Luther (TV Series) Episode #3.1 (2013) User Reviews

A welcome return for DCI Luther

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 2 July 2013]

Soon after series three begins protagonist DCI Luther is on not one but two murder cases; the first is of a woman who was killed in her home and her body posed in a way that suggested a fetish of some sort and the second victim is a man who spent his time on line sending hateful messages to the parents of a girl who died. Understandably it is the first case the Luther thinks is the priority. To complicate matters further his partner, DS Ripley has been approached by a CIB officer because she thinks Luther is involved in the murder of a series of unpleasant suspects. With Ripley now wearing a wire it doesn't look good for Luther when he dangles a suspect from near the top of a high rise tower block!

This was a good opening to the series although it might seem a little confusing to people who haven't seen previous series as no time is wasted introducing the characters. It is a bit over the top at times but that is part of the fun and Idris Elba is great in the title role; making Luther's excessive actions seem extreme. We are soon shown who the killer is so this isn't a mystery; that doesn't stop it being exciting though as we still have no idea how it will end for Luther; will he arrest the killer or will the killer be added to the growing number of suspects who have died during Luther's investigations. In a side story Luther appears to be getting involved with a woman who crashed into him; whether this is leading to romance or to something sinister remains to be seen. One warning about this episode; it is rather wince inducing; I had to close my eyes in the scene involving the blender… I don't know how much was shown but there was a lot of blood splattered everywhere when I opened my eyes again!

Excellent I thought.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 24 April 2021]

Luther is on the hunt for a sadistic killer, who has a particular quirk, he leaves his victims dressed in a peculiar way.

Now that's how to start an episode, a shocking start, reminded me of an episode of Trial and Retribution from a few years back. There are several scary moments here, one reminds me very much of a famous scene from Halloween.

It's interesting how DCI Gray was brought back, I'm a massive fan of Nikki's, a terrific actress, her character is a little sour, but Luther is definitely a dangerous guy to be around.

Elba is tremendous once again, it's nice to see John have a little bit of romance.

I don't know what some of the reviewers here were watching, if you like mysteries with a horror vibe, you'll love this, 9/10.

A Ceiling Kill?

[ZegMaarJus · 8/10 · 17 August 2021]

This episode begins with Luther, he comes out of a burning building and arrested someone. Luther and Justin arrived at the crime scene, Emily has been killed. George and Erin want Justin his help to take down John. George is eavesdropping Luther trough Justin. Erin is kissing Justin, John sees this. Ken puts his arm into the mixer, he loses his hand. Justin and John are fighting. Craig gets attacked by Paul. Craig is heavily wounded. Nice Episode of Luther Season 3, what a great way to begin this Season. Again two double episodes! Excited for more!

Exceptional promotion

[dave-96987 · 1 January 2019]

At the end of S2 Erin Grey was a Detective Sergeant with a rightful concern about Detective Chief Inspector John Luther.

At the start of S3 she has suddenly risen two ranks to DCI in charge in an investigation against him. Tortuous?

Quite Weak All Thing Considered

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 13 September 2017]

There are so many things wrong here. First of all, that snot of a woman who was constantly in Luther's hair, has hooked up with a guy wants to bring our guy down. They enlist Luther's partner and he seems almost willing to jump right in. When we consider the incredible results of Luther's work, it's amazing that there is this faction out there trying to get him. Luther has to divide his time between two cases, one thrust on him by the aforementioned thug, and the other a more appropriate to his position on the police. The problem is that there is a bad dearth of possible motivations. It just has no spark.

Gruesome, but interesting.

[blacktanski · 6/10 · 11 March 2024]

First off, there are some "turn-your-eyes-away" moments that you don't need in your brain. This is why I've rated this a 6 rather than higher. Other than that, if you haven't already watched Luther: Season 2, do it. You'll need it to keep up with the characters.

This episode is chaotic, loud head-banger music, lots of quick shifts. The "meet-cute" gal is so beautiful. I want to like her. But things happened pretty fast for my comfort level. But hey, you meet a gorgeous man during a wreck, and he's a "copper".... I get it.

Finally, Lasco Atkins must be the hardest working background/character actor (etc.) in the business. I wasn't able to pick him out in this episode, but he's been in a TON of stuff doing a TON of different things. Plus he's kind of mysterious.

Keep on keeping on, Laz!

Terrible Episode to a Great Show

[nlong-36376 · 3/10 · 10 January 2016]

I give this a 3 of 10 solely for it's development of the over-arcing themes. Though the man coming back from retirement to watch him solve a case he had already solved is - in itself - legally unethical -- and the viewers are supposed to believe this man to be a paragon of justice, unencumbered by contradictions such as these. That part is silly. If you can overlook that, then the over-arcing themes are decent enough. Here's where it gets to be painfully bad television: The final victim is going to call the police when she thought she heard a cat in the attic (who would do that? also, her phone was quite literally in hand), then when it becomes obvious that there is an attacker upstairs murdering her lover; she puts the phone down without calling the police and hides in the only hallway closet while gasping loudly instead of running outside and making enough noise for neighbours to hear and get eyes on her... I felt like I was watching a parody of a bad 90's Scream film. Whoever wrote the script for this episode either needs to be sacked or have their assistants who wrote it for them sacked. If I hadn't seen good episodes of this show beforehand, I would probably never watch another after seeing this one.

