REVIEW: ‘Ludwig’ Season 2 Is Peak Murder Mystery

Created and written by Mark Brotherhood, Ludwig has been one of the best finds in BritBox’s original series streaming library. Ludwig Season 2 builds directly on the events of last season and begins to let John Taylor (David Mitchell) solve more murders, and this time, officially not as his twin brother James Taylor (Mitchell). 

Ludwig Season 2 follows the same case-of-the-week format as the first season, with the main throughline still the investigation James was on before his disappearance and whether he left on his own or was forced to. In the second season of Ludwig, we see our inquisitive puzzle maker, John, lean into his new favorite hobby: solving murders. 

Much like last season, John’s puzzle-maker experience under his pen name, Ludwig, makes putting together the clues from murder investigations almost easy. By breaking down every murder into a game to beat and a puzzle to solve to find out who did the deed, John’s stint with the Cambridge police force has already greatly increased the department’s case-closing rate. 

After spending all of last season solving murders as his brother, DCI James Taylor, Ludwig Season 2 deals with the fallout when the department discovers that fact. Instead of jail time for impersonating a police officer, the department leaves the cases he worked on closed and hires him as a puzzle consultant. The puzzle guy. 

Ludwig Season 2 continues BritBox’s puzzle mystery series. 

This season sees even more eccentric situations that John deconstructs into their basic parts to find the game hidden within. Whether it’s finding out how someone poisoned their co-worker while out for dinner at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant or how a man was killed right in the middle of a wedding reception dance floor with the entire bridal party dancing around him, every murder has a spark of creativity that shows the audience that it’s not all as it seems. 

Where the first season saw John use James’ identity to break out of his reclusive shell, Ludwig Season 2 lets its lead character come to life. He has a vibrancy while solving the murders that actor David Mitchell captures perfectly. Everything comes easy to John, except reading the room. Much of the series’ comedy is observational, with John pointing out complex answers as if they were elementary arithmetic. 

The disconnect between John’s intellect and his people skills is never something Ludwig laughs at, but rather laughs with. John is almost always in on the joke, and is quick to say if it isn’t funny. Everything about him, his humor, and the situations that he finds himself in is endearing, to say the least. Always confident, never arrogant, John is one of my favorite on-screen makeshift detectives, and it’s all original. 

A true secondary protagonist in Ludwig Season 2 is Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), James’ wife. Friends since childhood, the in-laws’ relationship is never out of order. But the chemistry between John and Lucy takes center stage this season as Lucy starts to question whether James still loves her. 

That said, Lucy isn’t only there for a will-they-won’t-they vaguely romantic situation. Ludwig Season 2 gives Lucy notable character progression as she stops letting John take all the spotlight in the search for her husband. Instead of waiting around, Lucy bullies her way into a job at a local newspaper, as long as the famed puzzle-writing brother-in-law gives her new editor a puzzle every month. 

While John solves murders with the police, primarily DCI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola), Lucy uses her press credentials to make headway in the search for James and the constantly evolving conspiracy that he found himself in. With her son, Henry (Dylan Hughes), also joining in, Lucy gets closer to the truth in her own investigation as mounting worry about the people behind it all grows.

Ludwig Season 2 is everything great with the first season, and more. 

While the series stumbles in how much it keeps devoting to James’ storyline without delivering any real substance beyond the cliffhanger, the writing is ultimately tight. The reveals around each murder feel natural but always stoke the audience’s curiosity.

This really shines when John lays out the map for an intricate game, only for it to be an unthought-out murder. This balances against the clearly planned murders that fit perfectly into a puzzle and ultimately makes every case feel fresh. 

Series built on gimmicks are either going to be exciting because of them or bad because of how they’ve been implemented. Ludwig Season 2 continues the series’ excellent execution of a puzzle guy solving murders in a way that honors Britain’s long history of murder mysteries. 

Ludwig Season 1 made good on a great premise, and Season 2 lets the titular character shine as himself, and everything is better for it. As a detective series, Ludwig Season 2 excels. When it comes to comedy, it’s endearing and honest dry humor. And ultimately, Ludwig Season 2 showcases that detective dramas still have more originality left in them, and that BritBox keeps striking gold. 

Ludwig Season 2 is streaming now, exclusively on BritBox (available via Prime Video).