Gillian Anderson Serial Killer Series Thrills At Every Turn, Stream Immediately Without Netflix
If you’ve never seen the thriller The Fall, add it now to your list of shows to watch. The X-Files star Gillian Anderson goes head to head with Fifty Shades alum Jamie Dornan. It’s a side of Dornan you have never seen. It’s streaming now, and you don’t even need a Netflix account. It’s on the free, on-demand app Tubi.
Gillian Anderson Hunts A Killer
The Fall was filmed and is set in Northern Ireland. Anderson plays Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson, a senior investigating officer who’s called in to look at the progress of a murder investigation since it’s been going on for more than 28 days. The investigation is taking too long, and it’s more than a murder.
Not A Cozy Murder
A serial killer is on the loose, attacking young women in the city of Belfast, and local detectives have to join forces with Gibson (Anderson) to hunt down the killer. In a huge departure from the Fifty Shades trilogy, in The Fall, Dornan plays serial killer Paul Spector. To clear up any confusion, that’s Paul Spector, the fictional serial killer, and not Phil Spector, the record producer who went to prison for murder in real life.
Inspired By Real Killers
While writer Allan Cubitt has said The Fall is not an exact dramatization of actual events, he reveals he did take inspiration from real life. Cubitt told The Sunday Times he was influenced by serial killers Ed Kemper (“The Co-Ed Killer”) and Dennis Rader (“BTK”). Similar to Kemper and Radar, the killer in The Fall lives in a medium-sized town, where you would think it would be easier to catch a serial murderer than in a big city.
First Major Role After The X-Files
Detective Superintendent Gibson (Anderson) is cool, calm, chic, respected, smart…and she’s Gillian Anderson, so she’s obviously gorgeous. The Fall marked Anderson’s first major TV role since The X-Files went off the air in 2002.
Dornan Was Scarred By His Part
As for Jamie Dornan, he told The Guardian he was left “lightly scarred” from playing a serial killer hunting down women. Dornan said he carried his character’s anger and hatred in him a little bit, especially towards the end of filming.
A Favorite Of The Critics
Premiering on BBC Two in May of 2013, The Fall got positive reviews from critics. It has an 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and The Guardian ranked it the tenth best show of that year.
The Fall came under criticism when the first season aired in the UK. Some said it glamorized violence against women and went beyond simply telling a story to the point of sharing the serial killer’s obsession with women’s bodies.
A Potential Fourth Season
If you’re a true crime fan, check out The Fall, that is after you’re finished listening to all those true crime podcasts. If you’ve already binged the show and you want more, you may be in luck. Writer and creator Allan Cubitt has said there may be a fourth season at some point and Gillian Anderson told Digital Spy she’s “excited” about the idea.
For now, though, you can stream all three seasons and 17 episodes of The Fall on Tubi.
