Marwood makes his vendetta personal - targeting Luther and those closest to him, raining destruction on everything he touches.Marwood makes his vendetta personal - targeting Luther and those closest to him, raining destruction on everything he touches.Marwood makes his vendetta personal - targeting Luther and those closest to him, raining destruction on everything he touches.
Carmen Kelly
- Luther's PA
- (uncredited)
Glen Stanway
- Desk Sergeant
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOn the fake passport handed to him by Alice Morgan, John Luther's fake name is Richard Feynman after the renowned American physicist.
- Quotes
Alice Morgan: Some little girls grow up wanting ponies; I always wanted to be a widow.
- SoundtracksNever Gonna Give You Up
(uncredited)
Written by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Jerry Butler
Performed by The Black Keys
Featured review
Season 3: Brutally engaging despite some weaker threads and a slightly rushed final episode
Having been very disappointed with the first season of this show, I was pleased to find that the second season had a much better grip of what it wanted to do and that it continued this into the third season. It isn't the most realistic show or the most clever but the show has a great atmosphere of morbid decay which combines very well with brutal and shocking crimes and characters. This third (and final?) season keeps the second's structure of 4 episodes which play like a full season but do have elements that stand alone to make it also work as two two-hour specials.
The first of these specials has a great air to it and produces some horribly tense situations. The thread of Luther being investigated as potentially (?) acting outside the law is a bit overly-familiar but yet still works well and has good tension between the characters. The second set of episodes continues this thread and moves to a vigilante killer which offers a nice morality edge to the plot. This story works very well for the first episode but does too much too quickly in the second episode. Major characters come and go as if they were on a busy bus route, the killer changes actions and acts out-of-character and in a way that really makes very little sense – mainly to create a certain climax which the writers want to get to. This latter aspect particularly breaks the internal logic of the show; not that realism or logic applies, but the show has its own rules and reality and within them the viewer goes along – when they are broken it shakes you outside of these and makes it harder to be engaged with the action. This happened in the final episode for me and it was a shame that it didn't work as well as the previous 3, also a shame because this sudden shift loses the morality aspect which was working pretty well.
Mostly the season worked though. It had a brutal edge that adds to the generally grim (but beautiful) portrayal of Luther's London – it isn't flashing murders like CSi, you are forced to feel their horror and, although it is still an entertainment show, I liked that as an aspect. The cinematography really helps this and so too do the performances – or at least most of them. Elba is great; gruff, tired, determined all in one package. It is no Bell in terms of the characterization (what is?) but it works and he has a great presence throughout. Brown is good support for him but this season Amuka-Bird is not quite as good as she is more a plot device than a character. O'Hara is a very nice foil for Elba and the two of them made real tension in their few shared scenes. Guillory is terrible – but it is not all her fault. Her character feels fake and is clearly happening for plot reasons, even her introduction is clunky and the show would have been better without her character. It would also have been better without her; she is stiff and doesn't fit the tone of the show and, worst, has no chemistry with Elba – she makes those around her worse by virtue of acting with her – it is impressive to see how consistently this occurs, but I wish it didn't.
Overall this third season of Luther continues the engaging and satisfyingly brutal tone and works it to good effect with the exception of the rather convoluted and unconvincing final episode. Elba is a powerhouse throughout it and the production is generally very strong, from the cool opening theme, the great cinematography and use of locations and even the fragmented "coming next" structure over the closing credits. It isn't perfect but I really hope they do a fourth season because what this show does well, it does very well.
The first of these specials has a great air to it and produces some horribly tense situations. The thread of Luther being investigated as potentially (?) acting outside the law is a bit overly-familiar but yet still works well and has good tension between the characters. The second set of episodes continues this thread and moves to a vigilante killer which offers a nice morality edge to the plot. This story works very well for the first episode but does too much too quickly in the second episode. Major characters come and go as if they were on a busy bus route, the killer changes actions and acts out-of-character and in a way that really makes very little sense – mainly to create a certain climax which the writers want to get to. This latter aspect particularly breaks the internal logic of the show; not that realism or logic applies, but the show has its own rules and reality and within them the viewer goes along – when they are broken it shakes you outside of these and makes it harder to be engaged with the action. This happened in the final episode for me and it was a shame that it didn't work as well as the previous 3, also a shame because this sudden shift loses the morality aspect which was working pretty well.
Mostly the season worked though. It had a brutal edge that adds to the generally grim (but beautiful) portrayal of Luther's London – it isn't flashing murders like CSi, you are forced to feel their horror and, although it is still an entertainment show, I liked that as an aspect. The cinematography really helps this and so too do the performances – or at least most of them. Elba is great; gruff, tired, determined all in one package. It is no Bell in terms of the characterization (what is?) but it works and he has a great presence throughout. Brown is good support for him but this season Amuka-Bird is not quite as good as she is more a plot device than a character. O'Hara is a very nice foil for Elba and the two of them made real tension in their few shared scenes. Guillory is terrible – but it is not all her fault. Her character feels fake and is clearly happening for plot reasons, even her introduction is clunky and the show would have been better without her character. It would also have been better without her; she is stiff and doesn't fit the tone of the show and, worst, has no chemistry with Elba – she makes those around her worse by virtue of acting with her – it is impressive to see how consistently this occurs, but I wish it didn't.
Overall this third season of Luther continues the engaging and satisfyingly brutal tone and works it to good effect with the exception of the rather convoluted and unconvincing final episode. Elba is a powerhouse throughout it and the production is generally very strong, from the cool opening theme, the great cinematography and use of locations and even the fragmented "coming next" structure over the closing credits. It isn't perfect but I really hope they do a fourth season because what this show does well, it does very well.
helpful•135
- bob the moo
- Aug 1, 2013
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Filming locations
- Millennium Mills, West Silvertown, London, England, UK(Luther calls Mary)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 1 minute
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
- 16:9 HD
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