The Fall

[hollyisalovelyname]

Watched it last night. Tis good, but disturbing. Gillian Anderson very good. Jamie Dornan scary. Anyone else see it?

BOF about him being unnerved by Stella calling him 'Peter' - what makes you think his name isn't Peter instead of Paul?
Maybe he's been through all the apostle names?

gazzlw I was wondering the same - did they re-do the ending once it had been commissioned for a second series?

Oblomov - Despite my moan up thread I'll watch the second series of Ripper St too. Mainly because I have a massive schoolgirl crush on Matthew Macfadyen

As I'm already confused. By the time series two arrives I'll have forgotten the twists in series one. I didn't even understand why when he threw the scissors into the lake he went in with his bag - did he go to sink the bag as well. What was going on there. .

They should have finished series one and had a different story for series 2. Agree - wife far too forgiving - brushing everything Under the carpet. Love how the daughter always inadvertently puts him on the spot!

hatty he threw the scissors to dump them as they were too incriminating. Then he heard the human scent dogs coming after him and decided to broach the stream to kill his scent; it wasn't his first chosen route.

I think that was shot around Victoria Park in Belfast (but could be wrong) and those waterways can really stink sometimes, so I couldn't help but think ewwwww. I know, after the character has just killed a man and nearly killed a woman that was what came to mind. But it really does stink sometimes; I felt for the actor!

And having been in the stinky river, to hide scent, he got into bed. I mean I know he was knackered, but. To not get rid of the stench and the blood on his forehead?

Oblomov did he not go to his hideout with the mannequin to get changed etc after that? I assumed that was how he managed to get rid of his stinky clothes etc.

Right - making the MN sin of posting without reading the entire thread. I saw this on catch-up, in more or less two big stints, so don't know if that helped me re the flow of the thing.

I think they could have made series 1 stretch to 6 eps - the final two episodes seemed very rushed and this led to shortcuts that jarred.

I don't think it's screaming misogyny to make a series about a man who hates and kills successful women. Some men in our society think women should be in their place - to the point that they feel violently about it - and I think it is legitimate to reflect that and challenge it in this drama, just as there have been other dramas about serial killers of women who just happen to be more mixed in socio economic terms. So I think the DM hysteria of "BBC spends licence fee money on drama about violence towards women!" is just another DM/BBC kicking exercise for which I have no time.

What I did dislike - and agree with several people here - was the titillation of some of the shots. Why the need for the close ups of the path's friend's lips? Also, much though I loved GA's character - again lots of close ups of quivery lips. Seriously, production team - if you're reading this, a bit less of that next time, please.

Ref. the burning of the car: the gangsters have given him a nice Get Out Of Jail Free on that, yes? He could tell police he's been hassled by them, the wheel clamp etc. so they must have stolen and burned it. As for what he told his wife, just another little plot hole there.

Re the wife - agree that her actions are not 100% believable, but think she was in a vulnerable place. It must be bloody difficult working in a NICU while pg yourself and then you find your whole world is turned upside down.

In terms of them leaving their jobs - I did wonder whether Paul lost his job (or was suspended) after his grand-standing performance against his bosses, so had nothing to leave anyway? With Sally, the wife, she could perhaps have said that she was finding it tough being pg and needed a break. Perhaps she claimed her holiday in lieu of working her notice? That said, it really did look like they were moving moving rather than going on holiday. Not sure about taking the children out of school, though!

Bert - yy re the burned out car and the gangsters. BUT I wouldn't be surprised if his identity is fake anyway.

To me, that storyline was supposed to illustrate the difference between how he sees himself and what he does and what he thinks of men who beat their wives, possibly because wives/mothers are in their "proper place" as he sees it and not a threat to him?

I doubt they will have reshot the end whilst the series was being broadcast. It would have cost a fortune to set up the shoots and it's doubtful all the required people / locations would have been available.

I think it was shot to be open ended so that if it were a success, it could be recommissioned (and they have - as previously noted - already got the scripts etc for this) but if it failed, well, it was merely unresolved and would have faded into obscurity.

They may have shot the after credits promo once it had started to TX. Alternatively, this could just have been lifted from a previously shot running sequence that hadn't made the cut and was thus able to be used in this context.

I thought the wife's reaction was quite normal - don't they call it hysterical bonding or something like that? Plus, I guess if you were worried your husband was a serial killer, well to discover he's 'just' been shagging a 15 year old is a relief.

I enjoyed it overall but not sure that GA saying 'its the age old men being violent towards women' excused all the horrid stuff we saw.

I didn't realise it had been recommissioned when I watched the final episode so I was trying to work out how it would end with two minutes to go.

I thought he might kill his family and himself or his wife would find evidence while he was on the phone and turn him in or the friends of the guy he was counselling would have put a bomb under the car they were going away in as they said they'd kill him and his family. The camera lingered on a distance shot of the car which is normally a sign it's going up in flames once they turn the key!

