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hestia8Ugh, this is overdue. There is a reason for this, it's not just because I'm hopelessly disorganised.
It took me ages to get back round to watching the latter half of the series – no, that’s not quite right. It took me a while to get back to watching episode 4. I’ve watched episode 6 about five times.
Episode 4 stars Nicola Walker (always, always amazing) and Rob Jarvis, who is genius casting because for the last seven or so years he’s been playing Eddie, the comic relief in Hustle (also he was in some cereal ads). He’s an escalating serial killer, killing because he’s found out she’s having an affair.
It is one of the most difficult things to sit through, this episode. I only made myself rewatch it because the new series is starting soon and I want to get the meta posted. It’s a very tense viewing experience, partly from the acting, partly from the plot (which came along around the same time as Sherlock had a murdering cabbie, which was…nice). Nicola Walker kills everything she’s in, and her scenes with Idris Elba are wonderfully played. The ending of that episode too, with Linda killing Graham with a hammer is brilliantly judged – by this point in the series, that kind of cathartic ending is needed (admittedly as I write this I can’t remember how episodes 1-3 end).
Episode 5 is different (she says, trying to reread her notes to find out wtf was going on). Episode 5 is where the series should have started, if all the pre-series chat and promotion was correct.
Ian Reed turns out to have been a wrong ‘un all along (my meta for 1 – 3 – written before I saw ep 4 – looks daft in retrospect, so well played, Neil Cross), and all his attempts to get himself out of trouble just pull him further down. It’s never entirely clear (to me) how much he’s a man fracturing under the weight of his own deceptions, or how he just views everyone else as collateral damage. While his killing of Zoe is necessary to turn the series into what it was supposed to be, it isn’t really necessary within the storyline. There were many, many easier ways for Reed to get Luther out of the way. Or sacked. Or arrested. Or anything he wanted – Luther has a lot of skeletons in his closet, and Reed knows about all of them (except Alice). But killing Zoe fitted in with the theme of the show (the theme being ‘ladies, watch out!’).
Following on from this, episode 6 is the end of the world, basically. Luther is being successfully framed for Zoe’s murder, Reed is somehow convincing everyone he’s fine (then again, compared to the way Luther’s been acting all series, this isn’t that hard – is there anyone in this show who’s actually emotionally aware and mature? Mark, maybe), Luther goes to Alice in desperation and Justin (oh, JUSTIN) decides to sacrifice his career for Luther.
Oh, and Luther and Alice decide to get Mark involved. BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE.
The ending for the show is perfect, and sort of made the rest worth it for me. I remember saying to people that I really wanted the last episode to go for ludicrous nonsense over boring sensible stuff, and it did. Luther teaming up with Alice! Justin sacrificing everything for love!* Luther and Alice teaming up with Mark and that somehow being awesomesauce! THE LAST SCENE OMG.
Like I say, I’ve watched it a good few times.
The second half of the series is where it really takes off. Everything – the creepiness, the isolation, who’s going to support Luther etc – falls into place. With a fairly large side helping of lunacy, admittedly.
I usually try not to judge programmes too hard on the first couple of episodes because everything needs time to bed in, and given the way it ends up in 5 and 6, you wonder what was going on in 1-3 (although now I am rethinking my classification – maybe it should be looked as 1&2, 3&4 and 5&6?). It’s why I’m quite pleased about the format change (although obviously I wish there were more episodes). I think having longer to develop a story (I presume it’s 2x90 minutes) will suit the series better.
You’d have trouble arguing that Luther isn’t a misogynistic show, so I’m not going to. It’s the usual crime show problem: your murder will be more horrific if it’s a woman or child, so that’s who gets killed off. Yes, I get the thinking behind it, but God it’s getting tedious. And Luther is sometimes so concerned with being stylistic and making things look pretty that they don’t think about maybe doing things differently.
(for example, episode 5 – why couldn’t the woman have been the banker, and her husband been the one who’d swallowed the diamonds?)
Also – it’s hard to find anything to say because the relationship is so neglected – but Luther’s relationship with Rose kind of crumbles and dies. Shame.
Rose is completely taken in by Ian in the last episode; she’s in anguish over the failure of her unit (“I just so wanted to make it work!”), but she thinks it’s down to Luther. Luther might be aggressive and threatening, but Ian is the proper psychopath; the one who blends in and then shoots his way out when it gets too real.
Luther’s relationship with Zoe gets particularly stupid. Or they do, whatever. Getting back together when it is just not going to work, and Luther then immediately fucking it up by asking what you call it if you’re having an affair with your wife is just bleakly funny. And then, of course, she dies and can now become this perfect woman, and Luther’s love for her can be rewritten (like everything else in the show).
The relationship between Luther and Mark, of course, goes from bad to worse to being forced to work together when the unthinkable happens. I didn’t ever really warm to Mark, but at least he didn’t turn out to be the creepy, controlling nice guy type.
