"Gripping" British detective drama hailed as "escapist TV" is coming soon to Netflix

Idris Elba's major critical and ratings hit, Luther, has landed in the "worth the wait" section on Netflix, signalling the BBC series' impending arrival on the streaming service.

The psychological crime thriller sees Elba portray the titular John Luther, a deeply dedicated detective who has a dangerous habit of becoming utterly consumed by the cases he investigates.

Running for five series between 2010 and 2019, Luther has continued in feature film form, with Luther: The Fallen Sun released by Netflix in 2023, and a sequel having been announced in 2025.

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One of the shows biggest stories centred on the relationship between Luther and Alice Morgan, played by Ruth Wilson, a serial killer who constantly swings between friend and foe and someone Luther himself describes as a "malignant narcissist".

Luther also featured Indira Varma, Saskia Reeves, Dermot Crowley, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Hermione Norris across its run.

The show's first series boasts a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Guardian describing it as "pure, escapist TV drama", while Los Angeles Times said it was "rendered with such depth and complex humanity to make the old seem new again".

Pop Matters said: "By its end, the series' exploration of how ordinary human fallibility is transformed into shocking human depravity is compellingly inventive".

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette opined that it "offers strong, striking cop stories to accompany the intense thrills of the Luther-Alice cat-and-mouse game" and The Custard TV hailing it as a "gripping roller coaster".

HuffPost said the show was an "excellent showcase for Idris Elba and an increasingly impressive character drama that goes to some dark and absorbing places" while the Philadelphia Enquirer went adjective-heavy, describing the show as "powerful, challenging, ambiguous, surprising, dark, odd, stunning, grisly, disturbing, raw, sexy, taut, intense, captivating."

Luther is coming to Netflix soon.

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