What is it? The Fall, five hour-long episodes on two disks from Acorn Media
How much? $39.99
When? Now
What is this one about? It’s a dark, stark, disturbing but almost hypnotic study of both sides of a cat-and-mouse game.
First, there’s Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson), your typical work-obsessed detective superintendent with Scotland Yard. She’s called to Belfast to review a faltering murder investigation and begins to suspect that the crime was the work of a serial killer.
That leads us to Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan), a loving family man and grief counselor who likes to spend his spare time stalking, tormenting and murdering Belfast’s young professional women.
Basically, Spector hunts his prey and Gibson hunts him.
The audience knows full well who the killer is, so it’s not exactly a mystery. It’s more a procedural, with a pretty blunt and unflinching look at what happens in a criminal investigation. The unemotional approach actually makes the events more horrible - and horribly realistic.
But it’s not all detached and clinical. We follow characters into their personal lives and witness their private reactions to what’s going on around them.
The suspense comes from watching to see how (and if) Spector will be caught and he comes close more than once. As Gibson explains, serial killing is like an addiction with the killer constantly seeking that high, the crimes escalating in number and intensity. The audience sees exactly what she means as the story follows Spector in his pre- and post-murder rituals.
There’s a large cast of characters at play and the series takes us into subplots involving Spector’s wife’s work as a neonatal nurse, a police officer’s assassination and Spector’s work with a battered wife. It also gets into issues of corruption and politics in the police department. Some of it seems extraneous, but the dangling threads have a tendency to weave back into the main plot in surprising ways.
Much of what makes the show compelling comes from the characters, particularly Gibson and Spector. Gibson may be the good guy, but she’s not above making mistakes, like having an ill-advised fling with an underling.Meanwhile, Spector’s affectionate relationship with his small children makes his nocturnal activities that much more chilling.
The show is engrossing, smart, suspenseful and more than a little disturbing. It could have you quadruple-checking the locks on your doors and windows. But if you love melodrama, over-the-top action and fast-paced stories, you won’t find those here.
By the way, you should be aware that if you go in expecting to have things wrapped up, you’ll be very disappointed.
Hey, wait! Isn’t Gillian Anderson an American? Yes, she is. But she spent a significant portion of her childhood and her post-The X-Files years in England so the accent isn’t all that foreign to her. She does a decent enough job with it.
Are there extras? There’s a standard-issue, 12-minute featurette with the usual interviews about the story, characters and production.
New this week: Absolutely Fabulous, Absolutely All of It; Bat Masterson, Season 3; Beverly Hills, 90210, Complete Series; Boy Meets World, Complete Series; Dexter, Complete Series; Family Ties, Complete Series; Mad Men, Season 6; Saved by the Bell, Complete Series; Seinfeld, Complete Series; Under the Dome, Season 1; Weeds, Complete Series.
Next week: Diagnosis Murder, Season 6; MADtv, Season 4; Merlin, Complete Series; Sesame Street, Best of Sesame Street; Silk, Season 1.
Style, Pages 52 on 11/03/2013