In yet another brilliant show, the BBC continues to prove that it knows how to produce great television. Luther isn't just another crime procedural the likes of which US networks are flooded, but a complex drama about people with problems.

Detective Chief Inspector John Luther is a highly intelligent investigator, but he is also quick to action and a taker of huge risks, sometimes skirting the edges of the laws his job is to uphold. In the previous season, we started with John allowing a suspect to fall from a great height when saving his was well within his ability. He returned to work months later to be faced with a perplexing case of a woman, Alice Morgan, who apparently killed her parents but left behind no evidence and had no motive. Over the six episodes of that season, as John works other cases and deals with the ruins of his marriage, he and Alice form a bizarre friendship that culminates in her saving his life by killing a crooked cop.

Season two begins with John under review again, for the incident that ended the previous series. And Alice is in an asylum. John is brought in to a new department, Serious and Serial Crime Unit, that deals only with the out of the ordinary offenses and the most critical and dangerous of offenders, and immediately he is back to dealing with unhinged suspects. Meanwhile, an old friend of sorts surfaces asking for help, which of course he does, and it lands him in the middle of a murky situation of having to use police resources to give information to criminals to protect innocent lives. With his own reputation not being the cleanest, John also encounters trouble with some of his new coworkers. It all mixes together to provide for four hours of television that is better than entire twenty-two episode seasons of other shows as well as most of what Hollywood churns out for the big screen.

Beyond the plot, Idris Elba is a powerhouse as John Luther. His performance brings even the occasional cop show cliches new life. And the rest of the cast isn't too shabby either.

Luther is well worth watching.