Rubbish episode, great show.

[torfly · 1/10 · 14 July 2017]

The ending scene where a paranoid woman scared of a cat noise and want to call the police, and then do NOT call when she hear a fight upstairs is too far fetched is completely stupid, in lack of better words. Sad really, the show is a good 8 for me, but this is rubbish. The rest of the episode also lack the "nerve" normally provided in Luthers world. He almost gets more portrayed as some crooked action hero.

Ridiculous

[polite-45692 · 2/10 · 29 May 2019]

1. "DCI Gray" 2. The woman hiding in a closet while the murderer approaches.

Either skip the episode or watch at 1.5x speed or greater.

Ridiculously confusing episode that makes no sense at all

[interestingstuff · 27 May 2022]

You can watch this episode 5 times back to back and you'll still have absolutely no idea what's going on. The entire thing is ridiculously confusing from the first moment to the last with nothing explained and so many plot holes all over the place. The entire time you are watching this episode you'll be wondering "what the hell is going on here?" because the show certainly goes out of its way to confuse you as much as possible in order to appear smart but fails so miserably at that.

In this episode they are not even trying to tell a story. They just mashed together a bunch of loosely unconnected scenes in a completely random order.

Rubbish Anyone?

[Warin_West-El · 2/10 · 5 February 2023]

Episode 3.1 begins with an UNREALISTIC killing. In the real world, a woman would know if someone (especially a man) has entered her apartment. She could tell whether the items in her apartment were exactly as she left them. Especially, a detail-oriented editor of technical manuals. And unless the killer was wearing a wet suit (which he wasn't) she would have smelled him in the room.

The opening banter during the first meeting of DS Ripley with DCI Gray not only apprised the audience as to what happened since the end of last season. It was also quite humorous and set a good tone. "What are you gonna do, waterboard me?" That was a great line.

However, when Justin attacked John AT THE VERY MOMENT he was making a critical (and potentially life-saving) phone call completely BROKE credulity. As a trained statistician, I can tell you the probability of that synchronicity occurring was 0%.

But the stupidity didn't end there. I've read all of the IMDb reviews of this episode and the majority agree the homage to slasher movies at the end of this episode was BEYOND STUPID. The woman has the right idea (to call the police) AND THEN DOESN'T DO IT. But wait! Then she hears strange pounding upstairs AND STILL DOESN'T CALL THE POLICE!!! Are you kidding me????

I wanted to watch a crime drama, NOT a cheesy slasher movie. Just when you thought the plot couldn't get any more ridiculous . . . The killer burst into the closet. LIKE, WHO CARED AT THAT POINT?????????

NEXT a beautiful woman MAGICALLY appears on the roof of John's apartment complex. Seriously? It's a nice fantasy . . . But seriously?

Admittedly, the woman was good-looking. But this episode was rubbish.

Absolute Rubbish

[carltracy-02565 · 1/10 · 25 January 2019]

Stopped watching this episode after the introduction of "DCI Gray" & "DS Stark". As if this would ever happen in the UK. This is the sort of feeble minded claptrap that you usually find in U.S. crime dramas & I can only assume this series was designed to appeal to the U.S. where shoe sizes tend to outweighs IQs. I will try the other episodes but something tells me the BS rating will only increase.

Luther is great tv -this episode is not

[dakjets · 5/10 · 22 March 2023]

An excellent series, which holds up. Except for this episode, the start of season 3.

Here, a story is set up that is not good. We must then believe that Luther's good colleague DS Ripley on 1,2,3 will be someone who wants to indicate Luther! The same Ripley that Luther has been one of the strongest supporters of? I don't believe anything about it. And that the female investigator DCI Erin Gray has suddenly become a superior? Who has only one agenda; to take Luther in every possible way? She is allowed to do this. Sorry, belongs in a B series, and not in this remarkable and thorough crime series.

The episode also messes things up with two different investigations that do not provide much excitement. There are also some side characters who do very strange things, such as putting their hands in a blender! Without any particular background.

Here it is only occasionally exciting, and not that you sit and follow closely as in other cases in this series.

Starts off rubbish and doesn't get better

[considerthebirds · 1/10 · 10 April 2023]

This series regularly pushes at the bounds of incredulity, but this episode just goes over the edge of credibility.....

Going into a crime scene and poking around without putting gloves or any protective gear on. An investigation which leaves itself open to accusations of brutality.... I guess I expect the more gritty tv crime drama to be more realistic, but this is midsomer murders without the nice villages in terms of believability.

A plot which is all over the place.... I've always found it intriguing but this is just mad, even the description of the plot reads like the people didn't really understand it.