Luther (TV Series) Episode #1.1 (2010) User Reviews

A Psychological Gem

[robertgmclean · 8/10 · 6 December 2015]

I am a sucker for mind game thrillers. For example, I consider Guy Ritchie's Revolver one of the best films ever made. So I easily fell for the storyline of Luther, set up here in the first episode. Luther ep1.1 is nothing but a one-hour psychological tug-of-war for the upper hand between the main protagonist, Detective John Luther, played by Idris Elba. The woman who will prove to be his main anti-hero rival throughout the first season, played by Ruth Wilson, potentially steals the stage from Elba in this episode.

The sets are typical. Non-spectacular tight-shots of any nondescript spot in London. A pub, a small office, a terrace house, a 2nd floor flat... could have been filmed anywhere in the UK. The seemingly low-medium budget production allowed me to focus completely on the delivery performed by the actors and actresses. The plot moves along quickly and the audience is not given a sneak-peak at information the detective does not know. Which is excellent. When the detective figures out a clue it comes as a revelation, not a relief, because we, as the audience were just as unaware as he. Awesome.

Brilliant Pyschological Police Drama!

[chazken-14372 · 9/10 · 14 August 2020]

Luther: Episode 1.1 of season 1 - this series is a more complex psychological Police Drama, but not typical a novel idea. Although I've watched all five seasons before, I'm still surprised at the antagonisim between Luther and Alice Morgan, the genious psychopath! Alice was child prodigy, enrolled at Oxford University at the age of 13 and graduated with a Ph.D in Astrophysics at the age of 18. Unfortunately, she is a Pyschopath, no Empathy whatsoever.

However, she respects Luther, who is significantly more intelligent than the average Copper and she sees him as a challenge to her superior intellect throughout the entire series.

Not dissapointed!

[helsiing · 9/10 · 14 January 2019]

Didn't expect anything at all, did not know what the series was about. After have watched the episode I have to say "not dissapointed". Idris Elba is a great actor!

Blistering start to my favourite ever TV drama series.

[maureen_smith5 · 10/10 · 12 April 2015]

I had not really heard of Idris Elba before Luther began but after just a few episodes of the series he quickly became one of my favourite ever actors and John Luther one of the best characters on screen.

This first episode introduces us to DCI John Luther a down on his luck detective who gets back to work after a long suspension and is met by DS Justin Ripley(Warren Brown)who informs him his first case back is a home invasion where two people were killed and their bodies found by Alice Morgan(the incredible Ruth Wilson) their daughter. Luther thinks Alice killed them herself but has no evidence to prove it plus Alice is highly intelligent and starts to play mind games with Luther and he even accuses her of the crime and even though she says she didn't do it its clear she did it but doesn't seem to bother her. John also has problems at home as his separated wife Zoe(Indira Varma)makes it clear she no longer wants to be with him and to make things worse she is having a affair with Mark North(Paul McGann),both of this doesn't go down very well and Luther's bad temper comes to fore again which results in John getting arrested once again this time for attacking Mark and condemns the end really of his marriage.

This is a barnstorming opening episode that introduces a cool,hard nut and troubled lead character who is tall and dishevelled with stubble and a long grey coat and not your usual prim and smart TV detective like Sherlock or Poirot but a few moments in he is a top creation and the opening sequence proves that with a fantastic stroll of intend as Luther marches after Henry Madsen in a abandoned warehouse,its one of the best opening sequences to either a TV series or movie I have seen and a perfect introduction to this character who is a hard guy who doesn't care if he breaks the rules to get the bad guy. The rest of the episode is not quite as good and future episodes are more exiting but I have to say the acting is incredible with Elba of course the standout but is given a run for his money by the sublime Wilson who is a creepy and funny nutter who slithers every word out and gets under the skin similar to Sherlock's Moriarty or The Joker,she is for me the best female villain in screen history.

Others like Warren Brown(who for me is excellent as the series goes on),Varma,McGann,Saskia Reeves(DSU Rose Teller)and the brilliant Steven Mackintosh as DCI Ian Reed are all terrific too and is one of the finest casts I have seen before and even though they all have longer moments to shine in future episodes they act very well in this first episode.

As a first episode its very good and better than some say and introduces everyone including Mr cool Elba excellently and even though future episodes are more action packed with more twists and more gripping plots this is a great start to a already classic BBC series.

