Luther Research

Luther is a British psychological crime drama television series starring Idris Elba as the title character Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. A brilliant detective whose passionate involvement in his work threatens to derail his personal life. Unlike most other dramas, each episode of this crime thriller opens by revealing a killer's identity. The murder is then investigated and the relationship between hunter and victim is investigated. Luther was created by writer Neil Cross, and is a BBC Drama Production for BBC One. A first series of six episodes was broadcast on BBC One from 4 May to 8 June 2010. The second series of four episodes was shown on BBC One in summer 2011. During the Edinburgh TV Festival, BBC One controller Danny Cohen announced there will be a third series. The third series began on 2nd  July, 2013. . The show was broadcast on BBC America in the U.S.

The character of Luther is played by Idris Elba, who won the Golden Globe award for best actor in a miniseries at the 2011 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 2012, a year after his nomination in 2011.

Media Representations 

Luther is a recent British television crime drama. It has been airing since 4th May 2010 and is still going on after yearly breaks.  Luther portrays normal working class people who all work together under DCI Luther. It is built around the life of DCI Luther and how he tackles problems which go on such as serial killers and malicious rapists. The characters in Luther are sometimes presented in a very negative way as we see majority of the characters turn 'heel' and go onto the 'evil' side. The crime drama shows us how hard the life of a Detective can be. However the representation is not always accurate as at the end of nearly each series, we see characters turn against Luther and he is portrayed in a very negative way, a way we do not usually associate with detectives.

Luther represents a ethnic group which we do not usually see as protagonists, in most movies the stereotype is that we see black characters as thieves and murders but never the 'hero' but in Luther we see an alternative stereotype where the protagonist is black and is actually the 'hero' and not the villain

Narrative

Luther is usually a four part series that comes on once a year that is shown usually at 9PM. The narrative usually starts off from where it has left off in the previous series. A recap is usually shown of what has happened in the previous episode and even though there may be some small storylines going on in the background, the show usually consists of one main storyline. The narrative usually follows many theories such as Todorov's narrative theory alongside Propp's character structure theory. The narrative always follows Todorov's theory where the plot starts off with an equilibrium of some sort which due to unfortunate circumstances is followed by disequilibrium and then near to the end of the series is followed by the new equilibrium. Todorov's theory is usually accompanied by Propp's character structure theory using characters such as villains, heroes and victims.

An example of this is when Luther used Todorov's theory in the first series where the equilibrium is Luther getting close to his wife again which is followed by the disequilibrium where his wife is killed by his best friend. This is then followed by the new equilibrium where Luther's once called enemies help him kill his best friend.

Genre:

The genre of the text is crime drama. The conventions of a crime drama are usually one continuous storyline that goes on throughout the series, episode or movie, the storyline usually focuses on a criminal and how he is tackled by the police or a different hero. In the case of Luther he is a police officer. The storyline is still usually focused mostly on working class communities.

Media audiences/ Institutions

Luther is addressed to a wide range of audiences. The main audience although is teenagers and young adults. Also people in the CDE classes would be the typical working class to be watching the crime drama as even though they are not fully engaging with what is happening but they can still relate to it as they know of stuff that has happened previously. The crime drama is shown at a time where the whole the older family can watch the show while they are having dinner. It is just after the watershed time period which connotes the values of the BBC as even though it is after watershed we rarely hear any swearing or see any sexual content. Which could potentially make the show suitable for all ages.