Crime TV Heroes: What could a ‘Luther’ season 5 do with Idris Elba’s John?
In today’s edition of our Crime TV Heroes series, we are focusing on someone who doesn’t always seem like the most heroic person in the world: John Luther. The title character of “Luther” is a guy who often does get the job done, but doesn’t quite care how it’s done. He falls into the “tortured-souls” category of law enforcement (much like Voight over on “Chicago PD”), someone who can be a liability at times, but is so darn good at his job that you cannot justify scrapping him. If you did, you’d find yourself landing in huge trouble.
Before we dive any further into our perspective on John in the future, know this: There may never be a “Luther” season 5. We’re taking a never-say-never approach on this one, because this is the sort of thing we could envision back someday.
Why he’s a hero – If you look at the black-and-white results of his work, that may be all some out there really need to know: The guy gets the job done. Sure, sometimes he does not always care how it gets done, but he still figures out a way to make it happen and he fights to ensure he has justice. He’s also someone who you know is going to put every single thing that he has into a case, even to the point where it damages his own health. Maybe that’s not heroic at all if you’re looking for an ideal human being for a role model, but it certainly is effective as a crime-solver.
What he can learn – Does Luther really think that Alice is dead? It’s an interesting situation. There is some extremely compelling evidence that she is, and while you never quite know on TV, all signs point to her being gone. John’s got to move on, and start to focus on what is next for him. We’re not sure that there is ever going to be complete peace for the man, but if he wants to be the best person and also investigator that he can be (provided he wants that), he could learn to get more of a normal routine, establish something stable, and open himself up to new possibilities. It’s not easy for any person, but we think that there is hope for someone like John despite everything he’s gone through.
What we’d like to see from here – If there is no more Alice, it would be nice to see him forge some sort of connection with another person. It doesn’t have to be romantic per se, but we do need to see him connect on an emotional level with someone again. From here, we’d like to see him dive in more to what he’s truly good at, and make more of the past, the past. You do need a little bit of the darkness there for “Luther” to still be “Luther,” though, so there is probably a part of us that doesn’t want this gone completely.