Six years after departing from The Wire, I expected Idris Elba (aka Stringer Bell) to be well into his fourth or fifth starring role in a big-budget, Hollywood movie. Alas, the movie career has yet to materialize for Elba. He’s popped up in a few flicks here and there, (Daddy’s Little Girls, Obsession, and The Losers to name a few), as well as a guest part on The Office. But he’s far from claiming Denzel Washington or Will Smith’s mantel as the top black box-office movie star.
That isn’t to say that it’s all been downhill for Elba. His new series Luther shows him at his most intense. Perhaps the small-screen is a better fit for him. The medium allows for better character-development and growth than a two hour film could, so if Elba doesn’t manage to ever get his own Malcolm X or Hitch, he can take solace in being the next Frank Pembleton.
Actually, it was Pembleton that Elba’s character reminded me of the most as I sat down to watch the first episode. Both men are adept at cracking the criminal mind. Put a suspect in the box and watch the mind games unfold.
Luther begins with Detective Chief Inspector John Luther chasing a serial killer through a run-down warehouse. The killer confesses to John the location of a missing child he kidnapped while hanging precariously from a broken bridge. John refuses to help him and the man plunges to the ground, leaving him in a coma. The incident takes its toll on John, and he’s sent to a mental health facility.
The story picks up seven months later, with John back on the job investigating the murder of an elderly couple. John suspects the daughter did it, and his interview with her soon turns into an interrogation as he begins to see her sociopathic tendencies emerge. Without any evidence to tie her to the murders, John relies on using her ego against her to solve the case. They’re soon playing a cat-and-mouse game that pushes John closer to the edge.
The plot isn’t a huge departure from other dramas about the criminal mind. It has a bit of Cracker mixed with Homicide mixed with Criminal Minds. The show contains all the familiar clichés of the genre – the interrogation scene, the heavy pulse-sounding music, the femme fatale, the slightly unhinged investigator, the estranged wife…
But the acting saves it, and I think it comes down to one thing: that English accent. You can sell me on almost anything if you sound like Michael Caine. That, and the intense performance from Elba in particular make this a slightly more enjoyable series than if it were made States-side. If you can get past the familiar trappings and Basic Instinct plotline, you’ll start to enjoy it too.
