TV Focus//The Fall - Episode Three
Warning!
May Contain Spoilers – Do Not Read Unless You Have Seen Previous Episodes!
Starring: Gillian
Anderson, Jamie Dornan
The story so far: Grief
Councillor Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) is on a killing spree. But whilst he
hides behind a family life Stella Gibson is sent to Belfast to review the
investigations of local murders and soon becomes leader of an investigation
into his crimes…
“They
are not victims of chance. They are victims of choice…”
Watching The Fall
these past few weeks has been something of a revelation for this reviewer.
Whilst we cover only select television content on the Zine, The Fall has
changed our viewing habits somewhat. We’ve always loved the shadows and vagary
of the Nordic Noir dramas that clearly inspired the tone of this show and it’s
precisely that cold, clinically unemotive darkness that has kept us glued to
the screen no matter how twisted things have become.
“He’s
making his own pornography…”
The killer (Jamie
Dornan) this week is getting itchy for the next conquest and as such he’s soon
discovered a lair nearby the in-laws where he can be alone in his fantasies. There’s
a scene towards the end where he poses a female mannequin, dressing it up as
his fantasies dictate in a manner close to the creepy and it’s a performance
that impresses in its subtleties. The quiet frustration on Dornan’s unmoving,
tension fraught face is the key to the effectiveness of these scenes and it’s
in noticeable contrast to Stella’s cold response to the revealing of her one night stand
with the recently assassinated policeman James Olson who spent a few hours in
her room hours before he was shot.
“James
Olson was a married man, Stella.”
“That’s
his business…”
The conversations
with the male police officers about the night in question are quietly amusing
with the carefully built up tension threatening to be broken by the humour of
asking if he seems “ok” during the time they were together. (Answers on a
postcard people…) This is also evident in the production meeting like exchange
on the way to the press conference where they discuss the name of the Operation
– eventually revealed to the somewhat ironically titled Operation Musicman.
(The eager eared will have noticed the killers love of music in episode two as
he watched the baby sitter play her songs on line. Speaking of which – what happened
to her? Last we saw she was inviting him to kiss her wound better last week
after he pinned her to the floor…)
As this is the middle
way we see the seeds of the final episodes being sewn as the killer watches the
press conference coverage on television in the darkness of his home. His silent
fixating on Stella suggests to us that she’ll need that gun next week. Any bets
on the cliff hanger for part four involving the killer and Stella meeting for
the first time?
But first we’ll have
to try and avoid thinking about that ‘man in the mirror’ scene that concluded
this episode. Next victim ahoy!
Best Line: “Detail,
detail and detail again.”
The new Killing?: Getting there…
Reviewed by Sebastian
Gahan.
