Luther: Season Three product reviews

The main reason to watch "Luther" is to see Idris Elba inhabit the role of troubled London cop John Luther with effortless skill and abundant charisma.

This is a well done show but the problem is that the show doesn't rise to it's full potential, and thus I can see why it didn't last long, which is a shame. Luther is an unconventional detective who tends to go rogue and ends up with good results, he may annoy those who he works with but there is no better job for him than this job. The acting in this is really superb, some of the best that I've seen on TV but none of this manages to save the show.

I often wish "Luther" would just embrace its smallness -- not that the murder of human beings is small, of course (and it's not "Luther's" fault that I am exhausted with serial-killer shows, but that's one more reason to wish the show had some original tricks up its sleeve). But it's hard not to come away from the show thinking that a more judicious and focused approach could have kicked this third (and quite possibly final) season up a notch.

Season Three of Luther is only a total of four hours and would have done much better had it not tried to cover as many bases and tie any loose ends. This time around, Luther tracks two different killers, attempts a romance (which is not done as well as it could have been done), and is also investigated for possible corruption. It's too much to squeeze into just four hours of screen time and makes it less enjoyable than it could have been.

Luther is still a good show and Elba does a great job, whilst the episodes left me wishing they had been done better I was still left wanting more.