Luther and The Theories

Luther
List of Theories that apply:
- Todorov's Narrative Theory
- Propp's Character Types
- Barthes Code Theory

Todorov 
Equilibrium - Luther lives a normal life on the coast.
Disruption - Love interest (Alice) gets murdered, decides to take up detective work again.
Realisation - Gets caught up in the chaos of other mysteries.
Restored order - (Partly) Catches a murder and stops him from killing other captured victims. The big mystery (Alice) however, is still a mystery.
New Equilibrium -

Propp
Anti-Hero - DCI Luther
Villain - Steven Rose / George Cornelius
Helper - DCI Emma Lane
Dispatcher - DCU Martin
Princess - Alice
Donor - Megan?
False Hero - Megan

Barthe
Enigma Code - Constant state of mystery until Luther and Emma catches Steven during a crime. Things such as clues and information would keep constantly making the audience asking questions.

Action Code - Luther visits George, Violently kidnaps him and holds him hostage, Luther interrogates George, George swears Luther dead and now Luther has another enemy. This triggers certain events where assassins are sent to assassinate Luther.

Semantic Code - All of the Symbols each connote something relevant to the story. E.G. The fridge has negative connotations within the story as Steven used a fridge to disguise explosives which later kills a main character. The Black Bird foreshadows a character's death which triggers a narrative.

Symbolic Code - Fridge, Black Bird, Owl, Mutilated Bodies, Knife.

Cultural Code - ???

Luther
There are many Media Theories within the TV Show Luther. There are a range of narratives, key character types and many narrative codes. All of these aspects allow for a successful TV Programme when used in the correct way as they interest the audience and makes them want to carry on watching.

Todorov's Theory is present within Season 4, Episodes 1 and 2 of Luther. There are many narratives within the programme that all tie together with specific events. The overall narrative is as follows: There is an Equilibrium at the beginning of the season as we see Luther living a normal live by the coast. This however is disrupted with two DCI agents informing Luther of his love interest's death (Alice.) There are also many other disruptions within narrative such as a murder mystery. The realisation of the narrative comes when Luther decides to become a DCI agent again and try to solve Alice's death. This is disrupted with a murder and this is when the realisation of chaos starts. As the episodes go on, there is eventual a restoration of the chaos when both DCI Emma and Luther end the murders by killing the murderer Steven Rose. A new Restoration has erupted for DCI Emma as her case has been solved, however as Luther's original disruption was Alice, his narrative has not come to a close.

There are many character types present within Luther. All of these character types belong to Propp's Character Types theory. Within a narrative there is either a Hero or an Anti-Hero. What sets these two types apart is that an Anti-Hero would do negative things for positive outcomes whereas a Hero would only do Good for Good. Luther fits the Anti-Hero type as he does do some negative things within the story. For example: he kidnaps George to interrogate him for information on Alice's Murder.
There are a range of Villains within the TV Show. This is because of the many narratives present. There is arguably no Main Villain as they all play important roles within the story. Steven Rose is one of the Villains - he shows two main aspects of a villain. There are: Ruthlessness and Determination. Within his murders he would not think twice before committing them and would plan them out before hand. Villains stereotypically have some sort of mental illness or are psychotic, this is because it makes them more interesting as characters and also gives them purpose as to why they are committing the crimes. Steven has an illness called Cotard delusion. Cotard delusion is a mental illness which tricks your mind into thinking you're dead. He committed these crimes because of the illness taking over his brain. Another Villain is George. He is a mafia crime leader and hires people to commit his crimes for him. He holds many aspects of a villain within his character. Such as: Determination, Selfishness and Ruthlessness. He is very hostile and threatening towards the main protagonist Luther.
The Helper in the film is DCI Emma. She is a binary opposite towards the main protagonist Luther. They are very different characters and bounce off of each other personality wise meaning a more entertaining experience for the audience. Emma holds many traits of a classic sidekick. She is very intelligent, loyal and offers help and suggestions to the main character to help aid the narrative. 
The Dispatcher of the TV Programme is DCU Martin. He sends both the sidekick and the hero/anti-hero on there quest. They don't usually have any specific traits but the other characters tend to have a good relationship with them because of their lovable personalities. 
The Princess within the narrative is Alice. Even though she is dead she is the main subject of Luther's disruption and this makes her the 'Princess' of the main narrative. There are also other princess characters within the narrative that need saving. For example, the family that Steven Kidnaps to murder get saved by the main characters and they therefore play princess roles. 
The False Hero of Luther is Megan. She, at first, appears like a good character who wants to help Luther with the Alice investigation. However, as the narrative progresses, we find out that she killed Alice and is only pretending to help Luther so that she can help herself. 

