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Series one, episode five
Allan Cubitt’s first-rate police thriller richly deserves its recently announced recommission, if only for having shown up how generic and obvious so many television policiers are. ‘The Fall’ has burrowed into police procedure, given victims, investigators, killers and their associates genuine back-stories and, right up to the end, leaves the fate of serial killer Paul Spector in doubt. Murderers are usually caught in TV dramas, but ‘The Fall’ hasn’t played by the rules.
Perhaps the only complaint is that the parallel tale of police corruption has veered from diversion to distraction. But then a little respite from a central story this unsettling and draining might not be such a bad thing. Spector, having blundered in last week’s penultimate episode, finds himself having to tell one lie to preserve another, while Stella’s obsessive pursuit starts to cause friction with colleagues. A series you’ll be thinking about long after its conclusion – and not just for its excruciating cliffhanger.