You and I are smarter than most viewers which is partly why we are so critical of so many shows. It's difficult for actors to really play psychopaths well; they can mimic some of their characteristics, but they can't keep from letting their normality bleed through, as Ruth Wilson does. I don't know that the writers are really committed to realism on the point either.
I think sometimes psychopaths can have feelings for certain people. We had a famous killer nicknamed "the Iceman" here in the US who did contract work for a Mafia family. He was examined extensively by psychiatrists when he was sent to prison. He had feelings for his wife and children, but no one else really. He could tie up a guy and let him get eaten to death slowly by rats, something he did for a mob guy by request once, and it didn't really bother him. The only time he showed emotion was when he thought about what his family went through when they found out the truth about him. Hurting them made him cry.
I am not any kind of expert on psychology, having only had basic courses. From what I understand, a sociopath and a psychopath may act very much the same. The main difference is a sociopath learns to act that way as a teen or an adult, and a psychopath is that way from childhood up. That is how they explain it to laymen like myself.
Anyway, Alice is a very interesting character in this thing. She does develop a fascination and an attraction toward Luther very early on in the show. She has some kind of moral standards of her own, not anything rigid, more something she feels inside. Certainly her standards are not tied to those of society. When she learned that Luther let the child molester and killer fall she liked him for that. Here the writers made Alice more human; most of us can sympathize with Luther's decision on that issue. The molester was a totally broken, serial molester who would not stop raping and killing children, and Luther knew the system would probably spit him back out to victimize more children. So he simply failed to grab the man's hand. What is that, nonfeasance? You fail to do something you could have done, and should have done by law, I think that is nonfeasance.
Anyway, Luther seems to fit the morality she holds to, and she is attracted to him, in whatever way someone like her can be. Talk about a dangerous liaison. Hooking up with her could be the worst mistake a man could make.

Thanks for sharing the rules of plotting. That is enlightening. I have noticed those things, sort of, without ever really reducing them to rules like that. What irritates me so often is the very clumsy manner by which writers create those conflicts, or crises, into which they place the lead character. When the situations are so obviously contrived, when the character makes the most basic, stupid, mistakes, then the whole thing lacks verisimilitude and I roll my eyes. Sometimes I stop caring altogether and start rooting for the character to go ahead and die! haha

You know the thing I mean. Some cop chases a bad guy into a house and into a dark room. The cop slowly enters the darkness, his gun arm fully extended, failing to check behind the door, failing to scan the room (which is pitch dark anyway), and you KNOW, you know the bad guy is going to hit the wrist of the hand holding the gun with a piece of pipe or something and take control. The viewer, having never been trained in clearing a room, knows better than to do what the cop did. That kind of writing really irritates me.

There was something in this episode which bothered me. When Luther found out that Alice knew about his wife and was unstable, he really should have reported this to his boss right away. Later it would have shielded him from suspicion. But the writers had a long play in mind. Anyway, they already compromised Luther when he broke into Alice Morgan's apartment, so perhaps he didn't want to mention his interactions with Alice. If they spoke to her, she might tell about him and land him in hot water.

Actually this was done pretty well. I guess I don't like it because I wouldn't have done it that way. But then there wouldn't be a story to tell.

second reply:

I've never seen The Mountain Between Us", at least I don't recall the title. I generally like whatever Idris Elba is in. I feel the same way about Denzel Washington. Those two actors always turn in great performances and are usually in good movies. (Ever see the spy movie "Safe House"? Denzel was good in that one.)

I am up to the episode in which Luther's buddy gets involved to help with the diamond smuggling and kidnap case. I believe this is the one in which he kills Zoe and frames up Luther. You guys call that stitching someone up, right? Interesting phrase. If I recall this correctly, crazy Alice comes through for him as he works to extricate himself from the frame up. She is a smart crazy girl.

