The Fall (RTE1/BBC2) [** Spoilers **]

Ally Dick

Watched the finale of The Fall......zzzzzzzz.......and then some great scenes and then back to......zzzzzzzz.....
Overall season three was completely zzzzzzz......

funkey_monkey

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

funkey_monkey wrote: »

However this does not distract from the oddity of some scenes. I.e. The doctor (seemingly the only one in Belfast) just walking in and asking really personal odd questions.

Stella had a head injury, it's common practice for people with head injuries to be assessed like that, asking questions. Granted some of them were a bit personal but I guess it was just a last minute attempt to flesh Stella out a bit.

They would usually ask questions like where are you? what day is? etc - not ask questions which don't have an answer that the doctor cannot corroborate. It was a hack job way of getting background info on Stella that should have been known long ago instead of being shoehorned in by the writers in the last few minutes of the last episode of the last series.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

funkey_monkey wrote: »

They would usually ask questions like where are you? what day is? etc - not ask questions which don't have an answer that the doctor cannot corroborate. It was a hack job way of getting background info on Stella that should have been known long ago instead of being shoehorned in by the writers in the last few minutes of the last episode of the last series.

Is that not what I just said?

Harry Angstrom

This thing makes War and Peace look like a five minute romp. I've not seen such slow-moving self-indulgent rubbish since Amber.

funkey_monkey

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

funkey_monkey wrote: »

They would usually ask questions like where are you? what day is? etc - not ask questions which don't have an answer that the doctor cannot corroborate. It was a hack job way of getting background info on Stella that should have been known long ago instead of being shoehorned in by the writers in the last few minutes of the last episode of the last series.

Is that not what I just said?

You missed my initial point. The scene - as a medical scene - was unnecessary. It was an odd and late way for the writers to inform the viewer about aspects of Stella's past.
They were counselling type questions and nothing to do about examining for memory function after head trauma. Therefore, the scene could only have been included in order to inform the viewer about her past. For what reason at this stage of the series?

My initial point that you replied to was me staying it was an odd scene. Which it was.

Ally Dick

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

This thing makes War and Peace look like a five minute romp. I've not seen such slow-moving self-indulgent rubbish since Amber.

Oh I remember the torture that was Amber. What a non ending....

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

funkey_monkey wrote: »

You missed my initial point. The scene - as a medical scene - was unnecessary. It was an odd and late way for the writers to inform the viewer about aspects of Stella's past.
They were counselling type questions and nothing to do about examining for memory function after head trauma. Therefore, the scene could only have been included in order to inform the viewer about her past. For what reason at this stage of the series?

My initial point that you replied to was me staying it was an odd scene. Which it was.

I think we're saying the same thing. My only point was that the idea of the doctor monitoring her and asking questions wasn't odd in itself but the nature of the questions were overly personal and it did reek of "we've been doing this for 3 years and have given Stella zero life history beyond having slept around."

osmiumartist

We got some action at least, but FFS it was all so random you can't take any of it seriously. Why did he kill himself? Why dafuque did he kill the other dude? Was he faking the memory loss? Why do they have a fnucking pool table in a "maximum security" psycho hospital? Is there one doctor and one nurse on 24/7/365 duty in the entire NI health service?
Maybe in real life psycho killers do random stuff and kill themselves, but it makes for sh1t TV.

osmiumartist

funkey_monkey wrote: »

You missed my initial point. The scene - as a medical scene - was unnecessary. It was an odd and late way for the writers to inform the viewer about aspects of Stella's past.

Not as lazy as making two whole episodes of Casualty to get to anything at all happening. Two episodes max would cover everything that happened this series.
I think we were all relieved when we knew for a fact Spector was dead.

And one other thing, Dornan actually managed to come out of this series with some credit in my eyes. Apart from putting on 2 stone of muscle while in a coma... he has been a convincing screen presence which I didn't get from him in series one and deffo not in series 2.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

osmiumartist wrote: »

We got some action at least, but FFS it was all so random you can't take any of it seriously. Why did he kill himself? Why dafuque did he kill the other dude?

He killed himself because he knew the cops had outsmarted him and he couldn't get out of it even with the supposed memory loss. Also Stella made it clear how much she wanted him to live and stand trial for what he did so he took that from her. Technically he still won.