Luther’s relationship with Alice develops in the second half of the series into something even more ridiculous than the first half. Which is kind of impressive in itself, let’s be honest. He tries to warn Alice off getting involved with him, but really that advice was never going to work (though he’s so emotionally tone deaf I’m not sure he knows that). In truth, he’d be better off just not saying anything to her. Case in point: Alice decides to dress up as a doctor and kill Henry Madsen, to make Luther’s life easier (which of course it doesn’t).
(I love Alice)
But then, when he’s out on the run with no-one else to turn to, Alice is the one who comes through for him. Alice is the one who trusts John – will always trust John – and she’s his last resort.
“Out of all the people in the world, I’d never betray you.”
Luther’s relationship with Reid, on the other hand, turns out to be toxic for both of them. John seems to think it’s been an equal friendship, but John is shit at emotional stuff. Reid’s been there for Luther, been in his shadow, covered for him, stopped him from killing anyone, and all the while he’s been taking things for himself. And when he first finds out about this stuff, Luther tries to save Ian. Possibly he’s realised just how few friends he has, possibly he’s aware he owes Ian.
In episode 5, before it all gets really out of control, you can almost sympathise. John’s the one who gets all the attention (good and bad), and all the glory, he’s the one who had the gorgeous, glamorous, successful wife for twenty years while Ian’s been through three (who, iirc, are never given names or even seen), so it makes sense that Ian would take advantage of being in the background a little bit.
Of course, this interpretation lasts for oh, half an episode. And then Ian kills Zoe. Which was kind of expected, given how everything else had gone through the series (3 ladies in the main cast, crime show, one of them wasn’t going to make it), but still – Jesus Christ.
(although, of course, if you count the three main guys as Ian, Luther and Mark, one of them ends up dead too – depends on whether you count Schenk and Justin as main characters)
And even that’s a trap, albeit one made up on the fly. Luther comes home, as Ian knew he would, and in the process gets Zoe’s blood all over him. And then instead of Ian being arrested for murder, it becomes a fight between them for who’s going to go down and who’s going to survive.
“All I have to do is stay free long enough to see you dead.”
As mentioned before, I think the very end of episode 6 is perfect. Luther and Mark being forced to work together to take down Ian; Alice the puppet mistress, having a whale of a time, and no-one really having a sensible plan. They all have plans, sure, but sensible plans? Not so much. Which basically sums up the whole series.
Roll on series 2!
*quick note because I know no-one else ships it: I think this is a massively one-sided ship (I doubt it would ever occur to Luther), but Justin a) applied to work for Luther for nine months, every week, in writing, and b) sacrifices the career he’s worked really hard for at the end of the series, all for John, because he didn’t believe John had
done it, and also didn’t want John to get shot by a sniper. I do not care if I’m reaching, Justin/Luther is basically my ship of choice for series 1.
It took me ages to get back round to watching the latter half of the series – no, that’s not quite right. It took me a while to get back to watching episode 4. I’ve watched episode 6 about five times.
Episode 4 stars Nicola Walker (always, always amazing) and Rob Jarvis, who is genius casting because for the last seven or so years he’s been playing Eddie, the comic relief in Hustle (also he was in some cereal ads). He’s an escalating serial killer, killing because he’s found out she’s having an affair.
It is one of the most difficult things to sit through, this episode. I only made myself rewatch it because the new series is starting soon and I want to get the meta posted. It’s a very tense viewing experience, partly from the acting, partly from the plot (which came along around the same time as Sherlock had a murdering cabbie, which was…nice). Nicola Walker kills everything she’s in, and her scenes with Idris Elba are wonderfully played. The ending of that episode too, with Linda killing Graham with a hammer is brilliantly judged – by this point in the series, that kind of cathartic ending is needed (admittedly as I write this I can’t remember how episodes 1-3 end).
Episode 5 is different (she says, trying to reread her notes to find out wtf was going on). Episode 5 is where the series should have started, if all the pre-series chat and promotion was correct.
Ian Reed turns out to have been a wrong ‘un all along (my meta for 1 – 3 – written before I saw ep 4 – looks daft in retrospect, so well played, Neil Cross), and all his attempts to get himself out of trouble just pull him further down. It’s never entirely clear (to me) how much he’s a man fracturing under the weight of his own deceptions, or how he just views everyone else as collateral damage. While his killing of Zoe is necessary to turn the series into what it was supposed to be, it isn’t really necessary within the storyline. There were many, many easier ways for Reed to get Luther out of the way. Or sacked. Or arrested. Or anything he wanted – Luther has a lot of skeletons in his closet, and Reed knows about all of them (except Alice). But killing Zoe fitted in with the theme of the show (the theme being ‘ladies, watch out!’).
Following on from this, episode 6 is the end of the world, basically. Luther is being successfully framed for Zoe’s murder, Reed is somehow convincing everyone he’s fine (then again, compared to the way Luther’s been acting all series, this isn’t that hard – is there anyone in this show who’s actually emotionally aware and mature? Mark, maybe), Luther goes to Alice in desperation and Justin (oh, JUSTIN) decides to sacrifice his career for Luther.
Oh, and Luther and Alice decide to get Mark involved. BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE.
