The Fall: a Series Review.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Last week my "The Fall Series 3" DVD came in the mail. It had been about a year since I'd seen the first two series, so I figured that I should refresh my memory. Also, the third series is rumored to be the final series.
The series -- which originally aired on May 13, 2013 -- is a psychological thriller about DSI Stella Gibson (played by The X-Files' Gillian Anderson,) who is called to Belfast, Ireland to investigate a string of unsolved murders done by the Belfast Strangler All of the victims are brunette women in their early 30s. Jamie Dornan (from the Fifty Shades movies) plays Paul Spector, the quiet father who is murdering the women. Both Anderson and Dornan give top-notch performances, with a rapport reminiscent of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs​.
The first series details Paul committing the murders (how he picks his victims, how he stalks them, the ritualistic way he performs the murders) and ends with Paul, his wife Sally Anne, and their two kids as they flee Belfast. Spector's family is unaware of his murderous side.
The second series sees Spector return to Belfast to reunite with his now estranged wife. Confident that he has outsmarted Gibson, he attempts another murder and ends up getting caught. The victim survives and regains consciousness in the series finale, as Spector is gunned down.
In the final series, Spector undergoes extensive surgery and survives -- with amnesia. As his trial commences, no one is sure how to proceed. In the end, Spector kills one last time before committing suicide. With the case closed, Gibson returns to London.
It was revealed that Spector's mother committed suicide in front of him when he was young, and that he grew up in orphanages. At one such orphanage, one of the priests was molesting the boys. In the second series, Spector told Gibson that he didn't shower to stay safe from the lecherous priest, and yet in the final series, one of the orphans that grew up with Spector tells Gibson that Spector was the priest's favorite. Despite the early sexual abuse he suffered, Spector never sexually assaulted any of his victims.
The truth about Spector's amnesia was deliberately left open-ended so that fans could decide for themselves whether or not they believed he was being truthful. Personally, I felt the amnesia was 100 percent legitimate, and I felt bad for Spector. Should he have been condemned for murders he didn't remember committing? Seeing Spector in the pre-murder mindset, I couldn't help but pity him. He had a rough life, but that doesn't excuse strangling women.
The first few episodes of the third series left me wondering why the series hadn't just ended with Spector getting gunned down. I dislike it when a show runs for too long just for hype, but once the amnesia came out I was completely intrigued again.
If you like cop dramas, British programs, or psychological thrillers, I highly recommend this series.