U.K. Drama 'The Psychopath Next Door'

[Possibility of Being]

_http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2013/06/sky-living-orders-drama-pilots-lawless-the-psychopath-next-door-suranne-jones-anna-friel-lead-casts/

Sky Living has given the green-light to two new hour-long drama pilots titled Lawless and The Psychopath Next Door.

These dramas will form part of the channel’s upcoming Drama Matters (formerly known as Reckless), a strand similar to the channel’s previously announced Love Matters and Sky1′s Little Crackers which will showcase a number of one-off dramas that are also serving as backdoor pilots. ...The Drama Matters strand is slated to premiere on Sky Living this Autumn.
...

Penned by Trollied scribe Julie Rutterford, The Psychopath Next Door is described as a the creepy and intriguing drama [elsewhere described as 'dark comedy'] which explores what happens when evil moves in next door. Word is that the drama, if successful, is being eyed for an 8 episode first season. The Psychopath Next Door is being produced by ITV Studios with Pushing Daisies alum Anna Friel taking the lead role. Myar Craig-Brown is serving as the executive producer. Vexed helmer Kieron J. Walsh is directing.

... Anna Friel will be starring in the lead role as Eve, a glamorous psychopath whose magnetic personality hides her true nature."

I'm curious if it has anything to do with Martha Stout's book.

 

[Laura]

This should be interesting!

 

[Nook]

Thanks for sharing, PoB. Indeed it should be interesting.

I'm curious if it has anything to do with Martha Stout's book.

Me too. Hopefully it'll be at least inspired by it and they won't steer away from the truth about Psychopaths. (If that's the original intent and the show gets picked up, we might get at least a few episodes (maybe more) before the executives jump in to muddy the waters or cancel it.)

 

[H-KQGE]

Ah yes thanks for this, i heard about it a while ago (suranne jones spoke about it in an article about her drama with the scottish guy from the blood- soaked- psychopaths- everywhere -Roman - romp-fest tv series "spartacus".)& i wondered just what's going on in the uk these days.

Given that british people are generally indifferent about most things i thought it strange that sky tv (i don't have sky & they'll never get my money) would be acquiring so many channels(like living tv- now sky living) producing so many dramas based on basically narcissists, (pathological narcs) sociopaths (as in a lower to psychopaths) & criminal (mostly) & sub-criminal psychopaths- & their subtle blurring of these disorders.

Here are a few things i've noticed over the past few years (unfortunately i can't be as accurate as I may like, since the constant bombardment of adverts for these shows makes me pay less attention, although i'm aware of what's going on)

1: anna friel was in a tv show called "brookside" in the mid-nineties that caused controversy because of a storyline that saw her play the daughter of a couple who then killed her abusive father. Along with her mother, they then buried his body under their patio. Note: he was a psychopath.

2:suranne jones was in a tv show called "scott & bailey" about 2 female detective constables in the greater manchester serious crime unit. They often dealt with pathological narcs & psychopaths, on the job & even in their homelives. Suranne jones' character was self-destructive as the anna friel character became after killing her father.

3:their paths are now to cross on this new show & for that, it'll be interesting. (from the perspective of their character links that is)

4:A tv show not too long ago aired (i think it's called "the following") with a psychopath at the cente of the show, kevin bacon is tasked with stopping him.(another "sky living" show)

The tv show "dexter" springs to mind also.

The point being tht psychopaths are "popular" now - loveable, misunderstood, cleaning up the streets,(dexter reference) & audiences are quickly enamoured by them, & then they're not. Even "that b**ch next door" (something like that anyway) the u.s."comedy" about a psychopath that "grows feelings" (yep, she did start to care, so she couldn't have been one then!) was loved then quickly forgotten.

If 1 of these shows is anything like the u.s. show."lie to me"(season 1+2) then there could be progress. Anna friel as a "glamorous psychopath"? (called EVE no less) well maybe 10 years ago. Will it be even semi-accurate? I'm not holding my breath.


ADMIN NOTE: Formatted paragraphs for easier reading by forum members.

 

[ultra]

Psychopaths: so hot right now ;)

Also interested to check this out. Anna Friel and Suranne Jones are both talented actresses, prominent in the UK.

 

[SMM]

Psychopaths: so hot right now ;)

Hot topic indeed. Are shows like these designed to have a desensitising effect depending on audience?

Thanks for sharing, PoB. Indeed it should be interesting.

I'm curious if it has anything to do with Martha Stout's book.

Me too. Hopefully it'll be at least inspired by it and they won't steer away from the truth about Psychopaths. (If that's the original intent and the show gets picked up, we might get at least a few episodes (maybe more) before the executives jump in to muddy the waters or cancel it.)

Same here. Thanks for sharing PoB.

