"Elba stars an obsessive copper who works for the Serious and Serial Crime Unit. It’s not a procedural exactly, and it’s not about the investigations precisely, either, although there’s a certain “Sherlock Holmes” quality to the mystery solving (only we don’t see most of the deducing; we simply accept that Luther made the deductions. He’s not a guy with whom you argue). It’s more of an exercise in seeing how much intensity its viewers can withstand. But the series, which comes from Booker-nominated novelist Neil Cross, is also greatly entertaining."