Mind blowing.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 3 February 2018]

Now this is how to start a series!

John Luther is back to work, he's bullish and highly intelligent. He's called to investigate two brutal murders, only lead is daughter Alice, a highly intelligent young woman.

An hour of mind throbbing cat and mouse drama, the perfect cop meets the perfect criminal, both are charismatic, carefree and enormously charismatic. The story is good, with a degree of intrigue, the filming is smart, but it's the character play that's centre stage, not often you get a chemistry of actors that create viewing of this calibre. I can't pick a standout, Elba and Wilson are both fabulous.

It's no wonder people are desperate for the return of John Luther, watching these again has been a pleasure.

GRIPPING.

Tops right from the beginning

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 25 October 2021]

Here we have the very first episode from the successful British television series Luther. The show scored many nominations with prestigious awards bodies, most of all for lead actor Idris Elba, also in America, and these 52 minutes here were written by Neil Cross and directed by Brian Kirk. We are thrown right into the action as we see Luther chasing down a criminal in something like a warehouse building. At least the construction is not particularly safe as we get to witness quickly. Luther gets some important information out of the suspect and does not save the man in time, so the bad guy falls down and is in a coma for the rest of the episode. But the girl he abducted is safe. So they need another case for this series premiere and this is where Ruth Wilson comes into play as her Alice Morgan becomes a bit of a nemesis (with an ounce of sexual tension too) to Luther for much more than this episode. It is about the death of a respected couple and also the death of the couple's dog as the canine gains some extra significance as the episode goes on. It's a bit of everything really. We find out about the title character's aggression issues at the same time as we find out about his professional genius. His wife, however, has really had it with him and his struggles and in this episode she tells the man that she is with somebody else. Not much of a surprise that the first thing Luther does is destroy a door and a little later, actually almost at the very end, we also see Luther end up in a physical struggle with the new man in his wife's life. Still there are indicators on several occasions that she is not over him yet and maybe he can hope. Be it the "next time" reference or be it the tear-filled response to whose turn it is to apologize at the very end, you can definitely be curious how Luther's personal life will be affected in the upcoming episodes, especially if we take into account that it is all connected with his work. Alice made Luther his next project and this also brings in his wife to some extent, especially in this one scene in which the two women share the screen. One of the most tense (or is it "tensest"? Sounds weird.) moments from this episode.

It is already Idris Elba's great physicality that elevates the okay story and screenplay into something special right away and I am sure this show and also this opening episode would have made much less of an impact without him. Extremely commanding screen presence and not a surprise at all that this show was what turned him into an international superstar and prolific Hollywood actor pretty quickly afterwards. If you are curious about how it all started, then it is very much worth seeing. I think the second episode was even slightly better, but I am saying this from a rewatch perspective. Not sure which I liked more when I watched them the first time. In any case, something I definitely like here is that the psychological element of the crimes and criminals gets included in a crucial way. I always find that interesting. Of course, there are also weaknesses in terms of the writing, like how Luther's yawn idea is maybe a bit too far-fetched to make a definite statement that the young woman is the killer, but together with all the other elements of suspense, it works fine. Or also with how Luther's wife's new partner is depicted and what he has to say at times, they could have done a little better maybe. But all these criticisms are nothing major at all and the good and even very good is way, way more frequent in this episode compared to the weaknesses here and there. The idea how he hurts the killer's ego near the end by throwing away the ashtray was also quite nice. I know there are many shows and films about rogue cops, but this is one that stands out in a positive way most of all because of the impressive lead performance here. I am pretty glad they got Elba to star and this was the beginning, definitely not yet the highlight, of something great and for me Luther, now that it's been over 10 years since it started, is definitely one of the best crime series of the 2010s. If not the number one. This episode here reflects said quality on quite a few occasions. I definitely think you should give it a go and maybe you will be as hooked as I was. Entertained you will be 100%. Also very much necessary here to watch chronologically because the episodes build on each other. Big thumbs up for the very beginning of Luther, also good example here on how to include a massive jump ahead in time.

A Red Stalker

[ZegMaarJus · 8/10 · 14 August 2021]

This episode begins with Henry, he got chased by John. Henry fell down, he is heavily wounded. The police arrived at the crime scene, Alice is caped in blood. John returned back at work, after a really hard time for himself. Zoe has an affair with Mark, but John doesn't know this. John interviews Alice about her parents. John visits Zoe, she tells him that she met somebody. John is angry, his relationship is over. John stole the urn from Alice, he throws it in the water. John fights with Mark. John steps into the police car. Nice Episode of Luther Season 1, such a great beginning of this show. Idris Elba is an excellent actor, so i am excited for more!

