a lot, loss of love, rage, attachment, underlying an amazing intellect. The back and forth between Luther and Alice, is great, especially with the way ‘Alice’ is said.. The character of Alice is also superb, on the surface it is devoid of emotions, purely psychopathic, yet has an attachment with Luther, an admiration of intellect, Alice is a treat to watch.
The series has suspense element to it, and the succession of events is truly tragic, but the series relies more on performance than on suspense to convey the drama. There is something appealing of long story arc British Drama, maybe it is the writing, the careful selection of actors, the music, the visuals, these are slow, reflective and more engaging.
Talking about the music, the starting credits, Paradise Circus – Massive attack is just apt, but I found the Nina Simone version of Don’t let me be misunderstood, as something out of the park, especially the moment it plays in the episode is just befitting.
Digressing as bit, In terms of binge watching, though the series has four season, it has only 16 episodes, a fifth season is planned for 2018. Watching 16 episodes over the weekend is feasible, and more importantly it enables you to keep track of the plot. I find it amazing that audiences keep track of the series, because at times the gap between two seasons was 2 years! It is one of the reasons I have stayed away from Games of Thrones, just waiting for the series finale, so that begin watching from season one.
Back to Luther, if you are a fan of drama, do watch it, if you haven’t already