--- title: "Luther" year: 2010 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/luther" fi1m_score: 72 critics_score: 64 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-17T01:52:11.192695+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T01:52:11.654415+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Luther (2010) Created by Neil Cross · MPA TV-MA · Crime, Drama, Mystery **Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 64 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* A detective so brilliant he never needs evidence, in a London where it is always 4pm in November > Neil Cross’s crime series is grim, frequently preposterous and often good, because Idris Elba and Ruth Wilson play their long flirtation as if nobody else existed. Believe none of the plotting and there is a great deal to enjoy. ## Synopsis London. Detective John Luther (Idris Elba) returns to work after a breakdown brought on by a rooftop chase in which he let a child-killer fall. His wife, Zoe (Indira Varma), has left him and wants a divorce; his friend and colleague Ian Reed (Steven Mackintosh) and his boss Rose Teller (Saskia Reeves) want him to behave. His first case back is a double murder: a couple killed in their own home, discovered by their daughter Alice (Ruth Wilson). Within one interview Luther is certain she did it. He has no evidence, she has an alibi, and she has decided he is the most interesting man she has ever met. ## Review Neil Cross’s series opens with a detective on a gantry above a drop, a child-killer hanging from the edge, and the detective taking a moment too long to decide whether to help. That is John Luther (Idris Elba), and it is the whole programme in one scene: a policeman who knows what people have done before he can prove it, and whose conscience is the only thing between him and doing the same. What follows is grim, often absurd and frequently good, and the good comes almost entirely from two actors. Elba plays intelligence as impatience. He does not deduce so much as arrive, and everyone else catches up. He is a big man and he uses it, sitting on the edges of desks, filling doorways, wearing the same coat in every weather as though he had forgotten he owned anything else. When the writing is thin, and it often is, he fills the space with temper. When it is good, he goes quiet and lets us watch him think. The other actor is Ruth Wilson, as Alice, whose parents are found dead in the first episode and whom Luther decides, within an hour of meeting her, has killed them. He cannot prove it. She knows he cannot. Their scenes are the reason to watch: a flirtation conducted across interview tables and park benches, each of them the only person the other finds interesting. We were unsettled by the first of those scenes more than we expected to be, and it was Wilson who did it, holding Elba’s gaze a beat past politeness and then smiling as if he had passed a test. The programme is never better than when she is in it and never worse than when it forgets her. Around them Cross has built a decent supporting cast and given them less to do. Indira Varma plays Zoe, Luther’s estranged wife, with a weariness that suggests years of this before we arrived. Steven Mackintosh’s Ian Reed is the colleague who has covered for him before and would rather not do it again. Saskia Reeves, as his boss Rose Teller, gets the thankless job of asking for evidence. Dermot Crowley’s Martin Schenk, dry and unhurried, is the one policeman in the building who appears to have read the rulebook, and Michael Smiley’s Benny Silver supplies the computer work and most of the jokes. Later series bring in Nikki Amuka-Bird and, eventually, Hermione Norris as Vivien Lake. Six cinematographers have worked on it, Julian Court among them, and they hold to a single look: London at dusk or after it, sodium orange against deep blue, Luther a dark shape on rooftops and bridges with the skyline behind him. It is handsome and a little pleased with itself. Paul Englishby’s score leans on low strings and a slow pulse and knows when to stop, which is more than the plotting does. Brian Kirk and Sam Miller are among the directors, and the better episodes have a patience the worse ones lack. The seven editors, Victoria Boydell among them, cut the chases fast and the interviews slow, which is the right way round. The trouble is the villains. Each case brings a new murderer, and Cross likes them grotesque: masks, rituals, a taste for the theatrical that belongs in a horror film and sits oddly in a police station. Luther works them out by staring at a wall until the answer arrives, and the series asks us to take his certainty as evidence. Sometimes we did. By the third such case we were bored, and then irritated, because the actors were plainly better than the puzzle they had been handed and the puzzle kept winning. The series also has a habit of putting Luther’s friends in danger to prove the stakes are high, and after a while the stakes start to feel like a tax. It ran to five series between 2010 and 2019: six episodes, then four, four, two and four, and the shape tells you something. The first six have room to breathe; the two-episode fourth series barely has time to take its coat off. Against [*Cracker*](https://film.one/tv/cracker) and *Prime Suspect*, which also built themselves around one damaged, brilliant investigator, *Luther* has little interest in how the police work and a great deal in how its lead looks against the skyline. Watch the first series for Elba and Wilson, and do not ask the killers to make sense. It carries a 15 certificate and earns it. *Fi1m score 72, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Luther, and nearly all of them like Idris Elba. The reviews agree that his performance as the maverick detective carries the series: commanding, angry, and lively enough to make the familiar troubled-cop clichés feel worth watching. Ruth Wilson’s Alice draws the next most praise, with several critics singling out the