The Fall - Series 1 and 2

Gillian Anderson goes blonde and British in this almost literary, and highly cinematic, television series from across the pond.

"The Fall - Series 1" hits Blu-ray here in the U.S. on the same day as "The Fall - Series 2," which is great news for those who will find themselves possessed of a need to binge watch -- which will most likely be anyone who decides to give the show a try. (Series 1 was previously released here on DVD.)

Anderson is terrific as Stella Gibson, a police investigator who arrives in Belfast to assist the Police Service of Northern Ireland with a murder investigation. The victim is from an influential family -- and, as it becomes clear soon after Stella arrives, hers is one in a string of sex slayings being perpetrated by a serial killer. Circumstances, and Stella's own sexual appetites, complicate the situation, and the investigation becomes the focus of the tabloid press.

By comparison, the killer -- a fellow named Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) -- leads a calm and stable life. He has a loving wife named sally Ann (Bronagh Waugh) and two children; he spends his days counseling people in mourning, including a thuggish man named Jimmy (Brian Milligan) with some unsavory friends and a habit of beating his wife, Liz (S�ain�n Brennan). But Paul's placid surface is starting to crack, and what glances out is something dark and deranged. As we hear explained in one of the featureless, both Paul and Stella are "hunters," and though their methods and objectives are quite different they start to seem more alike than different as the series progresses.

"The Fall" treats Stella as an anti-hero; she's tightly controlled, cool of demeanor, decisive, and smart, but beneath her placid exterior, too, there boil nasty things. She sleeps with married men (though, as she points out to her PSNI handler, Jim Burns (John Lynch), she doesn't always know they are married; she sees it as their choice to disclose such information, and not her responsibility to ferret it out). She manipulates potential sources of information. And, when one of her sexual conquests ends up dead, she dutifully reports their assignation, but she wastes no time in public shows of grief or remorse.

Paul, meantime, is drawn with equal complexity. Though his hobby involves stalking and strangling women, he's tenderly devoted to his children, in particular to his daughter Olivia; his wife seems to be in no danger (but then again, she's of a much different type than his targets), and when he shows her vulnerability it's to tell her that he needs her: "Only you can save me from myself," he whispers in a fraught moment, and Dornan sells the line by investing it with layers of meaning, not all of which Sally Ann can grasp.

Stella's half of the story grows more tangled as she takes over the investigation, puts a team together, and then draws the attention of her quarry. Paul's life -- already on the verge of cracking up in any number of ways -- similarly takes on extra complications when he makes enemies of some of the city's toughs but also realizes that he's become an object of sexual fantasy, himself, for the babysitter, a fifteen-year-old named Katie (Aisling Franciosi). The two characters move in ever-widening circles, and at some point their paths must intersect. Getting to that moment, and then following through, is a suspenseful business.

Series 2 ups the ante by introducing a new element: A living victim Paul kidnaps and hides away. With the clock ticking, a final end game must play out -- but which of these hunters is closing in, and which is in retreat?

The five episodes of Series One are directed by Jakob Verbruggen, whose energetic camerawork has a dark panache comparable to the likes of David Fincher. The show's creator and writer, Alan Cubitt, takes over directorial duties for the six episodes of Series Two (and Anderson pulls on an Executive Producer hat). If there's a shift in tone and energy from one series to the next, that's not a bad thing: The storyline morphs enough to warrant it.

The Blu-ray sets both include brief featurettes that go behind the scenes to take a look at the show's creation and production, Series 2 also includes a healthy number of deleted scenes, most of which are worth watching. Both Series 1 and Series 2 are available on Netflix, so are these extras enough to seal the deal and make a Blu-ray purchase necessary? It's a matter of preference: Those who prefer to stream their entertainment rabble won't think so, but Blu-ray enthusiasts will definitely go for it. The hi-def format serves the show's meticulous design and photography, and while the story has some strange beats and odd gaps of logic, it hangs together well enough to support its mood of intense dread. Any Blu-ray collection that includes titles like "Se7en" and "The Silence of he Lambs" will now be incomplete without "The Fall."

"The Fall," Series 1 and Series 2
Blu-ray
$39.99 each
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