TV Review: The Fall (Season One)
How do you catch a killer hiding in plain sight? Authorities in Belfast are stumped after a string of murders, and enlist Gibson, an expert in criminal psychology, to crack the case.
If you like your television dark with a side of grief, welcome to heaven. The Fall, which premiered in Ireland on RTÈ ONE on May 12, 2013, brings boatloads of woeful depression. Murder? Check. The death of children? Check. Police corruption? Check. Impossibly sullen looks from Gillian Anderson that make you want to make sweet love to her and run away screaming at the same time? Checkity check. And here’s the absolute truth about this show – besides Game of Thrones, it was the best thing on television for the last month.
I was ready to declare this in a tweet, or a Facebook post, or something of the like in the next few minutes. Then I realized it was finished. Completely pulled from my life as quickly as I discovered it. Five episodes in and I was ready to recommend it to the masses to fill the void of Stark family torment. But that was all there was. Five fantastically chilling episodes. You can catch it on Netflix if you’re in the right country and I suggest you do so now.
The Fall follows two main characters through the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland – Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) of the Metropolitan Police and serial killer, Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan). Both are superb. Anderson nails the no-nonsense-female-with-power-super-detective. She approaches her cases much like her men, with long absorbing stares. There’s as much concentration at a crime scene as there is when she’s handing out her number to a random acquaintance for a late-night mount. Dornan might be even more fascinating to watch. A bereavement counselor by day and a fake suicide hotline operator by night, Spector runs wild through the streets looking for some very specific victims. His methods are riveting. It’s easy to become obsessed with how he juggles it all, a wife and two children at home, a horny babysitter asking to get dead, and the planning and execution of his “special dates”. The two characters barely interact during the season but when they do it’s got the feel of Luke Skywalker facing Darth Vader for the first time. Over the phone.
The rest of the cast is great also. This includes the beloved Archie Panjabi, of ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ fame, as a pathologist who is assigned to the murder investigation. Meanwhile, Aisling Franciosi makes everybody uncomfortable as the Dornan family babysitter that wants to be paid in penis.
While the murders occupy most of the show’s time there’s also some interesting sub-plots to wrap your head around. Dornan seems legitimately concerned with one of his patients after the death of her son and some signs of physical abuse at the hands of her husband. You could argue this sets him up as an anti-hero as a little bit of you is tricked into pulling for him. Then he savagely chokes another woman to death and you remember the point of it all. The police have other problems too as one of their own is gunned down on the street right in front of his house and there are whispers of corruption via cover-up by the Chief.
In the end, though, this is a simple tale of good guys vs. bad guys. Some of it’s beats seem to follow the paint-by-numbers format (the crime scene investigation, the forensics of it all) but the harrowing nature of the events and some incredible performances truly make a mere five episodes a cruel joke. This needs to come back as soon as possible.
Grade: A