Sherlock Holmes has found a lot of success on TV in recent years with both modern and more classic adaptations, such as Sherlock, Elementary, and Young Sherlock. However, there’s another detective show unrelated to Sherlock Holmes that’s even better than his recent adaptations, and it’s one of Hulu’s best and most underrated hidden gems: Luther.
Luther Is Better Than Most Modern Sherlock Holmes TV Shows
Luther is a British psychological crime thriller TV show created by Neil Cross. Luther premiered on BBC One in 2010, and it follows Detective Chief Inspector John Luther (Idris Elba), who suffered a nervous breakdown after capturing a serial killer, whom he allowed to fall from a great height, leaving him in a coma.
On his first day back on active duty, Luther is assigned to the case of a double homicide, where the murdered couple’s daughter, Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson), is the prime suspect. What Luther isn’t ready for is Alice having a genius-level IQ and a brilliant criminal mind, which can be both dangerous and useful to him.
On top of that, Luther struggles with his inner demons, including his crumbling marriage, which, combined with his unorthodox and borderline illegal methods at work, often puts him into trouble at work. Luther ran for five seasons and was followed by a movie, released on Netflix in 2023.
Luther was a critical success, currently holding an 88% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, and has been praised for its dark tone, production value, writing, and performances, particularly those of Elba and Wilson. Luther is a lot more realistic, grounded, and deep than most modern Sherlock Holmes TV shows, with the main character being as smart as he is flawed and morally ambiguous sometimes.
John Luther is a more human character than Holmes, whose incredible abilities sometimes make him feel more like a superhero-type than a realistic detective, and he has more layers that make him more complex. Luther’s dynamic with Alice adds to the show’s depth and intensity, being a much more complex and engaging one than the one between Holmes and Moriarty.
Why Luther Became An Underrated Detective Show
Unfortunately, despite its quality in all areas, Luther isn’t as well-known as other detective shows, particularly those based on Sherlock Holmes. Luther isn’t based on any pre-existing media, being a fully original character and story, which inevitably limited its audience. Luther is also a lot darker (narratively and visually), which further alienated the audience.
Luther also wasn’t marketed as heavily as other detective TV shows, and even though it was a critical hit, it couldn’t reach a wider audience. Luckily, Luther’s critical reception was what granted it more seasons, allowing it to maintain the audience it attracted at the beginning and welcome new viewers as it progressed.
Luther Is Set To Return In A New Movie
Luther had the same issue as other British TV shows: long waits between seasons. While the gap between seasons 1 and 2 was only one year, those between seasons 2 and 3, and 3 and 4 were two years, which, when it comes to TV shows, is a lot. Then came season 5 in 2019, four years after season 4, but luckily, it arrived to wrap up the show.
The world of Luther continued in 2023 with the movie Luther: The Fallen Sun, released on Netflix, and though it wasn’t the critics’ favorite, fans were very welcoming of it. The Luther franchise will continue with a sequel to The Fallen Sun, which was confirmed to be in development in November 2025.
To make the second Luther movie even more exciting, it was reported that Ruth Wilson will reprise her role as Alice Morgan, so there will be more of the always exciting and intriguing dynamic between Luther and Alice. The second Luther movie doesn’t have a release date yet, so there’s time to catch up with the show on Hulu and the first movie on Netflix.
- Release Date
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2010 – 2019-00-00
- Showrunner
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Neil Cross
- Writers
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Neil Cross