The Fall (TV series)

Metropolitan Police Superintendent Stella Gibson, a senior investigating officer who reviews investigations, is seconded to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to assess the progress of a murder investigation that has remained active for longer than 28 days. When it becomes apparent that a serial killer is on the loose, local detectives must work with Stella to find and capture Paul Spector, who is attacking young professional women in the city of Belfast. As time passes Stella's team works tirelessly to build a case but they are met with complications inside and outside the PSNI.

Cubitt said that he originally was researching another show he was planning on writing and read a book on the BTK ("Bind, Torture, Kill") serial killer, Dennis Rader. Cubitt found the structure of the book intriguing, which began with a look at the BTK Killer's attack that was possible because of Rader's testimony, his documentary evidence and the extensive forensic evidence that was gathered from the scene of the crime. Cubitt created a structure where the killer is identified immediately, eliminating the whodunit aspect of many stories. The focus could then become the motives for the killings and on the insights that might be gained about the psychology of the killer, even in the face of what might be considered a normal, functioning person with a job, wife and children. Cubitt said this was the starting point that interested him: how this supposedly normally functioning person would then be connected to the crimes.[5]

• The first series aired on Bravo in Canada. Reruns have aired on M3 since June 2014.[31]
• The series also aired across Latin America during September 2013 for subscribers to the TV satellite provider DirecTV. The Fall was aired on the exclusive channel OnDIRECTV in high definition.[32] The entire series was aired on OnDirectv, an exclusive TV channel for DirecTV subscribers and as of 2017 it is also available on Netflix in the region.[33]
• HBO Europe has picked up the series to air on their Cinemax channels in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania.[34]
• Estonian National Broadcasting started to run the series in Estonia on channel ETV (Eesti Televisioon) on 7 December 2014.[35]
• In Germany, the show was given the title Tod in Belfast ("Death in Belfast"); the first two series aired together in Germany on ZDF from 15 November to 16 December 2015.[36] The two series were shown in a recut containing 6 episodes with each being 90 minutes long and a total of 540 minutes altogether. This equates to approximately 120 minutes of the whole material of series 1 and 2 being cut. The uncut version was later shown in re-run by channels ZDFneo and Sky Krimi. In the US, Tubi carried the series at its launch date in 2014 as an original exclusive series on the service. The continues to be available on the platform today and is also available to stream now as of 2018 on Netflix and AMC-owned streamer dedicated to streaming internationally produced co-productions and acquired shows, Acorn TV. In September 2020, after launching their Mystery Alley block in August that year, Ovation (American TV channel) acquired the rights to the series in a deal with BBC Studios that meant acquiring the studio's content that originally was produced for the BBC and BBC America first, such as The Fall (TV series) and it premiered in October 2020 and ran until February 2021 on the network.

The Fall received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 20 critic reviews were positive for the series one. Its consensus is, "Less sensationalistic and more provocative than most police procedurals, The Fall is unapologetically sexy with pressure-building tension driven by plausible characters and motifs."[37] The Guardian ranked it the tenth best television show of 2013.[38] The second and the third series earned 93% and 64% approval rating, respectively. The third series consensus reads, "The Fall stumbles somewhat in its third season, but still delivers enough to satisfy fans of the show—and slow-burning psychological thrillers in general."[37] The first series has a score of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim". The last series has a score of 60 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[39]

Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic wrote regarding season three: "[f]or all its psychological, almost literary complexity, it loses much of its narrative steam. It's that great 21st-century phenomenon: a show that's more fun to think about than to watch."[40] Ken Tucker also felt that the show lost its quality, criticized the character development, but found Anderson and Dornan to be "good" and "handsome and skilled" respectively.[41] Reviewing the second season, TV critic Lucy Mangan of The Guardian criticised the writing and the dialogue. However, she praised the performances of Anderson and Dornan.[42] Conversely in a more positive review, Ben Travers of the IndieWire opined that Dornan's portrayal was "both ideal and disappointing."[43] About the first season, David Thomson of The New Republic said: "The BBC's Latest Import is Modern, Chilling, and Groundbreaking."[44] Similarly, Neil Genzlinger writing for The New York Times stated: "It’s a fine show, relying on slow-building tension rather than the gory shock value [...]", but found Anderson's character to be the least developed one in the show.[45]

In the book Crime TV, Streaming Criminology in Popular Culture, Jonathan A Grubb and Chad Posick, assistant professors in the department of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia Southern University, wrote that the show conveyed "a fairly solid understanding of the thinking of a psychopathic killer." They stated that Dornan's performance was "quite convincing."[46][47]

The first series was made available in full in the United States via Netflix's "Watch Instantly" service starting 28 May 2013,[69] and airs on Bravo and Netflix in Canada.

The second series was broadcast on Netflix's "Watch Instantly" service, starting in January 2015, in the United States. It was also broadcast on Netflix in Canada.[70] In Latin America, Netflix began broadcasting the season on 16 January 2015, at 12:01 am.[71]

The third series was made available to non-UK Netflix subscribers on 29 October 2016.[72]

The complete series was released in the US on DVD and Blu-Ray by Acorn on 21 November 2017.

In August 2016, it was announced that the French private national TV channel TF1 was producing a remake of the series, titled Insoupçonnable ("unsuspected"). The French adaptation starred Emmanuelle Seigner and Melvil Poupaud as the leads, and supporting cast included: Jean-Hugues Anglade, Claire Keim, Patrick Chesnais, Bérengère Krief and Sofia Essaïdi. Filming began in Lyon on 12 September 2016.[81]

• Fetch the Bolt Cutters, a 2020 Fiona Apple album named after a line from the show
• Dennis Rader, the American serial killer from whom Allan Cubitt drew much inspiration for the series

• The Fall at IMDb 
• The Fall at BBC Online
• The Fall on RTÉ
• The Fall on Netflix
• The Fall at Rotten Tomatoes