The Fall Review
The Fall
Reviewed by David Savage
Starring: Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan
Directed by: Jakob Verbruggen
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 305 minutes
Format: DVD, Blu-ray
Release Date: 17 June 2013
The Fall is a 5 episode TV thriller about the hunt for a serial killer in Belfast, Northern Ireland and focusing on the lives of the serial killer and the detective determined to track him down and the similarities between the two who are on opposites sides of the law.
DSI Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) is from the Metropolitan Police and has been sent to Belfast to conduct a review into a high profile murder case where the police are getting nowhere after 30 days. She quickly establishes that the murder is linked with 2 other cases and that a serial killer is on the loose even though the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) do not want the cases linked.
Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) is the serial killer who leads a normal life and is married with 2 kids and holds down a fulltime job as a bereavement counsellor but with a chilling secret, he selects victims, stalks them and then kills them before posing their bodies.
Overall, while I found The Fall got off to a slow start it did pick up the pace in later episodes only to finish without resolution leaving the story wide open to a second series, which was a bit of a let down. It is a good psychological thriller but in my opinion needed a different ending than the cliff-hanger that was provided, I felt like I was missing the final episode.
The story was well-written and Gillian Anderson as the cold, single-minded DSI Gibson and Jamie Dornan as the chilling serial killer were both excellent.
Rating: 4/5
Available to buy of DVD and Blu-ray from Acorn Media UK on DVD here or Blu-ray here.
