Smart New Cop Show From UK

FANS of The Wire will be especially gratified by the new BBC series, Luther, in which the man we once knew as Stringer Bell (Brit actor Idris Elba) becomes a brilliant/tormented police detective.

The show is dark, understated, and psychologically serious; the characters and their relationships are complex and well-drawn. The whole thing has a kind of brooding vibe to it: The Massive Attack song that plays over the opening credits sets the tone quite well.

HERE is my review from The Hollywood Reporter. The show made its U.S. debut last night and goes up Sundays at 10 pm.

Back From the Grave: Charles Dickens

HE was the star of the 19th century, and has become fiercely relevant in ours: take a bow charles dickens!!

thanks to the plunging economy, the awesome show "the wire," and a bunch of bbc adaptations, dickens is back in a big way. HERE is my piece from today's LAT in which i speak to a producer at mastepiece (theatre), a ucla literary scholar and former wire scribe (and onetime baltsun colleague) rafael alvarez. 

given where newspapers are these days, i'm pleasantly shocked that i'm still asked to do this kind of meaty deep-think story for the daily press.

anyone who knew me in highschool would be shocked to see me writing such a piece in any form: my freshman english class read "great expectations" and i HATED it. i think i simply wasnt ready for it. wasnt until a college assignment of the atypical "hard times" that i realized what a fool i'd been.

was a real pleasure to go back to some of the work, especially "david copperfield" and "oliver twist." much more awaits.

Photo credit: samuel lawrence and Superstock