If you love the X-Files as much as I do, then I think you’ll love Gillian Anderson’s new British crime thriller, The Fall. 


     The Fall features Anderson as a shrewd Irish cop named Stella summoned to help the police investigate a slew of homicides against young professional women. Stella will remind many viewers of Dana Scully. She’s deeply perceptive and down-to-earth, a true detective. Her adversary is Paul Spector, an unremarkable bereavement counselor by day, and deadly serial killer by night. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this show is how human the writers strive to be with their depiction of Paul. He is no bogey man, leaping out of the shadows and brutalizing women, and no thug randomly assaulting women on the street who happened to take a wrong turn down some dark alley. No, Paul is a family man, married with two children. He loves his wife and family and is a kind and conscientious presence towards his patients…er despite his occasional creepy habit of drawing them naked while he pretends to take notes. Paul chooses his victims carefully, studies them, stalks them, breaks into their homes and takes things before finally returning to strangle them. Stella accurately deduces something about Paul’s motives that we are privy to seeing through his actions–– that while they are rooted in sexuality, his primary motivation is a kind of emotional intimacy that he can only achieve through murder. After his victims die he bathes them, dresses them, and poses them for photographs. He writes poems and sketches from the inspiration of the photographs of his victims. In short, he is a really creepy character. 

      The show is taut with suspense as Stella gets closer and closer to discovering Paul’s identity. He makes a series of blunders over the course of the show that threaten to blow his cover to his family and ultimately to the authorities. I was on the edge of my seat, biting my nails and just begging for Stella to track Paul down and bring him to justice. 

      If you’re interested, the first season of The Fall is available for streaming on Netflix. Season two is scheduled for shooting this February!

          -Josane Cumandala