Luther: Stereotypes

Luther is a TV drama Starring Idris Elba As a police detective in London. Its noticeable that Elba character is older than most police detectives shown in the Series, making him a bit naïve at times while younger people in the series are shown to more rational e.g. Alice Morgan. In the clip shown below. There is use of several different moving image techniques that show the difference between the genders in the show and how the men try to be calm and rational while women are more unstable.

Firstly, A fast Cut is used to build tension and show that men in the Drama try to deal with high- tense situations such as a possible death with trying to remain calm, this implies that Luther doesn't want to kill the person even though he is holding a gun to him, however he throws it away, seeing that arresting him would be easier, showing that men when catching a criminal with try to never do anything irrational and even through everything still try to catch and arrest the criminal in the end.


Shortly after this however, fast-paced editing is used to reach the highest point of tension before the climax of Luther being stabbed happens, it happens very quickly and suggest that time for these two men is slowing down, Luther because he has ben stabbed and is trying to hold out while for Ian Reed, its trying to evade capture and death at the same time. However this shows that when men are backed into a corner against their will, they will resort to using any trick they have to free themselves.


Next, A non-diegetic Sound bridge is used at the same time, to reveal the Alice who has caught up to Luther and is now carrying the gun and pointing it at Reed, the use of the non-diegetic sound is to grab the audiences attention and make them think "Now what's going to happen!?". Furthermore, Alice votes in favour of shooting Ian reed, suggesting that she is unstable in the head but also willing to sacrifice her freedom for others which is against the stereotype of women as usually they would be the ones against any kind of killing and would try and talk people out of it. The  penultimate scene  using a Shot-reverse-shot to signal another climax in the tension which has been built up even further than before. its used to show how  Ian Reeds fate is decided in one fell swoop before Alice pulls the trigger by another male who can't keep his cool and shouts "Do It!". This goes against the stereotype of men that we have had through the scene with Luther and Reed being calm for most of it but now another man has come in and lost his cool, showing that all men can't keep their emotions in check for too long.


Finally, a panning shot is used to show climax of the situation as Ian Reed is shot by Alice and subsequently dies. Its used to demonstrate the end of action and the end of the climax before quickly falling down, furthermore synchronous sound is used to cause an echo effect that last for a few seconds after the shotgun is fired possibly to show that its done and Alice has killed Ian. the fact that its Alice that shots Ian also goes against women stereotypes and is usually not a Women to deal a killing blow unless they're in the armed forces. Also asynchronous sound is used with a song that begins playing in the background, This is used to create emotion during these final few scenes as Luther gets to feet and see The person he has been trying to arrest been killed and the realisation that he failed his job which was to arrest Ian. This is against the stereotype of men as usually they would be the ones who pull the trigger to end someone's life but Luther doesn't, Even it that person killed a family member he would try and arrest that person instead which implies that Luther is a Man who is only concerned about doing his job and doing it well which is a stereotype of men as if they didn't do their job they could be fired.