Notes on Luther

Cinema has replaced literature in terms of broad appeal. Far more people view television, watch movies, or stream vids on the internet than read novels, short stories, or even magazine articles. This is no news. While cinema has replaced literature there are still similarities such as the emergence of the serialized televised novel, or visual novel. Similar to the victorian era which introduced the serialized novel due to innovations in printing technologies, the rise of literacy, and improved economics of distribution in the modern era we have new technologies such as netflix, hulu, hbo go, that allow us easier access to televised series. In addition our culture, global culture, has become more obsessed with the moving image, and with the easy, inexpensive ways of paying (or not) television series we can look at many television series as the modern era's answer to the victorian era nickelbacks and pulps.

British Television for monetary reasons, cultural reasons, and or reasons unbeknownst to me has more short term series. One recent pulp serial is the show "Luther." Opening with a James Bondesque sequence that is underscored by Massive Attack's "Paradise City." The dark number is laid with images of the city and a man in shadows. It is a classic noir motif and points towards a common narrative within the noir/detective genre. That of a lead protagonist who must navigate through an urban landscape much like Theseus threads through the labyrinth.



Akin to Theseus's minotaur, Luther has to defeat half men/ half beasts. Yet his dark encounters with him shade his soul and he is represented as a man who is continually self conflicted. The first series of possible 3 (the second was produced, the third series may be in the works) focuses on Luther's conflict with his ex wife, a human rights lawyer. Luther is also haunted by the ghostly pale, Alice, whom he suspects, using his Holmes' like insight into others' psyches, is a murderer. It is his delving into the others' psyches that darkens him, or at least that is what we are to believe. He is violent, short tempered, and prone to breaking rules if it suits him.

Paradise Circus

It's unfortunate that when we feel a storm,
we can roll ourselves over 'cause we're uncomfortable
Oh well the devil makes us sin
But we like it when we're spinning, in his grin.
Love is like a sin my love
For the ones that feels it the most
Look at her with her eyes like a flame
She will love you like a fly will never love you, again
Oh, ho..
It's unfortunate that when we feel a storm,
we can roll ourselves over when we're uncomfortable
Oh well the devil makes us sin
But we like it when we're spinning, in his grin.
Oh, ho,..
Love is like a sin my love
For the one that feels it the most
Look at her with her smile like a flame
She will love you like a fly will never love you, again