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Just started watching Luther on Netflix

Started by garnish, December 12, 2018, 11:54:58 PM

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garnish

It's shit isn't it? I mean, Idris Elba is good but it's a garbage show, right? Just relentless police show cliches.

Take a shot every time Luther says "something doesn't feel right".

garnish

His boss was on hiatus from the Fast Show, so it's good that she had the time to spare for this.

Golden E. Pump

I made the mistake of having watched it very close to watching Sherlock. The result is a schizoid of gritty detective cottage pie that no plate should ever yield, lest they be rendered opposite.

Mister Six

Nah it's great, once you get past the flat pilot. Basically a daft campy horror movie each week, but with a cop chasing human monsters. Comic booky in the best way.

The last episode of the third series was shit, though, and I've not seen any since then.

Ferris

Quote from: Mister Six on December 13, 2018, 01:59:33 AM
Nah it's great, once you get past the flat pilot. Basically a daft campy horror movie each week, but with a cop chasing human monsters. Comic booky in the best way.

The last episode of the third series was shit, though, and I've not seen any since then.

Me and Mrs Ferris watched it (at her behest). It is like the Bill, but with Idris Elba and yer man from Shameless. Don't think we watched the whole thing though.

It was alright as far as I remember. Give it a go if you've got nothing left to watch. Otherwise, rewatch the Wire.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Mister Six on December 13, 2018, 01:59:33 AM
Nah it's great, once you get past the flat pilot. Basically a daft campy horror movie each week, but with a cop chasing human monsters. Comic booky in the best way.

The last episode of the third series was shit, though, and I've not seen any since then.

Exactly this.

It's knowingly ludicrous in every way, a straight-faced spoof of grisly cop melodramas. That's not giving it the benefit of the doubt either, as once you get past the uneven pilot (as Mr Six says) it becomes abundantly clear that Neil Cross is having a whale of a time. The effect is contagious. When you click with what he's doing - fucking about with genre cliches and conventions, basically - it turns into a great piece of campy entertainment.

Don't take it seriously, just go along with the sheer madness of it all.

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on December 13, 2018, 02:56:05 AM
Me and Mrs Ferris watched it (at her behest). It is like the Bill, but with Idris Elba and yer man from Shameless. Don't think we watched the whole thing though.

I hardly ever watched The Bill, but unless it eventually metamorphosed into a live-action penny dreadful involving various OTT homicidal maniacs enjoying absurdly audacious and convoluted killing sprees, I very much doubt that it was anything like Luther at all.

a duncandisorderly

very disappointed, I stopped watching after ten episodes when I hadn't even seen a guitar, let alone him making one.

Shit Good Nose

I watch it cos it's there and Mrs Nose loves it.  But it's basically the same show over and over again now with the only difference being what disguise the villain is using.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on December 13, 2018, 12:04:37 PM
I watch it cos it's there and Mrs Nose loves it.  But it's basically the same show over and over again now with the only difference being what disguise the villain is using.

True, but there's always that good bit where Luther gets pissed off and smashes some furniture because he's failed to apprehend this week's madcap antagonist.

20 minutes later, they finally confront each other in an abandoned warehouse. Madcap villain has strapped grenades and rats to the head of a petrified woman, but maverick Luther saves the day by calmly putting himself in harm's way, which is too much for our batshit fucking crazy maniac of the week to deal with, so he shoots his own cock off while screaming "WHYYYY DADDY WHYYY!!!???" Then a truck explodes.

The police turn up and reprimand Luther, who comforts the victim before striding off to contemplate his lonely existence on the roof of a multistorey car park.

It's a winning formula.

Kelvin

Ha, that's great Ballad. Laughed out loud at "whhhy daddy whhhy!"

Kelvin

Quote from: Mister Six on December 13, 2018, 01:59:33 AM
Nah it's great, once you get past the flat pilot. Basically a daft campy horror movie each week, but with a cop chasing human monsters. Comic booky in the best way.

The last episode of the third series was shit, though, and I've not seen any since then.

Was that the one with Alice helping him catch the vigilante? That was when I gave up, too. Really liked series 1, though.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on December 13, 2018, 12:34:08 PM
True, but there's always that good bit where Luther gets pissed off and smashes some furniture because he's failed to apprehend this week's madcap antagonist.

20 minutes later, they finally confront each other in an abandoned warehouse. Madcap villain has strapped grenades and rats to the head of a petrified woman, but maverick Luther saves the day by calmly putting himself in harm's way, which is too much for our batshit fucking crazy maniac of the week to deal with, so he shoots his own cock off while screaming "WHYYYY DADDY WHYYY!!!???" Then a truck explodes.

The police turn up and reprimand Luther, who comforts the victim before striding off to contemplate his lonely existence on the roof of a multistorey car park.

It's a winning formula.

You forgot that the batshit fucking crazy maniac of the week is misunderstood in some way, thus earning slight sympathy, and Michael Smiley doing nothing but making and taking phone calls and saying "yes guv" a lot, but, as I said - it's the same show week in, week out.

Mister Six

Quote from: Kelvin on December 13, 2018, 01:30:55 PM
Was that the one with Alice helping him catch the vigilante?

Yeah. I liked part one but part two was awful. The cliffhanger to the first part should have led into a catastrophic change of formula and Luther actually killing a man directly. Instead they copped out with Alice doing the dirty deed and Luther just tossing his coat in the Thames as a symbol of (???).

Also what's this about the baddies being sympathetic? In my recollection they were almost all horrible cunts - bloke who wants to be the new Jack the Ripper, bloke who's competing to rack up the most kills/disfigurements, bloke who cut out a woman's tongue because her husband had some diamonds, woman who trafficks girls into porn, bloke who's sacrificing mums to Satan and drinking their blood. Only sniper and vigilante were sympathetic from what I remember.