I assume he killed the other bloke because he was a dirty animal who had raped a child, a child of similar age to Olivia. He was probably never going to face trial for it either and would have spent the rest of his life in a cushy hospital playing pool and eating diabetic chocolate. So Paul punished him for it.

Means Of Escape

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Stella had a head injury, it's common practice for people with head injuries to be assessed like that, asking questions. Granted some of them were a bit personal but I guess it was just a last minute attempt to flesh Stella out a bit.

If she hadn't eyeballed him for so long after mocking him she wouldn't have been put into hospital ?

osmiumartist

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

He killed himself because he knew the cops had outsmarted him and he couldn't get out of it even with the supposed memory loss.

That was never actually decided. His doc at the psycho ward most certainly had said no such thing, even after being told there was no physical brain damage. Even after beating the tar out of the cops he could still have gone with that defense and his lawyer was making the case he was being provoked by Gibson who was far too involved in the case.
If he'd escaped from lock up it would have been a better (if utterly predictable) story.

osmiumartist

Means Of Escape wrote: »

If she hadn't eyeballed him for so long after mocking him she wouldn't have been put into hospital ?

Well yeah. If anything Gibson was making the prosecution case more and more difficult with her approach. Spector already knew this so it's a bit bizarre that he would suddenly feel he had been beaten by the cops.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

osmiumartist wrote: »

That was never actually decided. His doc at the psycho ward most certainly had said no such thing, even after being told there was no physical brain damage. Even after beating the tar out of the cops he could still have gone with that defense and his lawyer was making the case he was being provoked by Gibson who was far too involved in the case.
If he'd escaped from lock up it would have been a better (if utterly predictable) story.

He admitted he had killed the girl in London and allowed the other guy to take the blame. They had him for that even if they couldn't get him for the Belfast ones. Stella got cocky and though they had him banged to rights so he punched her lights out and then got the ultimate win over her by escaping justice the way she wanted it.

starlit

Very bizarre and surprised twist to the end didn't expect the shocking scenes in the final episode of the series but it was a likely outcome for Spector, how it would likely happen it been difficult to figure out what he do due to the name of the series I thought he 'fall' off something but 'the fall' is related to Stella that in reality he 'won' and she didn't get the justice but hopefully Rose and his family can be at peace.

I didn't expect what he do to the others as it was hard to know if he was faking his amnesia or not. So obviously he was but he didn't realise the police would find out about the first time outside Belfast. Did the psychologist know how dangerous he really was? they really didn't realise the extent of how dangerous he was! The nurse Ciara and those at the hospital could have been a target she wasn't sure if she felt safe herself. Is there to be another series but it be about Stella?

starlit

Even the music is creepy and story gripping at the same time! :eek: You wouldn't know what happen next or you might guess. At least we had some insight of what was going on with him before the incidences happened.

I had a notion something happen to Spector either he escape or not survive. It was probably the likely outcome to finish the story about him whether another series be on the cards its hard to know!?

Colser

Speaking of the nurse..what impact did those scenes make,total waste of time imo.Also taking a suspected murderer into a children's ward..FFS.

starlit

Ya he could have targeted someone at any point as he did when he was in custody and in the clinic He kept on his best behavior but eventually Stella or someone have outsmart him. How safe were the solicitors representing him?! He could have targeted them?!

Pretzill

Thought it was a load of cr*p - and can't believe I stuck with each slow episode of this series.

Stella just got worse and worse - spoke quieter and slower excentuating each phrase even if was just a cup of coffee she was looking for.

Why daf*ck wasn't Spector kept in a more secure way (like straitjacket and mask as in Hannibal Lector) Also after 5 tremendously slow episodes it all kicked off in the final one - (literally)

But it was a rushed, quite hard to believe outcome. I gave up caring about his collateral damage and had started nicknaming it The Fall Asleep after the 2nd episode of this series -

Cr*p

starlit

This series was a bit slow to begin with thought they dragged it out a bit too much. They could have done a bit more with his character. He very much Jekyll and Hyde!

retro:electro

He was definitely faking his memory loss and there was a definite objective behind killing himself, why else would he end up killing himself when Stella said she wanted him to stand trial and not die. He took that away from her, but why would he do that if he thought that she was just a regular detective in the room trying to get under his skin?There was a history and a genesis attached to his decision to kill himself. He did it because he knew it would mean he won and Stella lost. I wasn't sorry it ended anyway. Loved seasons 1&2, 3 was utter scuther apart from last episode.

