Season 3 is the best, eventhough it's not about Gillian Anderson anymore.
It's a spellbinding aftermath and all the characters deal with it the best they can - but then there's a bizarre (and very familiar) plot twist on top of everything.
And on top of that, another family drama is about to unfold.
There's a sense of slow motion but it doesn't make me feel restless. I'm also not thinking of what will happen next and I don't favour any particular outcome.
The Fall doesn't have as much popcorn value as the Broadchurch type of crime stories but I really like it.
I'm not going to say it's flawless, there have been moments that required me to suspend disbelief e.g. how could Spector break into Gibson's hotel room without leaving any signs of breaking in, something she'd immediately notice.
But what really fascinates me is that, despite the various hints and clues, Spector's wife really had no idea he could be the killer.
She doesn't know she's in a story and doesn't know how to interpret those hints. This is how people react in real life, the ugly, devastating truth is usually the last option because for most people it's almost impossible to comprehend that kind of evil, let alone that it would apply to the person they love.
"How did she not see this coming/How could she not know" is a question that we ask ourselves in these (real life) dramas.
But even if there's reason for suspicion then there's still the enormous power of our subconscious "shut down" system, something that prevents the brains from experiencing excruciating physical or mental torment.
You even see it in disaster scenarios like our current pandemic, when our main desire is to continue life as normal as possible, regardless of how good or bad that "normal" was before the disaster happened. It sort of wants to ignore the seriousness of the situation.
Bizarrely enough, putting all this in the context of a fictional story, it looks even less convincing, because we expect fictional characters to behave like this or that to further the plot.
(I think).
