'Ludwig' Season One Review: A unique modern detective series from the BBC

I recently wrote a first impressions post on a British show called Ludwig. Now, I tend to avoid a lot of British productions these days as very few of them are capable of actually interesting me, with many being relatively low budget. While there are a few gems here and there, I admit that I rarely look into that area of film and television and watch anything. Obviously not a great thing to do if you're someone that likes watching things! Anyway, this was a neat little surprise of a television series to find. I mentioned in my first impressions review of the show that I had stumbled into the show having looked into what comedian David Mitchell had been up to after years had passed since the much-loved British series Peep Show had ended, as did much of the fun game show television shows that would air back in the day that Mitchell would feature in. Ludwig felt like an experience that would've arrived a decade or more ago, in that more golden era of British television in which productions would be more creative, often thriving on the idea of murder mysteries and having a lot of charisma about them. As is typical of a British series, though, Ludwig is a show that has a handful of episodes within its first season, reaching a relatively low number of just six episodes. Fortunately a second season has been announced already, so the fear of sudden cancellations isn't there.

With a more unique take on the weekly murder mystery series genre, Ludwig is a show that takes on multiple mysteries at one: Ludwig, a puzzle creator that stays inside most of the time and has very little interaction with others as part of a more introverted nature, is called up by his brother's wife to which she reveals that his brother is missing and left behind a rather cryptic letter that advised them to leave. The thing here is that Ludwig and his brother are identical twins, and a plan is formed to have Ludwig pretend to be his brother in search of something at his office down at the police station. It spirals into a series of new connections with others, showcasing Ludwig's inability to interact with his poor social skills, but also displays his incredible logical and deductive reasoning skills when it comes to solving puzzles. And what is technically a form of puzzle? Every murder! Just waiting for someone to come along and place the right pieces together to solve the mystery. And Ludwig accidentally falls into the routine of his brother's life, finding quite an enjoyment in the detective work side of things while juggling the need to find more clues as to what led to his brother's disappearance. But that side of things grows more difficult as Ludwig has to pretend to be his brother, trying to not stand out a little too much.

The season thrives on this idea that Ludwig is slowly being caught, the realisation that he isn't actually who he is claiming to be. And much of that comes with the fact that his personality is so vastly different, such awful social skills mixed with his sudden strength in solving crimes so easily, and without even needing motive for the most part. The characters at the police station are all handled with this assumption that they're good, aside from one or two which are quite early on given a bit more suspicion regarding the disappearance of Ludwig's brother. I really liked the use of these side characters, they didn't offer much to the story and were mostly utilised for adding to the comedic elements of the show. Oh, yeah! I forgot to mention: this show is actually somewhat of a comedy! If you hadn't guessed already, much of this comes from Ludwig's attempts to socialise. The humour is injected here and there, and is never really overdone. I quite liked it this way, given it gave more weight to the greater story at hand, reminding us that the main characters are actually in a more serious situation and that not everything is all jokes and humour. It's more humour that the audience finds, rather than the characters themselves laughing and smiling around.

With just six episodes and each one detailing another crime that Ludwig has to solve, I quite enjoyed how it balanced the main story while showing character development for Ludwig. The show has a lot of scenes that go into the past, or feature elements of Ludwig's childhood that reveal more into his rather introverted ways. It helps us feel a lot more for the character of Ludwig, who ended up alone and clearly not all that content with it, while his brother managed to find success in most fields, including the happiness of having a family. To see the events in Ludwig's past that led to this lifestyle of his added to the character, while he's one that is clearly very intelligent and capable of great things, it's hard to not look into his character and see a man that's quite empty and discontent. The realisation of his detective skills ultimately become a bit of an obsession for him, it's something that has given him purpose, and a bit of a new perspective on life despite being middle-aged. I really liked this side of the show, it's deeply human in this regard. But this brings me to another point: it's a very well made show in most other aspects too.

I really enjoyed the way the show was directed, the use of shallow depth of field in the cinematography, and the very beautiful use of colour and lighting in the interior scenes. There's a lot of attention to the lighting side of things, and I suspect that they used vintage rehoused glass for the lenses. Often more wider focal lengths with some distortion of the backgrounds. It gave everything a bit more of an artistic look to it, and that's something that can be a bit of a rarity in British series where, especially with exterior shots, a lot of the surroundings are quite bleak looking with the overcast days. I think this is a great show, something that came out of nowhere and shows that the BBC still has the ability to produce great stories, it just needs a bit of push away from, well, its current agendas.