cat-and-mouse flirtation between the two as a promising element across the six episodes. Neil Cross’s writing is credited by the warmer reviews with keeping the show intelligent and its grim tone consistent. The spread is wide, though. Even admirers concede the procedural bones are tired and that the midsection sags. Two British reviews go much further: The Guardian finds the characters and plot devices implausible and the show’s bid for intelligence unconvincing, and The Telegraph says the writing lets Elba down after the expectations set by The Wire. The American trade reviews, arriving later, are markedly kinder. ### Reviews we read (8) - **The Times**, Andrew Billen (90/100, inferred): The critic highlights the strong writing by Neil Cross that keeps jokes and metaphors intact and praises Idris Elba's commanding performance as the maverick detective, noting he has cause to be arrogant about his talents. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/article/last-nights-tv-luther-9m3wtccql3m) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (B): The critic sees the series as a solid but clichéd vehicle for Idris Elba as a troubled cop, with familiar procedural elements and plotting. Ruth Wilson stands out as the compelling, malevolent Alice, creating strong chemistry in their cat-and-mouse dynamic. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/luther-episode-one-1798166271) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Scott Timberg (70/100, inferred): Strong writing and a fine cast, especially Idris Elba as the title character, make this grim British export a compelling, intelligent cop show devoted to investigation and character. Its understated, grim tone and psychological focus set it apart from conventional procedurals. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/luther-tv-review-30528/) - **The Independent** (70/100, inferred): The review commends Idris Elba for bringing life to cop-show clichés and notes the intriguing pathological flirtation with the killer as a promising element reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter intrigue. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-night-s-tv-luther-bbc1-true-stories-erasing-david-more-4-1962325.html) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (70/100, inferred): The six-part series reinvigorates a tired premise of a brilliant but troubled cop hunting criminals through an unpredictable cat-and-mouse game. It sags a bit in the midsection but is well worth the investment, thanks in large part to Idris Elba's performance. [Read](https://variety.com/2010/tv/reviews/luther-1117943841/) - **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (30/100, inferred): The critic finds Luther an above-average cop show that tries hard to be intelligent but ultimately fails to convince. He singles out the implausible characters, relationships, and plot devices like the yawn test for criticism while noting Idris Elba's enthusiastic performance. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/may/05/luther-boats-built-britain-review) - **The Telegraph**, Serena Davies (30/100, inferred): The review praises Idris Elba's casting as the lead but finds the series lets him down with unconvincing writing and intuition scenes that fall short of the hype from The Wire. It notes mild interest in the protagonist's scrapes but overall disappointment. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/7678585/Luther-BBC-One-review.html) - **Den of Geek**, Mark Pilkington (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the premiere a strong, tense introduction that ticks all the right boxes for a psychological detective drama. Idris Elba delivers an outstanding performance as the complex, angry lead, with Ruth Wilson particularly memorable as the vampy villainess Alice. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/luther-episode-1-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Neil Cross - **Creator:** Neil Cross - **Director:** Sam Miller, Jamie Payne, Farren Blackburn, Stefan Schwartz, Brian Kirk - **Writer:** Neil Cross - **Cinematography:** John Pardue, Julian Court, John Conroy, Giulio Biccari, Stephan Pehrsson, Tim Fleming - **Editor:** Katie Weiland, Tania Reddin, Jamie Trevill, Sam Williams, Elen Pierce Lewis, Victoria Boydell, Joel Skinner - **Music:** Paul Englishby - **Producer:** Katie Swinden, Claire Bennett, Marcus Wilson - **Cast:** Idris Elba as John Luther; Indira Varma as Zoe Luther; Steven Mackintosh as Ian Reed; Saskia Reeves as Rose Teller; Dermot Crowley as Martin Schenk; Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Jenny Jones; Nikki Amuka-Bird as Erin Gray; Sienna Guillory as Mary Day - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 4 May 2010 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Mystery - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irPcCNXji90 ## Where to watch in the US - AMC+: streaming - Hulu: streaming, hd - BritBox: streaming, hd - Disney+: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Apple TV: buy, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HU, IN, IT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, PT, RO, SE, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Cracker* (1993), Fi1m 85: Robbie Coltrane’s psychologist is the template: brilliant, ruinous and impossible to like for long. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/cracker.md) - *Prime Suspect* (1991): The British police drama that took procedure seriously and let Helen Mirren run it. - *The Fall* (2013): Gillian Anderson hunts a Belfast killer at the same unhurried, unsettling pace. - *Se7en* (1995): The rain-soaked, ritual-murder look Luther borrows, done first and done tighter. - *The Bridge* (2011), Fi1m 88: Swedish-Danish detective drama with a stranger lead and killers who mostly make sense. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-bridge-on-the-river-kwai.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/luther