I did it again - I wrote a whole detailed answer out and then lost it before I submitted it !! Never mind - off I go again - With regard to "The Iceman" I am sure I saw either a film or a docudrama about that some time ago. I don't think that psychoanalysts will ever know what drives a human being - at best it is only guesswork and conclusions drawn from their actions which may or may not be accurate. I think there is a very real reason why Luther and Alice are somehow drawn to each other - they are not so very different - neither play by the rules or have any respect for authority - both think that their way is the only way - both have no conscience about killing if it suits their agendas. I agree about the idiot scenarios that writers dream up - if policemen were as stupid as some of them make out they would never have passed the entrance exam !! It's akin to a person shouting "stop" or "Come back" to a fleeing villain who will inevitably head upwards instead of downwards when he is trying to escape - what's he going to do on a roof - develop wings? I think Luther reported it to his boss when Alice threatened to give his wife a new earhole - but there was no proof so there was nothing they could do (standard response of South Wales Constabulary) Luther would have been sacked forthwith if Alice had reported him breaking into her apartment and stealing from her - I don't think he would have taken that risk - he doesn't know her that well enough yet and it would have been a stupid risk to take - as was the act of smashing up Zoe's door and making a scene in the street. He would have been disciplined and possibly suspended for that. So - no - this show is not entirely plausible but you forgive it because the acting and the story is good. I have seen "Safe House" it was a good film - I enjoyed it - I like Denzel Washington - he seems a more intelligent and laid back actor than some others who are all swagger and street talk. "The Mountain Between Us" (Elba and Winslet) is a straightforward tale of two survivors of a plane crash on a snowy mountain miles from anywhere. I enjoyed it. Yes - we call it stitching up still !! There are a lot of Americanisms creeping into our vocabulary. I recall back in the seventies the word "love" which we use to address complete strangers as in "You all right Love?" became a fashion in American shows and it sounded so strange because somehow you don't pronounce it the same way!! You also took on the saying "cuppa" which we use in the singular like "Do you fancy a cuppa"? but you always tacked tea onto the end of it and the accent on cup which sounded weird to us !! "Do you want a CUPpa tea?" !!! And they say we speak the same language !! I am submitting this now before I lose it again !!

about the cuppa thing: it might just be the lazy way we often speak, contracting words into new slang rather than slowing down to enunciate. 'cup of' becomes cuppa. 'going to' becomes gonna, and so on. I lived in Bromley Kent for about 9 months one year (79 to 80) so I am aware of some of the language differences. the boot and the bonnet of the car compare to our trunk and hood of the car. American women get runs in their hose, and you get ladders in your stockings. I don't recall them all now; there was something about jelly, jam, and preserves, a slight difference in what they mean.
The way slang is created is an interesting subject. Also, the types of humor and how all of it interplays to affect language.

I've seen a movie about The Iceman which is supposed to be fairly accurate. Also I have seen documentaries with re-enactments and interviews. On youtube you can find a couple of long interviews with the guy, one of them with a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with a couple of conditions, which, taken together, created the raw material for a killer without remorse. If he had been raised in a loving home, he might have been a very fearless and productive citizen, but it didn't happen that way.

I react differently to a lot of people to these shows. It seems that it bothers me more than others when the lead character makes bad decisions which create crises for himself. I identify with him too strongly I guess.

I want the story to reflect reality more closely. I don't like to see actors playing the idiot, cursing their superiors on the police force, losing control and flipping desks, trashing rooms, doors, etc. In the real world, their fellow officers wouldn't just raise an eyebrow and shrug, and their superior officer wouldn't tell them 'gee, take it easy'.
But I know it is TV and I have to play along to follow the story.

I hate it when there is an explosion, and the actors are just a few feet away and they jump away from the blast, then they get up and dust themselves off. "Whew! That was a close call!" In reality the primary blast wave moves hundreds of feet in microseconds and kills everyone it meets, turning their insides to mush.

I could go on and on. Not sure why I got on to that issue again.

You were just following your train of thought with the implausibilities offered up by some shows - I have just watched the house explode in Luther and there were survivors which considering they were mostly inside when the conflagration occurred was highly unlikely. With regard to Luther - I think that we have not really heard much about Alice's back story. All we know is that she was a child genius with pushy parents. She was living separately from them when she killed them so we haven't been told what the trigger was yet. I can't recall if we ever are told. I also don't understand why Alice has set a bunch of girls on Mark and told them to say they were sent by John - I thought she had decided to leave Zoe alone - and by extension, Mark. are these just mind games?

Alice in her twisted thinking is manipulating Zoe back to Luther, her way of helping this man she admires. She knew there would be some blowback, but not enough evidence to convict him of complicity, plus she figures she can manipulate Mark to exonerate John later on. Luther tells her at one point "that's not how people work" and tells her to leave his personal life and the people in it alone, again.

I don't recall what triggered Alice either, and don't recall if we were ever told. I think Alice said something at one point to indicate that they were cold, distant, people. But I don't know what set her off that day. Maybe she just wanted to inherit what they had, perhaps she had planned it for some time. I just can't recall what that was about.

