Tuesday, January 26, 2016

The Fall

by Pa Rock
Television Junkie

I have just finished watching the first season (11 episodes) of The Fall,  a British police drama set in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  The show focuses of the intertwined lives of two ruthless hunters, one a serial killer and the other a cop.  The action begins as the cop, a prominent police detective named Stella Gibson - and played by Gillian Anderson of X Files fame - is called in to lead the investigation into the brutal murder of a young professional woman in Belfast.  Another similar body or two later and it becomes apparent that the detective is looking for a serial killer.

The killer, Paul Spector, is skillfully portrayed by Irish actor Jamie Dornan.    Spector, a bereavement counselor and married father of two young children, is identified to viewers in the first episode as dark and cunning creature who roams the streets of Belfast at night stalking his victims.   He seems to realize that he is on an irreversible downward spiral, and at one point describes serial killing as being a slow form of suicide.

While the main plot is straightforward, the slow and methodical process of a modern police department zeroing in on a serial killer - and the killer's equally methodical process of lengthening his chain of death - the action is kept immediate through a series of subplots that add to the suspense:  a domestic violence case that plays out across Detective Gibson's hunt for the killer - and the killer's struggle to remain free, a pedophile priest, a sixteen-year-old babysitter who aids and is obsessed with the killer, and Detective Gibson's penchant for luring pretty young police officers, male and female, into her bed.

Apparently five more episodes of The Fall have been produced and released, though they have yet to make it to Netflix.  I am glad to see that the show is continuing because it is a very suspenseful and satisfying dramatic experience - one that I highly recommend.

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