5 reasons to watch Luther from the beginning

Luther, the British psychological crime drama that sees Idris Elba play isolated and troubled homicide detective DCI John Luther, is returning for a fifth season.

BBC announced in November that Luther will be coming back for Season 5 – look out for it on BBC First on 27 January 2019. It’s been a long time coming – the short fourth season first aired in 2015. But the wait is over, and, as Idris Elba himself has promised, we can expect a “classic Luther.”

The series follows police detective Luther, a near-genius loner who isn’t as good at dealing with his personal life as he is with his work, as he hunts down psychopaths lurking on the streets of London.

If you want to see a sneak peek of what to expect, BBC has already released a chilling trailer accompanied by a cover of Britney Spears’ Toxic, and it seems even darker than ever. Classic Luther indeed.

Before you dive into this new season, you’ll definitely need to refresh your memory with the earlier seasons of Luther.

Here are our top five reasons not to miss out on this binge fest!

1. Behold, the glorious Idris Elba

Idris Elba has been many things – 2018’s Sexiest Man Alive (actually eternally SMA), Beyoncé’s swoon-worthy husband (in 2009’s Obsessed), Nelson Mandela (in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), an Asgardian gatekeeper in the Marvel Universe, and he’s even a DJ and musician in his spare time. And while his role as the ambitious consigliere Stringer Bell made him arguably The Wire‘s most interesting character, we cannot ignore the brilliance he brings to his tortured and volatile character DCI John Luther in the series Luther.

We’d love a few more shows and movies where Idris Elba speaks in his British accent. Like something with a suave tuxedo-loving, martini-drinking spy, perhaps?

2. Ruth Wilson

No one defines the villain you hate to love more than Ruth Wilson’s Alice Morgan. A former child prodigy, Morgan comes into our lives (and Luther’s) as a suspected murderer accused of killing her parents and the family dog. She did it, of course, but she’s too smart to get caught. Intrigued by Luther, she begins to stalk him, interfering in his professional and personal life – at one point she even kills a serial killer whose testimony might threaten Luther’s career. A very peculiar relationship develops between them that will later save Luther’s life and give him the closest thing he has to a friend.

And if you were heartbroken thinking you’d seen the last of Alice Morgan, here’s some good news: Ruth Wilson will also be making a comeback in the fifth season.

3. The villains

Other than Alice Morgan, Luther has some of the darkest villains to ever grace a TV show – from the blood-drinking killer Lucien Burgess who murders women and leaves behind satanic images, to a vigilante serial killer who metes out his own version of justice, to a shoe-stealing murderer who stalks his victims before killing them. If you think you’ve seen the worst of humanity, wait until you see what Luther’s London has to offer.

4. The suspense

Imagine coming home to your empty house and there’s a masked sociopath hiding under your bed. Luther has many suspenseful moments that constantly keep you on the edge,  like when John Luther’s murderous nemesis Alice Morgan takes his ex-wife Zoe hostage in a twisted attempt to understand the man she’s now become obsessed with.

Others will shatter your heart into pieces, like when Luther’s unhinged best friend takes from him what he loves the most. Then there are the twisted murderers and serial killers who know how to make you uncomfortable – so brace yourself for some suspense, twists and turns.

5. It’s messy

Luther is not black and white; it’s as messy and as grey as a dark psychological thriller can get. And even with the best of intentions, its protagonist DCI Luther is not a perfect man. He believes in justice but he has no regard for the rules, especially if it hinders him from doing his job.

In a case that comes back to haunt him later, Luther lets a serial killer fall to his death (but fate puts him in a coma instead) because the world would be a better place with one less child killer. His moral ambiguity and willingness to get his hands dirty to catch the bad guys is what make Luther the great detective he is.

Of course, his colleagues don’t always agree with his unorthodox methods, but someone as self-destructive as Luther is too far gone to care. For him, the end justifies the means.