On explosives, it does matter what type of explosive detonates as to how far the kill zone is and how quickly it moves, but when people are in a house that explodes, they are usually done for. The house holds the pressure wave and drives it up for a moment. There is superheated air also which sears the lungs, causing fluid to weep from the capillaries into the lungs, drowning the person if they don't die from the shock wave. But TV never shows the reality.

When someone gets shot they always ask "is there an exit wound? Oh good, it went through, and it didn't hit anything important." And after a few minutes they are moving around as if they bruised a muscle or something. Some guy will get shot in the abdomen, and later grapple and wrestle with someone as though nothing happened. Only in TV land.

I am on S1 E5 at the moment - I am just thinking about a previous episode concerning a vampiresque man who had a woman caged in a freezer on a boat. I think this episode was really a bit too easily solved - they described this guy as outwitting the police before by manipulating the media and he tries to do it again but suddenly John has figured out where the crime scene is and he is arrested. It didn't play very plausibly. It was an anti-climax. I didn't mind it all that much but I don't think it was up to the writing quality of the other episodes. I see where you are coming from with seriously wounded people just getting up and getting on with it. They seem to think that if its a midriff wound there are no major organs to worry about except the liver, the pancreas, the stomach, the intestines, the lungs - as long as it isn't the heart stop being such a baby !!!

UPDATE - so now I am on Ep 6 and my least favourite plotline begins with John being framed for Zoe's murder. Why did he run? Had he stayed it would have been proved that he was not in possession of the murder weapon because I didn't see Ian leaving the gun there. I really get bored with episodes where the hero is on the run - for a crime he did not commit !! It's so well worn you long for a little originality. You would think that his work mates who have known him for years would have a little more faith in him - but it is never the case.

Yeah, his buddy killed his wife and then stitched him up for it. Maybe since it was another cop who set him up and is feeding the cops information to make him look guilty Luther figures coming in won't do any good. He figures the only way to clear his name is to nail the bad guy himself. But the fear is that Luther is so motivated by his need for revenge that he won't be able to clear his name, only get revenge.

Of course, it doesn't help his case that he punched Mark, kicked a door to pieces, flipped his desk at work, and otherwise displayed uncontrolled emotional outbursts all those times. It's easy to think "Luther loved Zoe, but he just can't control himself sometimes, and it looks like he snapped when she told him she was going to stay with Mark."
And the writers keep the tension high by showing us Luther acting like he just wants revenge. We don't know he has planned anything until he pulls off his plan.

I'm about to start series 2 now - they don't include the last series yet on Netflix - maybe they will get it eventually. I have seen it but I can't really remember it - all I recall thinking is that it wasn't as good as the previous series because Luther didn't do what he said he was going to do.

I'm watching it on Amazon Prime. I am on the first month free part right now.

I just finished the first season and am starting the second now. That guy with the weird looking mask just killed a girl in the street. She should have been carrying some pepper spray and got him in the chest and eyes. If I saw someone with a mask like that following me that closely I wouldn't even wait for them to attack, I would just take them down hard.

I remember some of what comes next in this season. Poor John Luther. He always has someone on the force looking to destroy him. And John compromises himself to that criminal outfit. That is the kind of thing I cannot stand to see. This cop lets some criminal leverage him into committing a crime for him, and then he has him on the hook. But before he did that, the outfit threatened his life and pounded a nail through his hand. Then they threatened to murder that woman and her daughter if Luther had them arrested. The woman criminal confidently claimed that their lawyers would have them freed in 8 hours and then they would murder those women. Now I know you've told me how bad things are in the UK, but I find it hard to believe they could be this bad.

John Luther is the badass cop who breaks the rules and takes down bad guys, and he gives them a pass for driving a nail through his hand and threatening his life, and the lives of those women. (His life was threatened when that ex cop pointed a pistol at his head.) Luther just accepts it as the way things are; these are powerful criminals in the porn industry so he can't touch them for felony assault, and threatening murder to coerce a police officer into committing a crime. So he asks 'if I do help?' Crim: "well then the slate's clear." And Luther actually believes that he can break the law for them and not compromise himself and be blackmailed in the future. The first time I watched this I couldn't believe it. It disgusts me to watch it now.

Amazon has some good shows I think. I noticed one called Deadwood. I saw a few episodes of that a few years ago. It is set in the old west before the land was annexed by the US, when it was a "territory".