 

[Possibility of Being]

It's coming:

_http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2013/09/sky-living-sets-premiere-date-for-drama-matters-the-psychopath-next-door/

The Psychopath Next Door – one of five dramas which are being piloted as part of Sky Living’s Drama Matters strand – will premiere on Tuesday October 1st at 9pm, it has been announced.

 

[Vic]

...Given that british people are generally indifferent about most things...

Hmm. Care to back that up with evidence?

We have 'british' people being abused and injured by psycho-police right now because they are standing up against 'fracking' - a cutesy term meaning the rape and possible murder of our planet.

That's just the latest of so many examples of british people being far from 'indifferent'

British people have been killed, injured, and traumatised in mass protests against matrix abuse - the poll tax, Wapping, the miner's strike, anti-iraq invasion protest etc. The unprecedented response to the murder of Princess Diana further shows an opposite manifestation to 'indifference.' Many other expressions of willingness to stand up against the STS status quo (I include the rock band in this ;) ) take place all the time.

Some of it is misguided in its application perhaps, but indifferent the british people are not.

But what is this thing called 'british people?' It's a nonsense. It doesn't really mean people who have british citizenship in this context. Nations are used as one of the many tools of division that serve STS so well. Stereotypes are created that can be used to nurture a large range of movements of human energy, ranging from light humour to genocide.

Stereotypes are basically lies. And most of us here know the power of lies.

 

[SMM]

It's coming:

_http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2013/09/sky-living-sets-premiere-date-for-drama-matters-the-psychopath-next-door/

The Psychopath Next Door – one of five dramas which are being piloted as part of Sky Living’s Drama Matters strand – will premiere on Tuesday October 1st at 9pm, it has been announced.

Thanks for the heads up! If the intent is profit, the show could present glamourized glimpses of features found in Stout's book.

...Given that british people are generally indifferent about most things...

Hmm. Care to back that up with evidence?

We have 'british' people being abused and injured by psycho-police right now because they are standing up against 'fracking' - a cutesy term meaning the rape and possible murder of our planet.

That's just the latest of so many examples of british people being far from 'indifferent'

British people have been killed, injured, and traumatised in mass protests against matrix abuse - the poll tax, Wapping, the miner's strike, anti-iraq invasion protest etc. The unprecedented response to the murder of Princess Diana further shows an opposite manifestation to 'indifference.' Many other expressions of willingness to stand up against the STS status quo (I include the rock band in this ;) ) take place all the time.

Some of it is misguided in its application perhaps, but indifferent the british people are not.

But what is this thing called 'british people?' It's a nonsense. It doesn't really mean people who have british citizenship in this context. Nations are used as one of the many tools of division that serve STS so well. Stereotypes are created that can be used to nurture a large range of movements of human energy, ranging from light humour to genocide.

Stereotypes are basically lies. And most of us here know the power of lies.

I think it has more to do with geographical segregation, societal programming & lack of knowledge/awareness, as opposed to general indifference - the government & illusive exclusion on an international scale experienced by residents.

Britain is secluded, more an island - as opposed to Europe, America or Asia. A major difference between Britain & a number of other islands is that it is already heavily civilised, ponerized & advanced. It has the establishment - monarchy, parliament, technology - & a history mostly comprised of deception at this rate.

As an example, many would or do try to implement activities against perceived injustices or current state of affairs here. Diversion tactics are numerous & at times all-encompassing, disinformation widespread.

Many pick up where their ancestors left off with protests & the like, others more prone to live for comfort or with the illusion that Britain still reigns (politically or otherwise) on a global scale. In some cases, this could be translated to laziness or narrow-mindedness.

Perhaps the following articles fit here: 1 & 2? Evidence that one's beliefs are flawed resulting in a tightening on said beliefs.

Fear of difference or variation is sort of magnified as the sample size/region is, relatively speaking, small. Increase in immigration rates & access to alternative media can affect the viewpoint of those willing to look at things from a different angle.

WRT to police, programming could be taking place that increases predisposition to violence. Barrie Tower talks a little about this, a company called Tetra, in the following video.

FWIW.

 

[Courageous Inmate Sort]

I just watched the first episode of The Psychopath Next Door and found it interesting in depicting how the psychopath - Eve - uses superficial charm and underhanded cunning to manipulate and seriously damage people and relationships. It also shows that the psychopath's actions are purposefully planned to achieve her goals, even though these are not explicitly stated. The mimicking of emotions is also portrayed.

One weak spot would be that Eve often lets her guard down, giving too much opportunity to be discovered. Or she just isn't the brightest of the psycho bunch.

Interestingly, even though there is now a show on tv with a psychopath in the title and in the lead role, the media still ignores, willingly or by true ignorance, what is a true psychopath, as exemplified by a review titled "The Psychopath Next Door saw Anna Friel as a study in twisted evil – but what she lacked was motive":

[Please note that this review contain SPOILERS.]

