Luther

Elba has been fantastic at every step, taking Cross' wonderful writing it and giving it even more dimensions. Pretty much every character that walks into this miniseries has given a virtuoso performance.... Season three never disappoints even when you kind of recoil, as a viewer, at the evil that has landed in Luther’s already complicated life.

Brilliantly written, with stunning performances, this will be Luther's final year on TV.

Luther embodies almost everything that's refreshing about the traditional British crime drama.

All charisma and command, [Idris Elb] blasts through the screen in every shot while his performance is a constant reminder that the craft, at its best, is a gossamer of countless little details that add up to something magical.

While each night delivers some terrifically tense scenes, series creator Neil Cross’ scripts for nights three and four suffer from some flimsy foreshadowing and serve up slight characterizations of Luther’s antagonists.

Thanks partly to the writing, but mostly to Elba's performance, Luther rarely comes off as one of those swaggering CBS crime-show smarty-pantses, dumping wisdom on subordinates--and that's good, because even at its sharpest, Luther feels a bit too CBS for my taste.

Luther is a great example of all of the annoying a TV show can do and still be worth watching, so long as it gets some essential things right. Luther’s saving graces are that intense, gloomy mood and Elba’s performance.

The presentation may be Hitchcockian at times, but there is nothing fun or arch or cartoonish or even particularly original in the violence that permeates Luther. It is, quite simply, terrifying, and we are meant to take it as seriously as Luther himself does.

The suspense is considerable, with Luther once again desperately trying in vain to keep those he loves (including new girlfriend Sienna Guillory) out of the grisly crossfire, but the violent twists can verge on the eye-rollingly preposterous by the story's over-the-top climax, which (in happier news) reintroduces one of his most memorably seductive adversaries.

The journey has been fascinating, and unlike in some other cop shows, the police part isn’t toss-away boilerplate. While the cases aren’t as complex as the characters, they’ve got layers.

Although the series hardly breaks any new ground, Elba’s commanding presence--and Luther’s willingness to walk a tightrope in terms of police protocol--manage to elevate the material above standard procedural fare, as do the clever callbacks to earlier episodes and characters.

This season is very good, but it’s only four episodes, and they’ve been tragically whittled down by BBC America to make room for commercials. The result is choppy, with a few critical connections missing in the investigation of Luther and in the progress of Luther’s relationship with Mary.

There seems to have been a conscious decision to add a dose of not just violence but horrific suspense and shocking violence. The first hour in particular feels like a disappointing departure. The character remains the same, even if he encounters accentuated gore and mental illness in the criminals. He even grows a bit.

As was the case with the second season, Season 3 of Luther is only four hours long, and the drama would probably be more satisfying if it didn't try to cover so many bases in that limited running time.

The first two episodes are relatively restrained by Luther standards, with an emphasis on plodding police work, while the case against Luther percolates in the background. Neil Cross still delivers the dread, though, as killers pop out of attics, closets and even closer places. The action picks up in the season’s second half.

Four hours is brief enough that the joy of seeing Elba back on TV outweighs the silliness of Luther as a whole.

Unfortunately, you can feel it in the plotting, which is perfunctory at best, and woefully, repetitively tired at worst.

Mr. Elba remains a magnetic presence, but as with all damaged heroes, Luther presents a problem for drama writers: Heal him and he's less interesting; perpetuate his damage and the show gets repetitive. Luther seems stuck in the latter cycle.