Jerzy Bondov

The last series without Alice, the love of my life, was complete gash. Scene after scene thinking maybe Alice will come back. Nope. No Alice. SHIT

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Mister Six on December 13, 2018, 02:10:56 PM
Also what's this about the baddies being sympathetic? In my recollection they were almost all horrible cunts - bloke who wants to be the new Jack the Ripper, bloke who's competing to rack up the most kills/disfigurements, bloke who cut out a woman's tongue because her husband had some diamonds, woman who trafficks girls into porn, bloke who's sacrificing mums to Satan and drinking their blood. Only sniper and vigilante were sympathetic from what I remember.

I seem to remember at least three of the villains being "misunderstood", or having some deathly horrible upbringing, and Luther having some sympathy because of it and appealing to their humanity (standing halfway between the armed SWAT team and the villain, with both of his hands up in the air, obvs), before the villain ignores him and then shoots their own cock off and blowing up a truck.

Kelvin

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on December 13, 2018, 02:29:04 PM
The last series without Alice, the love of my life, was complete gash. Scene after scene thinking maybe Alice will come back. Nope. No Alice. SHIT

Alice has been awful post series 1. They went from her being a sinister presence who Luthor reluctantly aligns with, to a character who he likes and cares for, despite knowing she's an obsessive multiple murderer. The performance went from creepy and subtle to comic book panto, as well. 

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on December 13, 2018, 03:06:14 PM
(standing halfway between the armed SWAT team and the villain, with both of his hands up in the air, obvs)

A classic Luther scenario. I'll be genuinely disappointed if he doesn't do this again in the new series.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on December 13, 2018, 01:41:28 PM
You forgot that the batshit fucking crazy maniac of the week is misunderstood in some way, thus earning slight sympathy, and Michael Smiley doing nothing but making and taking phone calls and saying "yes guv" a lot, but, as I said - it's the same show week in, week out.

You're right about Michael Smiley, he has nothing to do in this show. Such a waste of a great actor.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: Kelvin on December 13, 2018, 05:33:30 PM
Alice has been awful post series 1. They went from her being a sinister presence who Luthor reluctantly aligns with, to a character who he likes and cares for, despite knowing she's an obsessive multiple murderer. The performance went from creepy and subtle to comic book panto, as well.
Take that back, I love her. You're correct, but I love her.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

#19
Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on December 13, 2018, 08:06:43 PM
Take that back, I love her. You're correct, but I love her.

You love John Gordon Sinclair in drag ? Some may rub their immaculately stubbed chin and say " It's not right, is it ? ", but each to their own, I suppose.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on December 13, 2018, 08:22:41 PM
You love John Gordon Sinclair in drag ? Some may rub their immaculately stubbed chin and say " It's s not right, is it ? ", but each to their own, I suppose.
John Gordon Sinclair's took over as narrator on Biggleton from Eamonn Holmes. That's a bit of an upgrade isn't it? Can you fucking imagine the sound of Eamonn Holmes singing? Christ. Anyway JGS is a peach.

Phil_A

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on December 13, 2018, 07:41:43 PM
You're right about Michael Smiley, he has nothing to do in this show. Such a waste of a great actor.

Love Dermot Crowley as Luther's angry boss though. Superb actor.

Mister Six

Quote from: Kelvin on December 13, 2018, 05:33:30 PM
Alice has been awful post series 1. They went from her being a sinister presence who Luthor reluctantly aligns with, to a character who he likes and cares for, despite knowing she's an obsessive multiple murderer. The performance went from creepy and subtle to comic book panto, as well.

Oh yeah, that annoyed me Luther's supposed to be this morally upright sort who goes catatonic after dropping a nonce off a gantry, but he's all right with letting a woman who murdered her own parents for a laugh out in the wild? There was a bit after her return where she quips about how during her flight from justice she'd been briefly married because she'd "always dreamed of being a widow" and Luther just shrugs it off. That definitely seemed rum.

Dex Sawash

Quote from: Mister Six on December 13, 2018, 10:23:52 PM
Oh yeah, that annoyed me Luther's supposed to be this morally upright sort

But that's not right, is it?
Luther wants to do right but finds himself unable to work inside a normal moral framework.

Kelvin

Yes, but I still think it's against his charachter to befriend an unrepent murderer he couldn't convict.

Mister Six

Not just one he couldn't convict, but one he deliberately helped escape from a secure unit.

Quote from: Dex Sawash on December 13, 2018, 10:53:57 PM
But that's not right, is it?
Luther wants to do right but finds himself unable to work inside a normal moral framework.

I dunno, I can't remember the details because I've not seen it for years, but basically aiding a killer and becoming an accessory to her ongoing murder spree seemed distinctly unlike him at the time.

gib

Quote from: Mister Six on December 13, 2018, 10:23:52 PM
Oh yeah, that annoyed me Luther's supposed to be this morally upright sort who goes catatonic after dropping a nonce off a gantry, but he's all right with letting a woman who murdered her own parents for a laugh out in the wild? There was a bit after her return where she quips about how during her flight from justice she'd been briefly married because she'd "always dreamed of being a widow" and Luther just shrugs it off. That definitely seemed rum.

Wasn't there a bit somewhere where she said to Luther something along the lines of 'you don't know why i killed them'. The implication as i saw it was that they must have done something terrible to her.


garnish

I'm still watching the show despite my damning opening post.  I was expecting some gritty, realistic The Wire style show but now I see it's just a villain of the week thing, and I think it's decent enough.

Also Luther hasn't said 'this doesn't feel right' for a few episodes now.

Ferris

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on December 13, 2018, 07:38:11 PM
A classic Luther scenario. I'll be genuinely disappointed if he doesn't do this again in the new series.

Is there a new series?! Surely not