TV review: The Psychopath Next Door (Sky Living)

Everyone loves a good baddie and Anna Friel certainly fitted the bill as The Psychopath Next Door.

Her power-dressing psychiatrist, Eve Wright, was a study in sly evil, upsetting cosy suburban apple-carts as she moved into the kind of aspirational suburban estate her old Brookside mates could only have dreamed of.

The hitch with this drama was that writer Julie Rutterford had to cover all bases.

As a pilot for a possible series, it had to tease us with time bombs alluding to Eve’s psycho past, while also coming up with some kind of pay-off in case this was all we were ever going to get.

As a result, it fell a little clunkily between two stools. Or, rather, two couches.

There was quite a lot of Eve making mischief among the hitherto settled ladies-who-jogged she encountered in her new home. She shared secrets; she had one (somewhat unfeasibly) run over by a barman she s**gged in a kitchen; she laid on the charm so sweetly she was soon queen bee. But what this potentially intriguing character crucially lacked was motive.

There were hints here and there, an uncommunicative mother, a patient in meltdown leaving video messages. But nothing to truly unlock the key to Eve’s twisted mind. Which made it a bit hard to care.

It played a bit fast and loose with the term ‘psychopath’ and the mood jolted uneasily between jolly comedy and spasms of electric shock therapy. Contrast is all very well for dramatic effect and although Friel did well at suggesting there might be depths to Eve’s apparently random plotting, she needed more to work with than the one-dimensional spitefulness she was given here.

Most strange was the gratuitous ending, an illogical turning of tables that felt as if we’d suddenly fast-forwarded through five episodes for a pay-off line entirely out of keeping with what had gone before. That might be a clue that this pilot is grounded before it’s even taken off.

It seems that the reviewer is waiting for a logical explication, in usual psychological terms, for the misbehavior of the psychopath, which amounts to rejecting the idea that the psychopath simply does not empathize as normal human beings and needs no previous trauma to "justify" its actions.

There is a scene where Eve calls her mother that could lead to "problems at home", which I hope is not the path chosen by the writers to explain Eve's psychopathic behavior.

 

[WIN 52]

...Given that british people are generally indifferent about most things...

Hmm. Care to back that up with evidence?

We have 'british' people being abused and injured by psycho-police right now because they are standing up against 'fracking' - a cutesy term meaning the rape and possible murder of our planet.

That's just the latest of so many examples of british people being far from 'indifferent'

British people have been killed, injured, and traumatised in mass protests against matrix abuse - the poll tax, Wapping, the miner's strike, anti-iraq invasion protest etc. The unprecedented response to the murder of Princess Diana further shows an opposite manifestation to 'indifference.' Many other expressions of willingness to stand up against the STS status quo (I include the rock band in this ;) ) take place all the time.

Some of it is misguided in its application perhaps, but indifferent the british people are not.

But what is this thing called 'british people?' It's a nonsense. It doesn't really mean people who have british citizenship in this context. Nations are used as one of the many tools of division that serve STS so well. Stereotypes are created that can be used to nurture a large range of movements of human energy, ranging from light humour to genocide.

Stereotypes are basically lies. And most of us here know the power of lies.

There seems to be a thing about being borne on the Island which seems to give British people an aloof attitude towards all other people not borne on the Island. Possibly this is more what is going on than indifference.

 

[H-KQGE]

...Given that british people are generally indifferent about most things...

Hmm. Care to back that up with evidence?

We have 'british' people being abused and injured by psycho-police right now because they are standing up against 'fracking' - a cutesy term meaning the rape and possible murder of our planet.

That's just the latest of so many examples of british people being far from 'indifferent'

British people have been killed, injured, and traumatised in mass protests against matrix abuse - the poll tax, Wapping, the miner's strike, anti-iraq invasion protest etc. The unprecedented response to the murder of Princess Diana further shows an opposite manifestation to 'indifference.' Many other expressions of willingness to stand up against the STS status quo (I include the rock band in this ;) ) take place all the time.

Some of it is misguided in its application perhaps, but indifferent the british people are not.

But what is this thing called 'british people?' It's a nonsense. It doesn't really mean people who have british citizenship in this context. Nations are used as one of the many tools of division that serve STS so well. Stereotypes are created that can be used to nurture a large range of movements of human energy, ranging from light humour to genocide.

Stereotypes are basically lies. And most of us here know the power of lies.

There seems to be a thing about being borne on the Island which seems to give British people an aloof attitude towards all other people not borne on the Island. Possibly this is more what is going on than indifference.

