Genre Conventions of Luther

Genre Conventions of Luther

Identifying the genre

The most important aspect of producing a television series is forming the genre and maintaining it. The genre of a television show is needed to attract the desired target audience to watch the programme. 'Luther' is a television series that is made by the 'drama production' subsidiary of the BBC. They manage to convey to the audience the crime-drama genre through the iconography, characters and themes containing elements of the crime-drama genre which are recognisable from other similar shows. It borrows these typical genre elements on purpose to attract and engage the audience who are interested in the genre. The show's genre conventions could also act as a catalyst for new audiences who are not used to watching crime-drama shows and become engaged with this new show.

Characters

The characters in 'Luther' are generally based on the genre character stereotypes. When analysing the main character 'Luther', we see his masculinity is enforced in the show through his physical as well as mental strength and lack of emotions. In terms of social context, the character is played by Idris Elba who is a black actor and sends the message to the audience that race is not a focus of the programme and somewhat challenges the stereotype of this type of character to be normally casted as white in many movies and television shows.

'Alice' is an intelligent female who is the antagonist of the set episode range. She follows many 'villain' characteristics of the genre. This is seen through her thinking and showing no emotions. In other ways, she could be considered as a unique antagonist to the genre as most villains in movies and television series of the genre typically are male and are presented as fearful and in some aspects may even be stronger than the main character. Alice taunts Luther in effect to grab the audience's attention to her character.

Narrative

The narrative is also heavily based on typical genre conventions. Foremost, the main narrative follows Luther having to catch a murderer who killed a woman and for the rest of the episode range, he has to catch the murderer. Crime-drama movies and television shows commonly follow this narrative where the 'hero' has to chase the 'villain' who as part of this genre, would be a dangerous criminal who manages to evade the 'hero' until the final episode of final moments of a movie. Similarly, the series 'Luther' follows these conventions and also includes subplots which intervene within the main plot of the programme. This is done to keep the audience entertained rather than just the entire series or episode involving Luther chasing the suspect. However, the suspect is already shown from the beginning and therefore is different from other crime-drama movies and series which may not show the criminal as they are only revealed towards the end of the movie or series.

Target audience

The target audience for Luther is aimed at teenagers and young adults. The show streams on BBC One at 9pm which is an appropriate time of the target audience to watch due to the series not being suitable for younger audiences. BBFC have rated series one a '15' due to 'strong violence'. This further reveals that the ideal audience would be aged 15 or above. Despite the violence present in the programmes, there is no strong language used in any of the episodes and this may of been decided due to BBC One being a television channel suited for all ages. Other means for target audience could include the fact that Idris Elba stars in the series. Since he is a well-known actor, this could attract an audience who are familiar with his movies as well as his fanbase to encourage others to watch.