I watched a documentary on Hannibal, the Carthaginian general which was interesting.

I feel the same way about cops being obligated to criminals - Luther would know that there is no clearing of slates once they have something on you. I think the writers run out of plotlines and end up in stupid street. I haven't come to that episode yet - I will no doubt have something more to say when I do !! Have you seen a series called "Lawless"? Tom Hardy is in it - about a circa 1920-30's bootlegging family. I didn't think I would enjoy it but strangely I did !!. There are some terrible things going on in your country at the moment - Ohio and El Paso - I hope you are not close to those situations. I know people can be desperate- but to come and settle in a country where you know you are not welcome seems foolhardy to me. It is the same over here. They force us to accept multiculturalism and then punish us if we rebel against it in the face of whole towns being colonised. It is a good job that citizens are not allowed to bear arms in this country because there would be blood baths on a weekly basis if they were.

Update - I am watching the second series of Luther and it is not as good as the first. The idea of Luther kidnapping a girl and carrying her on his shoulder down a public street is ludicrous. He would have been charged with assault at the very least because he had no grounds for arrest at all. The way he zoomed in on the clown face guy was also highly implausible - and I have sat in many stationary cars and I have ALWAYS been aware when somebody opens a door and gets into the vehicle. That was just shock value and completely unbelievable. I also wonder how Schenk - who seemed to be some kind of internal investigator - ended up as head of a serial killer unit. I am still watching it and mostly enjoying it - but I am more picky this time around.!

I almost never watch the news anymore because it is largely propaganda. Even their reporting of shootings is always slanted. When Gabbie Giffords and others were shot in Arizona several years ago, the news tried to blame the shooting on Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor. Why? Because on a political piece about congressional seats they were targeting to try to take from the opposition party they put a small bulls eye beside each seat which they felt could be closely contested enough to try to take it in the next election. That was it. They claimed that perhaps the shooter had seen this document and that the use of the bulls eye motivated him to go on a shooting rampage. Incredible.

They neglected to point out that leftist Democrat sites had been critical of Gabbie Giffords because she was too conservative for them, and they put her on a "hit list". Also, the shooter was a far left loon, very unlikely to have read something from Sarah Palin to her supporters.

That shows you how partisan our news media is. And that is far from the worst.

Anyway, I think our culture has degraded now to the point that there is no moral certainty, and little good will. If you're not a leftist, you are labeled a Nazi of some sort. The hate speech on the Internet is so pervasive, and few of us challenge the extremist positions in a calm, friendly manner. I try. Leftists attempt to get me to drop down to their level by calling me names, insulting me, and accusing me of all sorts of things. The best response is to remain friendly and clearly present the truth. If I don't engage them, they look foolish for fighting by themselves. And hopefully, some of those who witness the exchange will see the reasonable presentation of facts and rational thought and will become convinced. Or at least they may decide that spewing insults and hatred isn't a healthy or constructive behavior.

Ninety-nine percent (or thereabouts) of these shootings take place in "gun free zones" where law-abiding citizens are defenseless against a criminal. The few times a bad guy makes an attempt outside of the gun banned zones he doesn't succeed, and few or none are hurt before he is put down. But the news doesn't talk about the facts.

Frankly, I would never choose to live somewhere that prohibits citizens from defending themselves against shooters. I got licensed to carry a concealed handgun in 1989 after I first busted someone for a forged narcotic script. I have never had to shoot in anger, but having the gun on hand has saved me on occasion. Usually when a bad guy learns you're armed, he decides to stop his aggression and get away from you.

It sounds like the guy in Ohio had mental problems which were never addressed, even though they were reported to authorities. I have not read enough about El Paso to form an opinion of what happened there.

Currently I am bouncing around between several series. This way I don't get burned out on the one show. So frequently something or other about a show irritates me, so taking a break to watch something else for a bit helps. I started watching Deadwood. And there are a couple other shows on Amazon that are OK.

I will wait for you to catch up on Luther.

update: We posted at the same time! haha.

I remember what happens in this series. That black girl who works with Justin has heard things about Luther, whom she calls the Devil or something, and she is afraid he may have her do something which negatively affects her career. She kind of has it out for Luther and I think there is trouble down the line because of that.
Luther likes to color outside the lines quite often, and the way he let that criminal outfit manipulate him put him in a tight spot. I really do like the way Elba plays his character, but I am more critical of the writers as time goes by. I am turning into a grouchy old man! hahaha