By its barest description, "Luther" (BBC America, 10 p.m. Sundays) sounds like you've seen it a thousand times.

It's about a troubled brilliant cop (played by Idris Elba aka Stringer Bell on "The Wire") whose questionable tactics give him the right results with murky morality. But "Luther" offers so much more than that description. This is an intense, complex, creepy ride.

When we meet John Luther, he's chasing a man who has killed several children. He's got him cornered, and in forcing him to give the location of his latest victim, Luther makes a choice that provides the subtext for nearly everything that happens in the six-part series. (I've seen three and I already want more than six.)