On Zoe Luther and feminism in the show
Was Zoe fridged?
This question has to be asked. In my opinion, the answer is a definite NO. Zoe wasn’t fridged. She just died. I won’t deny that she died in order to further the storyline. And the storyline IS all about Luther. So it’s hard to say where to draw the line on this issue in this kind of show, where so many of the characters fulfill the purpose of expanding on the main character’s psyche.
But I don’t think Zoe was fridged. Because 1) her death impacted many people, and not just Luther, 2) she was never important outside of her relationship with Luther to begin with,* and 3) her death had a major impact on the storyline. It didn’t just happen and leave Luther in his grief - we saw her killer thoroughly torn down as a character, and also killed by Alice. It provoked a great 2-episode story arc that went much further than Luther’s emotions. Finally, 4) her character really had nowhere else to go.
I don’t really know whether all of this makes it not-a-fridging, but at the very least, these are the reasons why her death didn’t bother me, and why I found it actually quite fitting.
*Of course, this is perhaps problematic in and of itself. Zoe’s sole purpose was to act as either tormentor, bait or source of happiness for Luther. Again, it’s hard to say that this is a bad thing. All of the major characters in the show fulfill some kind of emotional role for Luther. That’s part of how tightly scripted the show is, IMO.
OTOH, all of the other major characters in the show are women! Alice and Zoe were the two most important characters in the show after Luther. The Duchess plays a big role, too. So you end up in a place where it’s problematic that these women are all just sort of representations-slash-provocations of his psyche. OTOH, it’s remarkable that the show gives so much narrative to female characters, and makes them so important, and gives them incredibly strong personalities.
At the same time, as the show went on, the minor male characters got more and more agency. Wherein by the finale, they really had their own storylines. Ripley doesn’t represent any part of Luther, at least not directly. He is now living his own story, highly impacted by Luther, but not furthering Luther’s emotional arc in any way. And Ian, of course, takes on a whole 2-episode side story of his own, although given that he is the main villain I’m not sure whether to give a pass on that or not.
And I’m not sure what to make of Mark. I assume he won’t continue to be much of a character, but if he does, I expect they’d give him a lot more independence than they tend to give the female characters. Which, like, OK, I'm mainly interested in how the women interact with Luther anyway, so maybe I can't complain. OTOH, maybe that's because my perspective is skewed by male-centrism as well!!
PS: I just found this fairly positive review of the show on the NY Times; it's a freaking relief to read something glowing about the show, after all the hate for it in The AV Club comments. Plus, I like that the reviewer points out that the show "is meant to exploit our deepest phobias of the most catastrophic kinds of personal intrusion," which bothers me but also helps maintain its darkness.