I didn't see it as sexist before to me that depends on the overall context of the narrative. Rachel didn't bear the burden of being the only female character (or even the only female character with a relationship crisis). Nor were men by contrast depicted as acting rationally in similar positions. Andy, who was meant as a sympathetic character (though initially he came across as a bit stalkery to me but not during the second half of the season), and who had had a one night stand with Janet he couldn't get over, did behave as overly emotional, with some extra added paranoia. (Both Rachel and Andy calmed down later.) I don't see it as sexist if a female character responds emotionally, angry, hurt and seething over a break up unless, like I said, the story she's in includes no other women, and/or the male characters are presented in direct contrast in the same situations. To me, the alternative would be that we don't allow female characters to behave less than stellar out of fear of sexism and thus rob them of variety.

What I did have a problem with was, like I said, that Nick was such an obvious jerk that it was impossible to see what made the relationship last the alleged two years it had, given that Rachel otherwise is depicted as clever and observant and not putting up wiht any bullshit.

re: Luther, I agree that the writing there is weak. I felt let down when I watched s1 which is why I didn't review it - I had heard much praise, and had been looking forward to Idris Elba. But I could not muster any sympathy for his character when he was trashing the office in a tantrum yet again (instead, I was wondering who'd clean up and pay for that - not John Luther, presumably) - and talk about people reacting badly, overly emotional, crazy, scorned and seething to break-ups: his behaviour towards his wife was absolutely horrible for most of the season. (And then Indira Varma gets killed on my tv screen yet again...) The series creator said somewhere he wanted to combine two different archetypes - the excentric genius detective a la Holmes and the more modern detective who is part of a police force, to work with the inherent contradictions, and, um. Other shows have already done that, and so much better. (The Wire did it with more than one character, too.) The one thing the show did that felt fresh was Alice Morgan as a female Hannibal Lecter/Mouse/what's his name from Parker's mysteries i.e. the sociopath who forms a bond with the detective and helps him, because I hadn't seen a woman in this role before. But even so - I felt let down by the overall show.