'The Fall' is dark, gritty and gruesome look human nature. Many of the other reviews have focused on the 'sexuality, disturbing violence, blah, blah, blah' but the real focus should be on the masterful way the show is crafted to explore the fragile, damage and often unrelenting evil that exist in everyone- though in varying forms. I am sure if you have not watched the show, you are thinking 'what the hell does that mean' and those who have watched are like 'this chick is crazy' but allow me to attempt to explain.
Gibson (Anderson) has the coldness and hardness of the woman she is meant to be, the acting is well and not something that needs an explanation. Her character is meant to be some sort of moral compass for the show, to expose, hunt, chase and capture the man responsible for the brutal deaths of women in Belfast. However, I find that she is not some beautiful woman in her mid-life that contains a moral compass- on the contraire; we learn that she is s narcissist, devious and arrogant woman. She has sex under her own terms, with who she wants, regardless of their marital status, keeps incompetence around her so she can manipulate, whether women or men, them when she needs to and secrets that wake her in the night. There is a name for people who act like this and while we are meant to root for her to catch her killer, I was left with, she is obsessive, manipulative, and cunning. Perhaps to catch a killer is that to know your enemy you are best to be just like them.
Which leads me to Spector (Dornan) and he is so creepy, the indifference of his idealist life (the wife, the kids, the home the steady job) is something that eats at him every day and it is evident in the way he lives in the dark, when he is alone. His character is complex, there is no obvious 'oh, you are a crazy murderer'. The audience, I believe, is meant to see him as a man who appears to have what everyone wants, yet finds that having everything is suffocating. I get that others will see him as some ruthless killer who deserves no sympathy, but they are missing the point. There is a reason for all actions and we are meant to find the why? And Dornan does an excellent job of showing brokenness, animosity, hatred, and even moments of compassion (but not where one would expect). There are no clear excuses for him, I mean he kills women for no point (so it seems) simply because he has lost control of his own life and craves it somewhere. His outlet is the hunt, the capture, the ability to suffocate someone else.
Past the violence and death emerges the fact that there is little difference between him and Gibson (Anderson) except her way of obsession is legal (and we have yet to see her physically take a life, but she does damage nonetheless).
The subplots are what slow the show down. I really do not care about the rich-coke-man-boy and his daddy issues, nor the life of dirty cops. If Series Two can tie all these together, that would be helpful and surprising.
Overall, this is a great export from across the pond and if you can get past the imagery of death and violence you are in for a deep investigation into evil, whether accidental or deliberate.
Gibson (Anderson) has the coldness and hardness of the woman she is meant to be, the acting is well and not something that needs an explanation. Her character is meant to be some sort of moral compass for the show, to expose, hunt, chase and capture the man responsible for the brutal deaths of women in Belfast. However, I find that she is not some beautiful woman in her mid-life that contains a moral compass- on the contraire; we learn that she is s narcissist, devious and arrogant woman. She has sex under her own terms, with who she wants, regardless of their marital status, keeps incompetence around her so she can manipulate, whether women or men, them when she needs to and secrets that wake her in the night. There is a name for people who act like this and while we are meant to root for her to catch her killer, I was left with, she is obsessive, manipulative, and cunning. Perhaps to catch a killer is that to know your enemy you are best to be just like them.
Which leads me to Spector (Dornan) and he is so creepy, the indifference of his idealist life (the wife, the kids, the home the steady job) is something that eats at him every day and it is evident in the way he lives in the dark, when he is alone. His character is complex, there is no obvious 'oh, you are a crazy murderer'. The audience, I believe, is meant to see him as a man who appears to have what everyone wants, yet finds that having everything is suffocating. I get that others will see him as some ruthless killer who deserves no sympathy, but they are missing the point. There is a reason for all actions and we are meant to find the why? And Dornan does an excellent job of showing brokenness, animosity, hatred, and even moments of compassion (but not where one would expect). There are no clear excuses for him, I mean he kills women for no point (so it seems) simply because he has lost control of his own life and craves it somewhere. His outlet is the hunt, the capture, the ability to suffocate someone else.
Past the violence and death emerges the fact that there is little difference between him and Gibson (Anderson) except her way of obsession is legal (and we have yet to see her physically take a life, but she does damage nonetheless).
The subplots are what slow the show down. I really do not care about the rich-coke-man-boy and his daddy issues, nor the life of dirty cops. If Series Two can tie all these together, that would be helpful and surprising.
Overall, this is a great export from across the pond and if you can get past the imagery of death and violence you are in for a deep investigation into evil, whether accidental or deliberate.