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"In its second week back on the box, Luther relies less on the showy, attention-grabbing horror theatrics that defined last Tuesday&amp;#039;s series opener - there&amp;#039;s certainly no moment here to match the superb &amp;#039;monster under the bed&amp;#039; sequence.  The slasher movie scares are reserved for the episode&amp;#039;s final act and even then, they&amp;#039;re more subtle than part one&amp;#039;s chills and spills. But in their place is a lingering, building sense of dread which is every bit as effective. This week, the original Creeper is exposed as William Carney, a bitter old man with a simple-minded prot\u00E9g\u00E9 in Paul Ellis (Kevin Fuller) - the son of one of his past victims, forged into a killer by the crime he witnessed as a child. It&amp;#039;s the brilliantly creepy Ned Dennehy who steals the show as Carney - a true grotesque with a stomach-turning turn of phrase.  Not only are we treated to a more finely-spun take on TV horror here, but this Luther also boasts a little heart - something that was rather lacking last week. John is an anti-hero and often goes too far in his pursuit of justice, but the audience always wants him to win out - that&amp;#039;s chiefly thanks to Idris Elba&amp;#039;s charismatic central performance, but the character&amp;#039;s genuine affection for Ripley (Warren Brown) also endears him. Tensions are high between the dynamic duo when this episode opens, with the obsessive DSU George Stark (David O&amp;#039;Hara) poking and prodding Ripley over his friend&amp;#039;s conduct and Luther in full knowledge of the fact that he could have saved the Creeper&amp;#039;s latest victim, if it weren&amp;#039;t for Ripley&amp;#039;s interference on the Jared Cass investigation.  Even Schenk (Dermot Crowley) - who&amp;#039;s become something of a cuddly mentor for Luther - shows he&amp;#039;s still got a little fire in his belly when pushed, a neat reminder of the character&amp;#039;s origins as a nemesis for our lead. But it&amp;#039;s Ripley who apparently provides the greatest threat to our hero - willing to sell him out to save his own skin. Given that this is - in all likelihood, at least - the final regular series of Luther, it&amp;#039;s easy to believe that the loyal sidekick might have genuinely turned to the dark side. In the event, he hasn&amp;#039;t, but I didn&amp;#039;t have too many quibbles with writer Neil Cross taking the &amp;#039;safe&amp;#039; path - the Luther / Ripley dynamic is what keeps this show from becoming relentlessly grim, so it&amp;#039;s actually a relief to see it preserved from Stark&amp;#039;s onslaught.  One relationship that&amp;#039;s harder to buy into is John&amp;#039;s blossoming romance with Mary (Sienna Guillory) - it&amp;#039;s more a fault of the script than anything, but I just couldn&amp;#039;t buy gloomy Luther falling for ditzy Miss Day. Let&amp;#039;s hope that Stark&amp;#039;s ongoing investigation throws a spanner or two into the works to spice up this rather dull pairing. This is a slightly different Luther to the one we were reintroduced to last week - less frenetic and more considered, swapping out gore and jump-scares for brooding terror and psychological horror. That said, episode two is no less entertaining than what preceded it.  Watch Idris Elba discuss a potential Luther movie with Digital Spy below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/luther/review/a496958/luther-episode-two-review-swaps-out-gore-for-brooding-terror/>