Hello WIN 52. I agree with what you've said, I think it's not just to others not borne from the island but to each other too. When I used it I did have a think first, then I decided to go with it as it seemed to describe a general feeling or perception that i've been aware of since childhood. I also went with what i've seen & heard from television, radio (topical debate shows, BBC stuff) & newspapers over the past few decades, not to mention plenty of times that i've heard British people described in similar terms. (like a "light" news segment where snapshots of people's views are taken in another country for instance)

Of course I could've chosen the word "aloof" (and some dictionaries will carry the word "indifferent" attached to "aloof") or "distant" or some other related word. It may have been presumptuous to assume that what I had said would be understood & not taken negatively.

Here's but one entry for the word "aloof." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aloof and here's the entry for indifference: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/indifference?s=t

You can see why I chose not to use the word "apathy" or rather, "apathetic." I was also under the impression that I wouldn't have to use "IMO"/"IMHO" for everything that could be a bone of contention for anyone, but i'll review that. If you type in "British isles terminology" you'll get an idea of what i'm trying to convey about word usage. There are so many words that are confused, incorrectly used, & that's by the Brits! It's even in legislative literature. There are other entries for things related such as the word "English" & the history of it (the country etc) & from the beginning approximately a thousand years ago, the language has been something quite different to what is generally known & understood about it & the way it's been used.

Relating to the history of "English" (since it is made from several key older languages) here are a few Latin breakdowns for what we call "aloof. Just keep in mind, even if you are not aware of the somewhat complicated history, that there were lots of names describing the mainland, the islands around it, & the natives, all adding to the mix of those writing historical chronicles. These included the Greeks & the Romans (I won't go into it as i'm no history buff & it's long, contentious, & someone else could probably do a better job of it)

:"Discedo." (I don't have the right accent key for these btw) -"go off in different directions," "march off" "be divided," "cease," "depart from." "Removeo."- "move back", "remove," "withdraw." (withdraw being the most operative word related to dictionary/thesaurus definitions)
Finally we have "Non Attingo." (non=not) - "touch", "affect", "mention in passing", "relate to". Omitted were some that i felt weren't necessary in terms of clarity for the definitions of aloof, relating to our current mini-topic.

And these are my opinions with added "facts" (because some of them may be wrong, or described differently elsewhere) but IMO (!) plenty of people could take offense to many words used describing oneself (by another) as British, or as a part of Great Britain etc, whether they are correct or incorrect at the perception of the word(s) being used pejoratively.

Even after saying all of that, i do believe that the attitude that you describe is contagious (some places more than others) for instance, going to & from work people seem to have their "game face" on. Public transport in particular, if you approach someone the response (if you don't get a sour look) is up to a toss of a coin, from what i've seen & still see. Perhaps a London thing? Hearing Brits described as "warm, approachable & friendly" on the news (on occasion) does get my left eyebrow raised. I mean i don't doubt it, i just haven't seen much of it.
They could be talking about northerners who are perceived this way by Brits too. Incidentally, a programme was on the other day about this sort of thing. It was about British accents & the perception that goes with various regions. It was good & I looked on YouTube for it, but there were copyright issues so i didn't post it. If it's shown again (on ITV) or if it's allowed on YouTube in future, it's called "Tonight - accents speaks louder than words."

 

[Possibility of Being]

It seems that the reviewer is waiting for a logical explication, in usual psychological terms, for the misbehavior of the psychopath, which amounts to rejecting the idea that the psychopath simply does not empathize as normal human beings and needs no previous trauma to "justify" its actions.

There is a scene where Eve calls her mother that could lead to "problems at home", which I hope is not the path chosen by the writers to explain Eve's psychopathic behavior.

Thank you CourageousIS for the report. It does look like the producers understood a bit more about psychopathy than the reviewer did. Lack of motive? Come on, they don't need any. They do things because they can and do anything that gives them what they want.

It would be a good idea to follow each episode with 10-15 minutes of discussion on the show in the context of science of psychopathy, but I guess that's not so much about education as it is about entertainment. Hopefully, there will be some brief but knowledgeable reviews posted somewhere on FB, blogs and/or comments to ignorant reviews.

 

[H-KQGE]

Isn't TPND a one-off?

 

[Minas Tirith]

One weak spot would be that Eve often lets her guard down, giving too much opportunity to be discovered.

Maybe to portray her kind of human despite everything, give her some sympathies, like "Oh, how cute she is after all"? Sorry, can't watch it, no TV, maybe I catch a glimpse on Youtube later.

There seems to be a thing about being borne on the Island which seems to give British people an aloof attitude towards all other people not borne on the Island. Possibly this is more what is going on than indifference.

My impression too, though I labeled it "provincialism". Not a lot of interest in other cultures - and London is basically the only real cosmopolitan town ...

M.T.