REVIEW: LUTHER - THE FALLEN SON

​LUTHER: THE FALLEN SUN #NowStreaming on #Netflix. #SpoilerAlert
I was looking forward to this screenplay. Didn't realize it was a film and not another season of the series. 

LUTHER is a whodunit series. Well, we usually know whodunit; it's about Luther following the breadcrumbs to prove it and catch the bad guy. The film is the same. 

Here are its weaknesses:
- No emotional throughline. We are not connected to Callum. We do not care about Corinne. There was nothing personal for Luther connected to the case. Therefore, I rooted for the bad guy to lose because he was a very bad man, not because I was rooting for Luther to win. 
- The film needed a normal, a reset if you will. It's been years since we've been invested in Luther. We needed to be reminded of why we like/relate to him, what he wants/needs, what his flaws/traumas are so we can invest in him. This would've helped us care when he was arrested/pulled off the case (off-camera of all places!!!)
- Raine had no social proof. She needed to prove that she was just as good as or better than Luther, so we'd root for her/care when her child is abducted. But Luther and Schenk did all of the work. What did she bring to the table other than stakes when her child was used as fodder? She couldn't even fight!
- The plot relied heavily on Luther's intuition instead of following the rules of a whodunit. The evidence should lead us (him) to a conclusion. Instead, he would pull clues and information straight from his gut. Things that he should not be able to connect based on the current information. For example, he visited the antagonist's wife and learned his whereabouts. From that, Luther concluded that he wasn't working alone and was bringing an urban legend to life. How, Sway?

Have you watched? What say you?

Check out our Development Notes service to get personalized feedback from one of our Story Experts and take your screenplay to the next level!

---

author

Shannan E. Johnson is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO + Head Consultant of The Professional Pen, a script consultancy that develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers ready for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams at entertainment companies to streamline their notes process to get to pre-production more efficiently.