Luther: The Calling

Although Cross won an Edgar for the first episode of his BBC series Luther, this origin story just doesn’t replicate the power of the show, suggesting that Idris Elba’s performance as Scotland Yarder John Luther deserves the lion’s share of credit. This prequel pits the troubled Luther, who feels that “[a]t night, [my] skull cracks open and spiders crawl inside,” against a horrifically sadistic murderer. In the course of murdering and mutilating Tom and Sarah Lambert, the killer removes an eight-and-a-half-month-old fetus from Sarah’s belly. As the baby may still be alive, Luther and his team search frantically for her, another intense and gut-wrenching assignment that only further strains the detective’s troubled marriage. The graphic violence and somber developments are not for the fainthearted. While some devotees of the series might find this partial backstory of interest, others might wish that Cross had gone back further and shown how Luther first came to know “that his mind’s not right.” Agent: Gordon Wise, Curtis Brown. (Sept.)