Barthes Code theory is present within the TV Programme Luther all throughout the entire two episodes. There are 4 codes present and each are easily spotted. However, casual audiences may not notice these as the codes that they are. As a media student, I can identify the codes present within the episodes.
The first code present is the Enigma Code. This code presents ideas of a constant mystery to add tension to the programme, to also extend the narrative further and to also get the audience members thinking and trying to solve the mysteries present themselves. This adds escapism to the show. There are many enigmas present such as: The question of who the murder is, who killed Alice (Present in only the first episode) and also why all of these events are taking place. These enigmas allow the audience to continue guessing and also entices them to carry on watching the programme.
The second code present is the Action Code. This code states that a single action would then lead onto another action changing how the narrative plays out drastically. This is present when Luther decides to Visit a Mafia Boss known as George. He refuses to come and answer questions for Luther and therefore George is kidnapped and held captive for interrogation. This leads to George becoming angry and swearing Luther dead. George escapes and hires assassins to kill Luther - They fail. This code represents the butterfly effect where the choice of one action if important as it changes how the future plays out.
The final codes are the Symbolic and the Semantic Codes. The Symbolic code states that specific symbols represent different things depending on where and how they are used. The Semantic code looks further into this Denotation and looks at the Connotation of that specific symbol in this specific instance. For example: A fridge in everyday life is an appliance that everyone uses on a daily basis. This is the Symbolic Code. However in these particular episodes, it represents something different as a Villain, Steven, uses a fridge in a negative way by disguising explosives which later kills a main character. This is the Semantic Code. A further example is the Black Bird within the opening scenes of the first episode. The Black Bird, in this case, represents something negative because of it's death. This symbol within the scene is semantic and therefore foreshadows a characters future death. 

All of these theories apply to Luther in a range of different and similar ways - They all aid one another and assist the narrative. They also have effects on the audience and changes the way that they may think about and perceive certain things. 

Barthe's Theory

Barthe's Theory
Barthe's Theory says that a narrative is like a ball of string ravelled up into a ball. It can be unraveled in multiple ways to have different outcomes.

The Narrative can either be open or closed.
- A Closed Narrative is very predictable and seems to be very simple.
- An Open Narrative however has many possibilities and tends to be more difficult to understand due to amount of content of the story.

There are 5 different codes to Barthe's Theory.
These are:

- The Hermeneutic/Enigma Code

The Hermeneutic Code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader.

The purpose of the author in this is typically to keep the audience guessing, arresting the enigma, until the final scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off and closure is achieved.

- The Proairetic/Action Code

The Proairetic Code builds tension, referring to any other action or event that indicates something else is going to happen, and which hence gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next.

Action code - applies to any action that implies a further narrative action. For example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this action will be.

- The Semantic Code

This code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.

The semantic code - any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation.

- The Symbolic Code

This is very similar to the Semantic Code, but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning.

This is typically done in the use of antithesis, where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas.

- The Referential Code

This code refers to anything that is founded on some kind of canonical works that cannot be challenged and is assumed to be a foundation for truth.

The cultural codes tend to point to our shared knowledge about the way the world works.

In terms of Music Video

Barthes’ Enigma Hermeneutic Code can be found in a majority of music videos.

The narrative will establish enigmas (puzzling imagery or occurrences) or mysteries as it goes along.

Essentially the narrative functions to first establish then solve.