"The Fall" is Fantastic

"The Fall" is a five-episode serial recently produced for television by the BBC. At first glance it's similar to many other crime dramas. A serial killer is on the loose in the area, preying on women who fit a certain profile. A sharp detective, an outsider with few allies, does her best to find him before he can kill again. The fact that the detective is a woman is no longer unusual, but the fact that it's a female detective acutely aware of the gender politics of the killings and her own uneasy place in the police hierarchy is something rare. Minor spoilers ahead for the first two episodes, just to be safe.

Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) comes to Belfast to review the recent investigation into the death of a young woman. She's warned by Assistant Chief Constable Jim Burns (John Lynch) that things are different in Northern Ireland, and suggests that she is unprepared. Soon the death of one woman becomes three, after an earlier crime is linked and another victim, Sarah Kay (Laura Donnelly), is identified. We know from the start that the killer is a man named Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan), a bereavement counselor who has a busy wife, Sally Anne (Bronagh Waugh), and two young children. Spector appears to be a normal, decent family man, but is driven by terrible sexual impulses and obsessions.

"The Fall" is chiefly comprised of a pair of character studies of Spector and Gibson, on opposite sides of the investigation. Spector juggles his nocturnal criminal activities with work and family obligations. He's constantly tempted by other women in his life, including Liz Tyler (Séainín Brennan), a mother he's counseling through the death of her son, and Katie (Aisling Franciosi), the flirty teenager who babysits his children. Gibson is soon involved as a witness in the death of a local detective she slept with, resulting in a political quagmire and potential scandal. The investigation continues to hit bumps and mistakes are made. The crimes escalate in due course, but the show is in no particular hurry to reach any sort of resolution or confrontation, more interested in the inner lives of its characters. The events of the series would have likely been compressed into a single episode by most other crime dramas. And that's precisely what makes it worth watching.

I found Gibson fascinating. She seems totally unflappable at first, taking charge and issuing orders with ease and authority. She is sexually forward and makes no apologies for it, coolly undercutting any attempts to shame her for her after-hours activities. She also matter-of-factly reminds those working on the case (and viewers at home) to refrain from making value judgments about the victims, something I can't remember seeing in any similar media without it coming off as haranguing. She's so smartly written, in a way that's conscious of all the gender and social issues that must surround a woman in her position, but without letting her character become beholden to them. It's one of the best roles Gillian Anderson has ever had, and I'm so glad she's appearing in more high-profile projects lately. I've missed her.

The approach to Paul Spector's portrayal is also unusual, one that spends as much time looking at his good side as it does at his bad side. We learn that Spector is a caring father who goes to great lengths to hide his proclivities from his family. He is a quiet man, protective of children in general, and has a strong sense of morality and justice. When he suspects his patient Liz may be being battered by her husband, he goes to visit her at home, unannounced. Sometimes he's put in situations that invites us to mistake him for a flawed hero, a sympathetic rule-breaker that we could root for. However, he is also unequivocally a monster, as we see in the gut-wrenching crimes he perpetrates. Jamie Dornan portrays both sides of Spector easily, and is especially good about getting across his pride and self-righteousness.

In some ways "The Fall" feels like a prequel to a larger series, the way it holds back from the usual plotty twists and turns of most investigation stories and ends in a place that seems to anticipate further installments. And sure enough, the BBC recently announced that a second series of "The Fall" has been commissioned for next year. I look forward to seeing more of Gibson and Spector, but part of me wonders if they shouldn't have left well enough alone. Part of the effectiveness of "The Fall" is that it doesn't follow the template of your average crime serial, and that it doesn't go where the audience thinks it will. I've seen so many similar shows come and go, but "The Fall" stands out for all the right reasons.
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