NIMAN

Pretzill wrote: »

Thought it was a load of cr*p - and can't believe I stuck with each slow episode of this series.

Stella just got worse and worse - spoke quieter and slower excentuating each phrase even if was just a cup of coffee she was looking for.

Why daf*ck wasn't Spector kept in a more secure way (like straitjacket and mask as in Hannibal Lector) Also after 5 tremendously slow episodes it all kicked off in the final one - (literally)

But it was a rushed, quite hard to believe outcome. I gave up caring about his collateral damage and had started nicknaming it The Fall Asleep after the 2nd episode of this series -

Cr*p

The opinion of a causal watcher of the series, who watched it maybe 75% of the time, not religiously.

I thought Anderson's acting was awful, way OTT. She got a lot of praise for her role but I must have different standards. Watching her try to force out every word was painful, I often found myself saying out loud "aw ffs will you speed up", much to the annoyance of the OH !!

A decent show overall, but dragged out far too much. I think Dornan was excellent, especially in the last few episodes. I thought the final episode was hard hitting and very powerful. Very unexpected.

languagenerd

Colser wrote: »

Speaking of the nurse..what impact did those scenes make,total waste of time imo.Also taking a suspected murderer into a children's ward..FFS.

Yeah, the nurse was an absolutely pointless character in the end. Maybe she was meant to make the audience believe in the memory loss (as she fit his victim profile but he was almost always just friendly to her), but those scenes were far too long. In fact, most of the scenes in the entire series could probably have been cut down by half with no real change to the plot...

terryduff12

Don't know if its been discussed already but Did anyone get the sense that Jim burns was in the orphanage with spectre and he was the one Paul Picked to replace him?

pickarooney

He must be 15 years older than Paul.

Bacchus

terryduff12 wrote: »

Don't know if its been discussed already but Did anyone get the sense that Jim burns was in the orphanage with spectre and he was the one Paul Picked to replace him?

pickarooney wrote: »

He must be 15 years older than Paul.

On that point, linking Jim to that place just felt like a total stretch to try and write in some backstory as to why he has a drinking problem while also conveniently handing the investigators the missing link in Paul's history. Of course, it was never followed up on or revisited. Just another throwaway piece of misery horror that this season produced. This season really reveled in explicitly describing horrible acts... as if the writers knew they had no actual story to work with so resorted to inflicting misery on the viewers instead (family suicide attempt, orphans abused in great detail, the guy that raped and killed his sister, Rose recounting her harrowing experience, etc.)

Cupra280

Was talking about this yesterday with a neighbour.

One thing we realised was that from beginning to end the period of time covered is about 7-9 months. It says a lot about the pace of the show that it was played out over 3 years.

Bandana boy

Gotta say Season 3 was a huge disappointment.
Not sure it was needed at all and if the story really progressed at all, having him die at end of season 2 was probably a more satisfactory end to the show.

An alternative I might have enjoyed more would have been got to the ending scenes about three episodes earlier and have him escape instead of top himself. The scenes with Spector in action were always so explosive , and we only got glimpses in Season 3.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Cupra280 wrote: »

Was talking about this yesterday with a neighbour.

One thing we realised was that from beginning to end the period of time covered is about 7-9 months. It says a lot about the pace of the show that it was played out over 3 years.

The really annoying thing about the pace, particularly in S3 was how it was practically playing out in real time while he was in the hospital and then in the last episode they just decide to skip a few weeks after he assaulted Gibson. Why skip weeks there and not earlier, instead inflicting hours of useless hospital scenes.

Cupra280

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

The really annoying thing about the pace, particularly in S3 was how it was practically playing out in real time while he was in the hospital and then in the last episode they just decide to skip a few weeks after he assaulted Gibson. Why skip weeks there and not earlier, instead inflicting hours of useless hospital scenes.

Exactly. Plus, Spector's impeccably planned final assault depended on way too many variables....in particular him getting to attack the Chief before getting locked into the room.

What an implausible placement of staff lockers too, by the way.