Season 4 of Luther is short and intense, comprising of just two episodes, which I think were a Christmas special when they were aired. Although there is no festive content in the episodes.
It starts with Luther (Idris Elba) on a leave of absence and living a quiet life in a remote village. However the peace is shattered when two detectives arrive from London requesting his help with an extremely disturbing case.
On arrival in London, Luther discovers that Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) has been killed. This drives him to seek out gang boss, George Cornelius (Patrick Malahide), who may have had something to do with her death,
Meanwhile someone is killing and eating his victims and Luther will need to unlock the secrets from a cold case to connect the dots and catch the perpetrator. That’s if he doesn’t get distracted by Megan Cantor (Laura Haddock), who claims to have a message from Alice from beyond the grave.
After the absolutely magic of season 3, I felt like the fire was gone a little bit with season 4. Although the actual case that Luther was following up was really compelling, I found the whole psychic manipulation bit quite convoluted and I didn’t feel like Luther’s temporary partner Emma (Rose Leslie) was particularly memorable, His recklessness when it came to getting on the wrong side of George Cofrnelius felt like a frightening look at a future with less of a moral compass and there were moments where I felt like it was taking away from the thing I like most about Luther – his relentless desire to catch the bad guys and protect the vulnerable. This was more like a personal vendetta.
Although it didn’t live up to season 3, season 4 is still exciting and packed with outstanding performances. Elba, is as always, a standout and John Heffernan is impressively creepy as Steven Rose.
3.5/5