The ending for the show is perfect, and sort of made the rest worth it for me. I remember saying to people that I really wanted the last episode to go for ludicrous nonsense over boring sensible stuff, and it did. Luther teaming up with Alice! Justin sacrificing everything for love!* Luther and Alice teaming up with Mark and that somehow being awesomesauce! THE LAST SCENE OMG.
Like I say, I’ve watched it a good few times.
The second half of the series is where it really takes off. Everything – the creepiness, the isolation, who’s going to support Luther etc – falls into place. With a fairly large side helping of lunacy, admittedly.
I usually try not to judge programmes too hard on the first couple of episodes because everything needs time to bed in, and given the way it ends up in 5 and 6, you wonder what was going on in 1-3 (although now I am rethinking my classification – maybe it should be looked as 1&2, 3&4 and 5&6?). It’s why I’m quite pleased about the format change (although obviously I wish there were more episodes). I think having longer to develop a story (I presume it’s 2x90 minutes) will suit the series better.
You’d have trouble arguing that Luther isn’t a misogynistic show, so I’m not going to. It’s the usual crime show problem: your murder will be more horrific if it’s a woman or child, so that’s who gets killed off. Yes, I get the thinking behind it, but God it’s getting tedious. And Luther is sometimes so concerned with being stylistic and making things look pretty that they don’t think about maybe doing things differently.
(for example, episode 5 – why couldn’t the woman have been the banker, and her husband been the one who’d swallowed the diamonds?)
Also – it’s hard to find anything to say because the relationship is so neglected – but Luther’s relationship with Rose kind of crumbles and dies. Shame.
Rose is completely taken in by Ian in the last episode; she’s in anguish over the failure of her unit (“I just so wanted to make it work!”), but she thinks it’s down to Luther. Luther might be aggressive and threatening, but Ian is the proper psychopath; the one who blends in and then shoots his way out when it gets too real.
Luther’s relationship with Zoe gets particularly stupid. Or they do, whatever. Getting back together when it is just not going to work, and Luther then immediately fucking it up by asking what you call it if you’re having an affair with your wife is just bleakly funny. And then, of course, she dies and can now become this perfect woman, and Luther’s love for her can be rewritten (like everything else in the show).
The relationship between Luther and Mark, of course, goes from bad to worse to being forced to work together when the unthinkable happens. I didn’t ever really warm to Mark, but at least he didn’t turn out to be the creepy, controlling nice guy type.
Luther’s relationship with Alice develops in the second half of the series into something even more ridiculous than the first half. Which is kind of impressive in itself, let’s be honest. He tries to warn Alice off getting involved with him, but really that advice was never going to work (though he’s so emotionally tone deaf I’m not sure he knows that). In truth, he’d be better off just not saying anything to her. Case in point: Alice decides to dress up as a doctor and kill Henry Madsen, to make Luther’s life easier (which of course it doesn’t).
(I love Alice)
But then, when he’s out on the run with no-one else to turn to, Alice is the one who comes through for him. Alice is the one who trusts John – will always trust John – and she’s his last resort.
“Out of all the people in the world, I’d never betray you.”
Luther’s relationship with Reid, on the other hand, turns out to be toxic for both of them. John seems to think it’s been an equal friendship, but John is shit at emotional stuff. Reid’s been there for Luther, been in his shadow, covered for him, stopped him from killing anyone, and all the while he’s been taking things for himself. And when he first finds out about this stuff, Luther tries to save Ian. Possibly he’s realised just how few friends he has, possibly he’s aware he owes Ian.
In episode 5, before it all gets really out of control, you can almost sympathise. John’s the one who gets all the attention (good and bad), and all the glory, he’s the one who had the gorgeous, glamorous, successful wife for twenty years while Ian’s been through three (who, iirc, are never given names or even seen), so it makes sense that Ian would take advantage of being in the background a little bit.
Of course, this interpretation lasts for oh, half an episode. And then Ian kills Zoe. Which was kind of expected, given how everything else had gone through the series (3 ladies in the main cast, crime show, one of them wasn’t going to make it), but still – Jesus Christ.
(although, of course, if you count the three main guys as Ian, Luther and Mark, one of them ends up dead too – depends on whether you count Schenk and Justin as main characters)
And even that’s a trap, albeit one made up on the fly. Luther comes home, as Ian knew he would, and in the process gets Zoe’s blood all over him. And then instead of Ian being arrested for murder, it becomes a fight between them for who’s going to go down and who’s going to survive.
“All I have to do is stay free long enough to see you dead.”
As mentioned before, I think the very end of episode 6 is perfect. Luther and Mark being forced to work together to take down Ian; Alice the puppet mistress, having a whale of a time, and no-one really having a sensible plan. They all have plans, sure, but sensible plans? Not so much. Which basically sums up the whole series.
Roll on series 2!
*quick note because I know no-one else ships it: I think this is a massively one-sided ship (I doubt it would ever occur to Luther), but Justin a) applied to work for Luther for nine months, every week, in writing, and b) sacrifices the career he’s worked really hard for at the end of the series, all for John, because he didn’t believe John had
done it, and also didn’t want John to get shot by a sniper. I do not care if I’m reaching, Justin/Luther is basically my ship of choice for series 1.
