In detective series ‘Ludwig’ you as a viewer know exactly what you get

Every episode of Ludwig has a moment when the eyes of John Taylor (Peep shows David Mitchell) start to shine a bit. As if a light has suddenly entered his head. Then you know that it’s time to sit down on the couch at home. Because the murder with which the episode of the British detective series started has been resolved.

By John. His colleagues from the Cambridge police usually have no idea what happened at such a moment. Sometimes they didn’t even have a murder. But their somewhat unworldly boss is already ready to meticulously explain what happened. Something that John prefers to do at the place where the murder took place, of course with all suspects, so that everyone – even the murderer – can listen to what the man has to say with held breath.

The series Ludwigthat was created by screenwriter Mark Brotherhood, was clearly inspired by the large TV detectives that previously sparkled on our small screens. From the way in which John registers the smallest details, those others completely overlook, to the fact that the murderer almost always immediately knew after he has told his story.

If we meet John, he is not a detective but puzzle maker. He publishes his work under the name Ludwig, after the composer, and leads a withdrawn existence. John lets the world and all the people who go with it prefer to pass by his well -closed front door. But then his sister -in -law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) calls from Cambridge with the news that his twin brother James is missing. James works for the police and Lucy suspects that his disappearance has something to do with his last case. She asks her brother -in -law if he can occur as his brother to pick up his notes on the desk, in the hope that she can find out where her husband is.

Logikwiz

It doesn’t seem like a good idea, and it isn’t. But the puzzle maker can be persuaded by her from sentimental consideration – Lucy was actually his best friend in their youth. Of course he is less than half an hour at the police station or he will be dragged to a crime scene. And even though he barely dares to look at the bloody body on the ground, he still dissolves the murder at lightning speed. His special power: he approaches crimes as one of his puzzles. The first is a Logikwiz that simply needs to be filled in, the next case turns out to be a game looking for the differences for the advanced and later in the season he finds the culprit by turning it into a reversed game of chess.

And so John picks up a new business every episode (in the characteristic Cambridge, exceptionally often people appear to be killed) while in the evenings he tries to find out where James is together with Lucy and her teenage son. Ludwig is therefore both episodic and a series with a revolving mystery, and that works great. The first part gives every time that satisfactory feeling of a completed puzzle and the second part means that you immediately want to boost the next episode.

Of course it is not very realistic, and Ludwig does not in any way stretch the boundaries of the detective eagle. But the series uses all these elements extremely agile that all classics make so pleasant to look at. The series is funny (also thanks to the great game of Mitchell and Maxwell Martin), the murder puzzles are ingenious enough to be unable to crack without John’s insights and the atmosphere (despite the continuous stream of victims) is very pleasant. It all feels terribly familiar. And that is perhaps the greatest strength of Ludwig. As a viewer you know exactly what you get. And that is sometimes nice.

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