Turned fucking Luther off

I think it would be reasonable for the BBC to make some drama which is not about sexualised violence. They are supposed to offer a wide range of output. There is plenty of violence on Netflix.

Most writers of crime and dark or horror fiction ( I am one) write about fears and the dark side of human nature. I quite often write about my own fears. I have written -sometimes quite unpleasant stuff - about abuse and power, and where what it can be like for women is illustrated and it's most definitely - in my case - coming from a feminist perspective. Am I disgustingly trying to control women and creating entertainment porn by just writing about it? I don't agree.

If people are so affected by it why don’t they just not watch it? Why can’t the rest of us just enjoy it without people moaning?

That's exactly what we're saying - we're discussing the fact that we can't watch such programmes.

People who do enjoy them don't have to read or contribute to this thread.

If people are so affected by it why don’t they just not watch it? Why can’t the rest of us just enjoy it without people moaning?

I haven't seen Luther but i do switch off the moment a show goes down that particular road. My oh knows this. I just leave the room. In the past I've said that of course he can finish the show or the series but without me and with the sound down. He now sees what I'm talking about, what helped him was the brilliant second seriesof Broadchurch when they described rape from a woman's or victim's perspective rather than sick porn. That show was more educative than anything I've come across.

I can't watch anything like that. There's enough grimness in RL without making it up. I wouldn't be able to sleep afterwards. I watched Midsomer Murders last night and that's as good as it gets!

Agree with @GahWhatever

This thread is weird...

I can see both sides of the argument on here.
But, considering it broadly, when I have my vivid nightmares (I have mad dreams) it’s always a man chasing me, never a woman. That is pretty telling.

Totally agree. More dramas like Mrs Wilson please. We watch Jane Austen films tbh guaranteed no murders of young women. Hated all those Scandinavian things that were all the rage - one opened with a teenage girl being chased through dark woods we turned that one off.

That is exactly what my female partner and I say and do. Much as I love Sarah Lancashire, I couldn't get through the second series of 'Happy Valley' because I can no longer tolerate the violence and fear these programmes generate.

You what now?
Luther is really graphic and really violent, which are enough to turn it off if you don't like it.
But the plot revolved around a married couple who murdered for fun, sexually motivated (male and female victims) , and then the husband finds he has an inoperable tumour and starts escalating, fulfilling his bucket list. The first 2 victims shown were male. The patsy was male. One female victim on the bus and another who survived.
Meanwhile Luther is a weak man, in a twisted relationship with a psychotic woman whom he previously helped escape from a mental institution. While doing a terrible job of investigating the couple sexual murders Luther stands by while Alice kidnaps and subsequently murders the son of a crime boss who sets an assassin on them, whereby one of Luthers (male) colleagues is kidnapped, beaten, saved and subsequently shot at point blank range.
At the capture of the sexual predator Alice murders Luther's (female) assistant, shoots Luther, and eventually falls to her death. Luther is arrested (about time IMO).

Lots of reasons to hate it, but sexual violence against women was a small part of an overall very violent story.

This series is better than the previous ones I think. The previous ones (Luther) seemed to get worse - more and more women being killed in horrendous ways. And only women being killed. I nearly stopped watching as it just seemed so gratuitous.

madroid

Urm because the ratings tell them we do?

I personally don’t enjoy Luther because I don’t care about all the side stories about him and Alice or the gangsters, I like the police bit. The baddies are super scary. This particular series had both male and females victims and male and female baddies. Should victims be only men?

The scene on the bus was scary. It was supposed to be. As was the serial killer under the bed (who also killed men).

I think this thread is a bit of a reach tbh. The perpetually offended.

I agree op. Am not even tempted to watch, have heard enough on social media.

I avoid horror or detective shows or films because I can more happily live without feeling vulnerable IRL because I have watched women on screen being presented as interchangeable prey animals/rape objects, simply because of our sex.

Plus the fact that often after they’ve arrested someone IRL who has murdered women with a sexual element, there tends to be mention in the press of something horrific that the perpetrator watched for pleasure or to get ideas and then reconstruct on the victims. Not saying there is a direct link but violence and misogyny has a corrosive effect on everyone IMO, even if most people leave that something they enjoy for ‘entertainment’ value when they consume it via film and tv.

It’s definitely a form of social control of women- message is whatever women do or don’t do- ‘look what can happen to you.’ Women can also be sacrificed as the collateral to male disputes in these plots. So the message is that women should live fearfully and compliantly as a type of defence... while always knowing that there isn’t really any defence.

Hopefully cinema and television has changed for the better with more women directors and writers involved, but the ubiquity of pornography and widespread subsequent desensitisation to misogyny and violence also makes me doubt that.

Was Luther breaking the mould (around portraying women characters as victims of crimes)? (Genuine question)

Totally agree. More dramas like Mrs Wilson please. We watch Jane Austen films tbh guaranteed no murders of young women. Hated all those Scandinavian things that were all the rage - one opened with a teenage girl being chased through dark woods we turned that one off.

Why do programme makers/planners think we want to watch this sick insensitive crap all the time anyway?

I've never understood why we're supposed to enjoy being vicariously traumatised.

I vote with my off button.

I don't watch any of these type of programmes and I think subconsciously this is why, the fact it's all too real. I was saying to DH the other day it's sick they're making a drama out of the Levi Bellfield murders, tv entertainment about someone's murder. It's very wrong.

Also switched off - too grim

The scene on the bus was upsetting - perhaps because it’s plausible? Stabbings are not uncommon in London.

I haven’t watched Criminal Minds in years since I watched an episode about girls kidnapped and tortured and found out it was based on a real case.

There was also an episode in Endeavour where a young woman is raped at a party. That was really upsetting and stayed with me for days.

DH and I started watching Series 1 last night, having seen posts all over our timelines about how excited people were that it was back. We watched 3 episodes and then agreed that we wouldn't watch anymore. In DHs words "it's everything that's wrong with everything". Nasty, bullying, narcissistic male protagonist. Were women meant to be placated by the "strong women": female boss (ignored) ex-wife, (terrorised and bullied), villian (yes, always an evil woman to blame for a man acting outside of the rules)? Just enforcing stereotypes and societal expectations of behaviour. And don't get me started on the breathy Phil Mitchell-esque estuary accents, FFS, clear your throats everyone and speak properly!

I rarely watch TV anymore. This reminded my why.

Wow. This thread is something else

I don’t start watching anything unless I am 95% certain it will not feature sexualised violence against young women so the writer or director can get their jollies, or give the audience what low expectations say they want.

I therefore watch no drama after 9pm. I watch no police procedural.

I'm weary of stabbings, shootings, torture and rape being used as entertainment porn. There is an unremitting torrent of murders happening in real life (murders of women, stabbings of predominantly young men) and I have to question whether the relentless coverage of this as 'entertainment' in some way contributes to normalising what is happening.

I don't like it as it seems gratutiously violent and scary. But is it really only preying on women's fears only for entertainment? Two men were killed as well in the episode I saw.

I am really fucking sick of programmes only dealing with attractive young women being murdered but is this one of them?

An I agree with the OP, this is violence against women being used for thrills and the writers should be ashamed.