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

languagenerd

It's annoying because they had the bare bones of a decent storyline in there - the memory loss could have been better developed to make the viewer constantly change their minds as to whether it was real, a trial where he claimed not to remember but maybe eventually tripped up, the murder/manslaughter in England to pin him regardless, his family falling apart, Gibson being investigated to throw a spanner in the works, Katie being arrested, Rose's recovery/revelations, and even the nurse looking like his victims could have led somewhere.

They all could have been written differently to be a fairly good plot, but instead we got hours of the nurse doing nothing of note, hours of Gibson mumbling breathily and looking sad, Katie popping up for 10min for no real reason, Burns drinking all the vodka, empty conversations between Gibson and the psychiatrist and the scenes of the lawyers in their office not really adding anything. So many shots of people staring into space as well, and crazy implausible things like Spector just being allowed wander into a children's ward unhandcuffed or the fact that a suspected serial killer of brunette young women was left alone in a locked room with a young brunette nurse for days. Not to mention that several subplots were just left hanging/forgotten (Katie's friend - actually Katie in general, Sally Anne and the kids, Anderson potentially not being able to work again due to his arm injury, even Jimmy(?) who shot him). It was a good story overall but the writing and editing let it down.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

^ They could have done all of those things and kept Paul's scenes to a minimum until the last two episodes. Shown how much havoc he had wreaked on other people's lives and how even when not on screen the character has a presence in all of their lives. He'd still have been the central character without actually having to be front and centre 90% of the time.

retro:electro

I found Paul's fascination and obsession with asphyxia gripping and it's clear it all stemmed from when his mother took her own life by hanging herself. The way he then utilised that very technique as a means to gain power and control over women was gripping to watch. Almost as if by doing so, he was taking back some of the control that he lost the day his mother died which was a situation that was so out of his control. This was made all the more sincere when Paul took his own life by hanging in the end. He did it to take back the power from Stella's hands when she told him she wanted him to suffer and not have the easy way out.

Monife

languagenerd wrote: »

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...

Do you think it may have been set up for a series 4 copycat??

jezzer

Can anyone please explain why the heck Cantona went off bawling crying? The chief super got the bang of drink off him and I presume thats why he had to resign but the whole thing is inexplicable...

retro:electro

jezzer wrote: »

Can anyone please explain why the heck Cantona went off bawling crying? The chief super got the bang of drink off him and I presume thats why he had to resign but the whole thing is inexplicable...

I think it's because he realised how pathetic he was. He couldn't even hang around to see how Stella was because the chief knew he had been drinking so to save his ass he had to get out of there. He just broke down in the moment realising how pathetic he is

jezzer

anna080 wrote: »

I think it's because he realised how pathetic he was. He couldn't even hang around to see how Stella was because the chief knew he had been drinking so to save his ass he had to get out of there. He just broke down in the moment realising how pathetic he is

thanks for the update, how pathetic is that storyline then? whats even the point of it???

languagenerd

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/the-fall-could-be-set-to-return-for-fourth-series-actress-lacy-moore-hints-35188385.html

Another series?!!! Why? The story is very much over at this point considering Spector is dead (for the 2nd time essentially) and Gibson's left Belfast.

The Black Oil

Q&A at the BFI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdKodw6eJR4

yerwanthere123

Finally, found the thread!

Watched all three series over the course of a week or so as it's been added to Netflix. Had genuinely never heard of it previously until it appeared on my recommendations. Seems opinion on here was mixed to say the least, or perhaps it's just the usual Boards thing of trying to go against the grain.

Overall I thought it was great, although the third series did drag at times. Had never seen Jamie Dornan in anything but I thought he was great in this. Originally assumed he was one of these actors who gets by on his looks but he does have acting chops. Series 2 finale was the highlight for me, the standoff between Dornan and Anderson was great viewing.

The series 3 finale was an interesting direction to take it in. I'd probably have been very frustrated with it had I followed the series over three years and ended up with that. Think I liked it though, yeah that probably wouldn't have been allowed to happen in real life, but maybe also serves as a reminder that justice doesn't always prevail.

rob316

For some reason I ended up watching this again over Xmas, flew through the first 2 seasons but man Season 3 was absolute crap bar the finale. They literally had the perfect ending to the series on the S2 finale but absolutely dragged it out for the same ending.