You know it’s very rare that I admit that I am wrong when it comes to my choices in entertainment. I’ve been a pop culture junkie for a long time and when it comes to picking great films, TV series, music and so on, I think my track record speaks for itself. Now I have to swallow my pride and admit to a grave error…I didn’t watch The Wire when it initially aired on HBO. My reasons were actually pretty valid. Yet, another cop procedural with the same hum drum storylines and characters. So, after having at least 25 people tell me I needed to watch the series. I finally sat down to watch it. Thanks to my good friend Jessica Howe, I sat down to watch the pilot episode.
Ok, fast forward one hour and I was sitting in my apartment with my jaw on the ground! What did I just watch? Why didn’t I watch this from the beginning! I just witnessed probably one of the best hours of television I have ever seen and I’ve seen alot! Needless to say, I ran through those 60 episodes in under two weeks. I couldn’t tear myself away from the screen. Each hour was as riveting as the one before it. I would look forward to getting home from work, getting things ready for the next day and just sit and watch The Wire until it was time to go to bed.
There are many fascinating characters on the show, Jimmy McNulty, D’Angelo and Avon Barksdale, Bodie, Poot, Kima and Lt. Daniels to name a few. But the character that stuck out to me was Stringer Bell. He was the partner in crime with Avon Barksdale. A drug dealer, but one with ambition and drive. Someone who was educated and wanted to take the money they were making and invest, not splurge in the drug lifestyle. I found his character fascinating and the actor who played him, Idris Elba, fascinating as well. I knew I had seen him before on TV and the movies and found out that alot of projects he was involved in, I enjoyed. He’s a fantastic actor whose range is top-notch.
So, to my surprise, I found out that Idris was a British actor and had a series on BBC America called Luther. Well, without hesitation I jumped at the chance to watch this series. If you haven’t heard of it, check out this trailer for the first season:
As you can see by this trailer, the show is not your normal bad ass cop procedural, yet one with depth and an Emmy nominated performance by Idris Elba. If you have BBC America, you should definitely check out this series. The first season was only 6 episodes and season 2 was only 4 episodes. I don’t understand the British way of doing things as far as episodes per season goes, but I did really enjoy watching this series.
Idris Elba is an actor to keep on your radar. He has several big time movie projects coming up, including the Ridley Scott film Prometheus. So, remember the name Idris Elba, he is going to become a big star in the industry!