I've pimped this show out before but one of my favorite new shows of last year, "Luther" starring Idris "Stringer Bell" Elba, is now out on Netflix Instant. Elba plays a brilliant but troubled detective who is handling a case load while also matching wits with an equally brilliant but even more troubled young woman/killer.

One reason I loved the show was because the standalone cases were very strong while the main arc is different from what we see in most shows and since it is only six episodes, the impact of decisions is instant; the show's main arc isn't watered down to fit the usual American order of 20 or so episodes.

And that's one problem with American TV/cinema right now IMO. If Luther was to be remade in the US, it would be stretched out over at least twice as many episodes or (as in the case of "State of Play", another BBC mini-series) it would be condensed into a two hour movie. I'm surprised that we haven't seen more mini-series out of network television. Most of their shows only last a handful of episodes anyway (for instance, CBS one a bidding war for "Chaos" which they just pulled after three airings) so why not put together a tight, intense six - ten episode season rather than making countless pilots, only to turn a few into shows, and only to have a tiny percent of the shows last? FX seems to be following this model a bit. And yes, it leads to them canceling some critically acclaimed shows with cult followings (like "Terriers" and "Lights Out") but I think it's better for their brand to make these quality, short lived shows than to churn out one crapfest after another ala the main networks (especially NBC.)

I've made this complaint before and it seems like the networks will never change so, in the end, I guess I just need to take the lesson from Marlo.