you need to see this: Luther

I've admired Idris Elba since his undeniably memorable stint as Stringer Bell on The Wire, arguably one of the best television series ever produced.  If you've not seen it, I heartily admonish that you head to your library, post haste, and borrow the whole thing.  The library is a great place to find the show, because it certainly isn't streaming on any major service, and, as usual for HBO fare, is extremely expensive.

This post isn't about The Wire, but instead to share Luther, the BBC series starring Elba as the eponymous John Luther, a troubled, savvy police detective.  I'm always fascinated by foreign television series-it's interesting to see how they differ from ours (you might be interested to know that American television is typically much more violent).  Luther is unique in that there is a recurring would-be villain, played by Ruth Wilson, an actress with a startlingly bewitching face.  Wilson's character, Alice Morgan, has an ongoing cat-and-mouse relationship with Luther, who finds himself constantly struggling to rise above the darkness of his job.  It's not an action-packed series, but instead focuses on the psychological intensity of its primary characters.  The season three trailer just aired, but you can catch the previous seasons (which are both quite short) on Netflix.