'Ludwig' Season 2 Officially Solidifies BritBox as the Home of Cozy Mysteries | Review
Maggie Lovitt is the Deputy News Editor at Collider. In addition to reporting on the latest entertainment news, she is also an actor and member of the Screen Actors Guild based out of the Mid-Atlantic Region. Lovitt is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Critics Choice Association and National Press Club.
While she spends her time writing and editing articles about the entertainment industry, Maggie’s background is actually in history and anthropology. She loves it whenever she can bring those two facets of her life together, such as with reviews for series like We Were the Lucky Ones and The New Look, and engaging interviews with talent like Ben Mendelsohn, Liev Schreiber, or Jonas Nay.
Sign in to your Collider account
Two years after the UK debut of the first season of David Mitchell’s quirky murder mystery, Ludwig has officially returned with a brand-new installment that blessedly avoids a sophomore slump. If there is one thing the British do well, it’s coming up with new ways to tackle the formulaic crime procedural, and Ludwig is undoubtedly one of the best series to make its way across the pond, by way of BritBox. The 6-episode seasons maintains a tight grasp on the overarching plotline, while still delivering case-of-the-week-style mysteries that make cozy crime shows so compelling.
Mitchell stars as the reclusive puzzle setter John “Ludwig” Taylor, whose life was turned upside down in Season 1 by the mysterious disappearance of his twin brother, Cambridge’s DCI James Taylor. With the encouragement of his sister-in-law, Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), John began to impersonate his brother, believing that his puzzle-making skills might help them unravel the truth behind his disappearance. The status quo is much the same in the new season, though Ludwig does (rather quickly) bring John and Lucy even closer to understanding why James flew the coop, and it raises the stakes immediately.
‘Ludwig’ Season 2 Is the Perfect Blend of Low and High Stakes Mystery
For longtime fans of Mitchell’s unique brand of exasperated humor, made famous by his run as Mark Corrigan on Peep Show, and various sketch series with Robert Webb, Ludwig delivers. The series even alludes to an iconic 20-year-old bit from That Mitchell and Webb Look, which is now forever immortalized as an oft-used and too-apt meme stateside. While John is a far cry from being characterized as a baddie, he is just as bumbling and aloof as he was in the first season, and no less the puzzle-solving, case-cracking savant.
One of the first mysteries Ludwig faces at the start of Season 2 is the inexplicable disappearance of Chief Constable Ronan Ziegler (Ralph Ineson), which poses quite the challenge for John, who has been brought on as a consultant at the constabulary, with the caveat that he stop impersonating his brother — and cease his investigation into his disappearance. Ziegler’s absence, paired with the introduction of the duplicitous politician Joanne Kemper (Sian Clifford), sets Ludwig and Lucy up with a whole new line of inquiry into James’ whereabouts.
Anna Maxwell Martin Is Officially a True Co-Lead in ‘Ludwig’ Season 2
Despite being a rather integral part of both James and John’s lives, Lucy wasn’t much of a major player in Ludwig Season 1. Here, however, Anna Maxwell Martin is given the opportunity to play to her strengths, and the results ensure that Season 2 is infinitely more entertaining than the first. As fun as it is to see Mitchell play into John’s social awkwardness episode after episode, Ludwig was smart enough to shape Lucy into a savvy and capable budding journalist. This, of course, brings her close to dangerous members of the community, which adds a new layer of intrigue and emotional turmoil for John.
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
🪙Chigurh
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours. Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from the encounter.
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the conversation is.
- Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
- You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve is exactly the door he would knock on.
- The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence. It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
- He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
- The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
- He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool you would normally reach for.
- His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend the rest of your life proving him wrong.
- He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
- Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from: a mind the equal of the hero's, pointed the wrong way.
- You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he has already built the room.
- This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs the game to be worth playing.
- It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
- Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
- You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no interest in how capable you are.
- No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
- Call it. He will wait.
This narrative shift also makes way for an unexpected dilemma that Ludwig is unlikely to explore (even if it should). With James out of the picture, and John playing house as his absent twin, the pair have undeniable chemistry, which is only emboldened by how well-suited they are as a crime-solving duo. While romantic overtures are rarely the focus of an ever-growing slate of cozy British mysteries, audiences can’t be faulted for wishing for a little brush of passion in the midst of government conspiracies and Midsomer Murders-esque deaths.
'Ludwig' Season 2 Is Another Winner for BritBox
Ludwig’s ensemble remains well-rounded in Season 2, with DCI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola) and Lucy’s son Henry (Dylan Hughes) getting more screentime and involvement in the central plotline, alongside Season 2 newcomers, newspaper editor Gareth Fisher (Mark Bonnar), and DC Ethan Cole (Ben Ashenden) and DC Caitlin Sullivan (Rumi Sutton). Series creator and scribe Mark Brotherhood’s scripts are still top-notch, with smartly interwoven mysteries and deftly crafted character development.
Though there are plenty of mysteries and puzzles left to be solved, it is no mystery that Ludwig remains chart-topping entertainment. The best part of watching is not only the assurance that a third season is already on the way, but that in a few months, fans will be treated to one of the most age-old British traditions — a Christmas special to tide us over until the new year!
Ludwig Season 2 premieres October 13 on BritBox.
Ludwig
BritBox wins with another cozy mystery.
8 10
- Release Date
- September 25, 2024
- Network
- BBC One
- Directors
- Jill Robertson, Robert McKillop
-
David Mitchell
John 'Ludwig' Taylor / James Taylor
-
Anna Maxwell Martin
Lucy Betts-Taylor
Pros & Cons
- Anna Maxwell Martin shines as Lucy steps up into a savvy, full-fledged crime-solving partner.
- David Mitchell's awkward charm remains central while the supporting cast gets deeper, more engaging screen time.
- The scripts expertly balance cozy, puzzle-focused weekly mysteries with higher-stakes overarching conspiracies.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.