Okay police drama

[Tweekums · 6/10 · 5 May 2010]

This show got my attention as it stars Idris Elba who was excellent when he played Stringer Bell in "The Wire", while he is also good in this his presence will inevitably lead to comparisons with "The Wire" and in any such comparison "Luther" will come a distant second. Of course any such comparison is unfair; they may both be dramas about crime but this isn't attempting to be be a critique of the system, it is just another in a long line of cop shows.

This opening episode quickly introduced main character DCI John Luther; a policeman who is willing to break the rules and even lets a criminal fall from a great height. When the story proper starts several months have past and the criminal is in a coma and Luther has just returned to work after an investigation into his actions. He has no time to settle in as he is immediately called out to a double murder. A young woman has reported that both her parents have been murdered. After examining the scene and talking to the daughter he is soon convinced that she is responsible, unfortunately there is no evidence.

What follows is entertaining enough but full of clichés; we learn Luther is estranged from his wife, he performs an illegal search in which he finds unusable evidence and the girl threatens his wife. The most glaring fault was when he surmised that she had disposed of the weapon by hiding it inside the dead dog which got cremated... then she kept the ashes which contained a large gun part, to think the people who put the ashes in the small urn wouldn't notice the part pushes suspension of disbelief a little too far.

While this wasn't the best entry into the cop genre it wasn't bad and past the time well enough, I'll certainly continue to watch to see how it turns out.

He's Paranoid and an Abuser

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 2 September 2017]

I'll give this a second shot because it has been set up nicely. I had trouble with the main character because of his volatility and his propensity for abuse, especially against his wife. If he were on my police force, he would have been gone for good. But TV shows aren't always played according to the realities of the day. The case he is working on is interesting. After a seven month suspension, he returns to duty to investigate a case where three family members have been murdered. The suspect, a daughter with a genius IQ pretty much admits doing it, but she wants to spar with Luther, to defeat him in intellect. She is created as quite a foe. The stuff that bothered me is his entrance into his home where he kicks in the door and frightens his wife after telling her he is fine now. If this is the way it goes each episode, the second one will be my last.

AVOID: Watched half of first episode. Ugh.

[wd-8 · 2/10 · 30 June 2012]

The writing here is clichéd and sophomoric. Direction is lackluster, acting is pedestrian (except the villain, who is overblown)

This is a cop- versus-villain you have seen before, but even more manipulative than usual.

If this series relied on true mystery, and less on the interplay between Luther and his semi- ex-wife, it might have made it.

Cliché after cliché in the writing here though.

The use of moving camera to follow the brooding Elba is tired. The disturbed psyche of Elba is not convincingly written.

Elba is a fine actor, and is let down by the writing, sadly

AVOID.

It starts like a bad episode of...

[IWasKnownAsThe1SentenceReviewer · 1/10 · 17 March 2023]

It starts like a bad episode of Dr Who, continues like a very lousy Skywalker (Noooooooo!) and a horrible Hollywood "I cough therefore I am revived" before a brief but oh how intense melodramatic Idris Elba face.

And all that before the opening credits!

So many clichés: the spinning linoleum floor cleaner in the hospital corridor, the chess game, the countdown before the kid supposedly dies, the 7 month time elapse, the "You're back... If you want it" and the "That's a good speech".

Then the crime scene is discovered, raw and gore, but not much is left to let the audience help discover the murderer.

A one hour episode, just for that... I am NOT going to try and follow Luther's adventures if it is a soap (Slow, Ordinary And Painful) opera...

Excessively Violent

[Warin_West-El · 1/10 · 6 February 2023]

How many men of average strength could have decimated that door to the degree Luther did? NONE. So, not only is this character portrayed as violent, he's portrayed as EXCESSIVELY violent.

I had to fast-forward through that whole strained conversation between Zoe and John, which didn't make any sense at all. And WHY doesn't Luther warn Zoe (the woman he supposedly loves) to safeguard herself? There are just SO many things that don't add up in this episode.

On the positive side . . . The villainess (Ruth Wilson) is absolutely stellar. She's the only bright light in this episode. But she burns with the intensity of a thousand suns.