Posted in: BBC, Recent Updates, Review, TV | Tagged: bbc america, idris elba, luther

'Luther' is Back with Squirm Inducing Season 5 Premiere (REVIEW)

It's striking how little has changed for John Luther (Idris Elba) since the last time we saw him, five long, horrifying years ago. He's still a dedicated lawman, doing whatever he has to to bring killers to justice. He's still driving that old Volvo, and he still stalks the streets of London like the swagger of an old-west gunslinger.

But a lot has changed, too. John Luther isn't looking so great- his eyes betray an exhaustion that he seems hell bent on pushing through. He has a new Sergeant to work with, Detective Sgt. Catherine Halliday (Wunmi Mosaku), who likes to do things by the book. I'm not entirely sure if Luther knows what the book looks like anymore.

The fifth season opens with a woman being followed down a darkened street. She's being followed, and the tension builds, but it's actually someone she knows. The tension brilliantly winds down- she's okay, the dude leaves her be. He walks down the street a bit, but ends up witnessing a brutal murder in which the victim is being horrifically pierced with nails.

The witness runs back to the lady's house, obviously panicked, then runs away. We see the killer following, a halo of LED lights obscuring their face.

The sense of dread threaded through this episode of Luther is characteristically blood chilling, with a relentless pulse that never quite lets up. The murders are horrifying, with the killer getting his jollies off of puncturing the bodies of his victims. He wears a clear mask, with a ring of LED lights around the hood of his jacket that makes CCTV cameras useless when it comes to identifying him.

A new murder takes place on a bus, and even though I knew it was coming, I found myself taking up less and less space on the couch. This level of creeping dread really takes a toll on the nerves!

Idris Elba, of course, is amazing. His John Luther looks like he could pass out at any moment, and that his body would just keep on delivering justice. Mosaku is also fantastic, her earnest zeal to follow the rules running head-first into the procedural brick wall of Luther's reality.

Another performance of note comes from Hermione Norris, who plays Dr. Vivien Lake, a psychiatrist that has a pretty unorthadox connection to the killer. Norris pulls off a pretty deft performance, seriously underplaying the role she plays in the larger narrative.

There is also a slowly simmering sub-plot revolving around George Cornellius (Patrick Malahide), a notorious London gangster who is trying to track down his son. There is a particularly harrowing scene revolving around an informant which would have fallen flat on a show less cleverly constructed.

The episode of Luther ends with quite the surprise, and from the look of the teaser for the second episode, I think things are going to get ever more intense!

There will be three more episodes of Luther for this fifth season, which you can catch on Sunday nights on BBC America. Here's a peak at next week's episode:

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