Episode #5.4

The amount of killing in this episode and the whole season is ridiculous. It seems the producers just wanted to shock the viewers with gruesome kills without too much of a sensible plot. Talking of which, the plot was just messy, it wasn't very clear which storyline was the main one - the psychopath killing doctors, the mob king Cornelius and his lost son or a crazy psychopath Alice. Bringing her back from dead seemed like a very random plot twist which was probably supposed to simply shock us even more. The producers just overdid it this time with shocks, grusomeness and senseless killing of main characters, which is a shame.

Luther should had taken Alice's advice. Let her kill George Cornelius.

Luther instead wanted to do the right thing and know finds himself sinking in a metaphorical quicksand.

Meanwhile Jeremy Lake plans a killing spree and it is left to Halliday to try to break his wife as Luther has to free Mark and Alice from the hitman.

I long ago gave up any sense in Luther, you just sit back and enjoy the ride.

You can sense Alice's disappointment when Luther lies to her. There were one or two killings that were senseless in my opinion and wasted good characters.

By the end Luther has nowhere to go and is even stripped of his long coat.

Mention must be made of Dermot Crowley as Schenk. The look of seething anger in his face when he learned of Benny's death was something else.

No plot , only key persons deaths without reason! Not even a clever puzzle to solve, all was a huge nothing!

Season 5 maintained the level of story integrity needed to keep my interest. There was an aspect of the story arc that seemed added to please the longtime fans but it was dealt with in a way that gratified me.

Of the five 'seasons,' this was my third favorite. While some in my family felt other choices should have been made by Luther, I thought he was consistant with his drive to help those in his life while trying to minimize the damage to his 'duty' caused from actions he knows are darker than grey: He wants to protect and do the right thing for individuals and is willing to compromise his professional duty for that goal. A bit like 'The Bureau' in that regard.

I felt one of the villians could have been stronger but the direction it went kept them human without being cliche. The writers seemed boxed into an inevitable ending if they wanted to keep the story's integrity plausable. I was okay with that and I still was left asking, "what's next?" ;)

Technically, from an editor's aspect, this was not the worse Luther season. The story building craft impressed me more than some of the earlier seasons and it came together better for me.

Besotted Psychiatrist just chastising lunatic hubby with, "Now stop being a bad boy". Luther's repeated, "I will sort it", with the murder and mayhem continuing. Loony Alice just calling round to say "Hello". A boss missing ALL the twists and turns. Gangster boss who is, "Up his own.......". Luther badly shot up and still able to chase Alice and hold her full weight...Nah, too much OTT!