After Breaking Bad I swore I'd never love again, and I kept that promise. I haven't given a second glance to any dramas about chemistry teachers in Albuquerque. That desert city, and all its meth and murders, belongs to Walter White. How could anything else compete?
Likewise with The Bridge. What an utterly perfect show that was and, after it, I knew I could never love another crime drama set in a cold city starring an icy indomitable blonde. But after Saga, comes Stella. After The Bridge comes The Fall.
The Bridge and The Fall both have a touch of exclusivity, being on BBC4 and 2 respectively, and neither needed the typical crime drama's setting of London. But then comparisons end. The Fall has graphic scenes of violence, and that violence always takes place in a woman's bedroom: the place where she is most relaxed and warm and comfortable. Crime scenes on the damp city streets and alleyways are nasty but there is something uniquely awful about a killer who stands by the bedroom door. Also, we know who the killer is in The Fall. Spector peeled off his balaclava in the very first episode, making this not a whodunit but a why-dunnit and a when-will-she-stop-him-doing it?
At the end of Series 1 Spector persuaded his family to leave Belfast with him. He had taunted Stella in a phone call to say he was choosing to stop the killings and was leaving. Stella was furious, in her icy way, insisting he will not and cannot stop until she catches him. But in this new series, we see Spector's family have remained in Belfast whereas he is in Scotland (we know this as he's seen making an especially horrible fry-up.) But he can't stay away and is soon back in Belfast where he hides in plain sight, asking a woman on the train if she thinks the newspaper photofit of the killer resembles him and then discussing the case with her.
So Spector is back, walking the rainy streets in his black clothes. 'The tension starts to build,' Stella tells her officers. 'Remember it's an addiction…in his own mind he feels he has the right to decide who lives and who dies.'
This episode was quite subdued and often short on dialogue. Neither did much happen in terms of plot, the main purpose being to establish that Spector is home and, with his rucksack full of naked, strangled Barbie dolls, is as sinister as ever. This series opener was mainly about rebuilding the tension and atmosphere of the last series, not about opening up a new storyline.
Whilst it was excellently done, and was stylish, moody and dark, it's not likely to win over any newcomers to the show. However, the strength of The Fall doesn't lie in plot twists and cliffhangers but in the steel and ice of Stella's character, and in wondering why Spector kills. It's about character, not simple plot. This will be why the BBC have recently made Series 1 available on iPlayer, to allow newcomers to catch up so they can fully engage with this new series.
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