I did find the torture/murder scenes deeply disturbing. I felt the Olsen murder wasn't given enough time to be of interest but too much time that it disctracted from the case. That was a brutal death too, in front of his son.

Agree Shandy and MrsCB.

Another thing I liked - I could see another cop drama focusing in on the location of the mobile phone when he was speaking with GA and despatching a squad to arrest him in a matter of minutes, which is such a cliche and probably unlikely in rl! The serial killer escaping to pick up his habit again at a later date seems much more realistic, unfortunately...

*distracted

Yes, there were plot holes but I enjoyed it. I couldn't watch Ripper Street after the first episode as I found it just too gory, which this wasn't. The thing I enjoyed most was the quality of the acting of all the characters and the fact that, apart from GA and JL, they were for the most part unknown (at least to me). They also looked like real people, rather than impossibly groomed and polished (again apart from GA, although she never looks 'overdone').

My new theory is that he will turn out to have been put into care as a child because of something terrible that HE did, hence the no family/friends anywhere.

familiessharegerms... "I enjoyed it very much, and I know it's not called "things we love about the brilliant the Fall", but some of your comments, Aitch, have been a bit out of place on a thread where it's clear that most posters want to discuss the programme from a position of enjoyment rather than criticism."

where was that made clear? in the OP? was there a vote? or just by a few posters who can't handle a bit of dissent? agree SO SO much with FairPhyllis. (teej btw i hope you don't think i'm a BBC-basher... that would go wholly against my interests, i can tell you. )

yyy re newer actors, Bore, that was a plus. the specky cop is in GoT at the moment, vair dishy.
did you see in that Guardian piece, FP, that Cubitt basically seemed to say that only gay men, children and women were victims of male violence, and that would we rather he'd tortured them? never even occurred to him to torture a general hetero chap. thought that was very odd...

It was enjoyable nonsense. GA as some sort of siren who reduces men to gibbering wrecks was a bit I found her to be terribly embarrassing.

Aitch no, no! Was slightly surprised you'd said something a bit like that upthread, but felt you were coming at it more like "The beeb could be delivering better drama!" rather than the DM whining that has been going on.

Also, when you criticise something it's because you're looking at it from a different perspective to the rest of us. Totally get that and think we have it easier as we can just sit back and enjoy - or not - and park the bits that don't suit us without worrying about it too much

Watched them all and felt rather let down at the end -felt we have been played with, led up the garden path and left there. The tantilising realisation that the killer has been in the police station, interviewed, given DNA under the noses of the police and still let go - shades of the Yorkshire Ripper and Ian Huntley, has spoken to the leading police officer, and lots and lots of little clues, but still no nearer to nabbing him. Lots of loose ends, and for me, the spectacularly unconvincing reaction of the wife, to, in the same breath, brand her husband a groomer, and then later, have rough sex with him - what as an acceptance? Would you really want to do that with your husband hours after finding out about the affair? Things left hanging like the obvious corruption in the PSNI and the 'weakness' of its most senior police officer with his infatuation with GA ( past infatuation or present?)

Like others on here I have 'enjoyed' this drama, or rather felt compelled by it, but I am not sure I would watch a second series, dragging these crimes out even further. But, like most serial killing crimes, they cannot be solved, literally within days or weeks, so that I guess is realistic.

I now wish the big channels will find some different kinds of drama, somewhere away from violence against women, something absorbing, well acted and well written, - lets hope it is soon!

weirdly, i found the wife's reaction quite convincing... just wanting to run away from it all and obliterate her doubts with sex.
teej, i think you have it, btw. the 'parking'... it's not that i can't do it, it's that i refuse to. this was a show entirely reliant on sleight of hand to make viewers quell their doubts, it was expertly paced in that regard. belfast looked so beautiful, the male and female leads looked soooo beautiful, the torture was sooooo frightening, the tension so ratcheted... etc etc etc, all designed to make you park any problems with the script.

but upthread it was all 'the script is excellent'... and it isn't. it's just shocking, a fairground ride of swoops and swirls - not the same thing as excellence at all. i just think this is a big 'could do better' for the BBC, so am galled when all the natural parkers let them away with it, just because it passed an hour of their lives on a Monday night.

Gutted with the ending - felt ripped off!

Is his real name is Peter? hence the police not being able to locate his history in the detective taking the list of childrens homes but surely if he was Peter in university they would of done a trek through the records???

In the second series I cant see him killing as he wont want to do any further damage to his precious family - he wont risk losing any of them. I think there will be many flash backs to his childhood where he was sexually/mentally abused by women in authority.

Did anyone understand the posed mannequin - was this pose what he wanted to achieve for his next victim but the last kill went wrong.

I do find it a bit 'amercian' to just leave and make a new start - is this possible in real life? No notice, no tieing up the knots? Schools? not at all believable.