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Reviews
The Fall (2013)
Gripping Stuff
Dark, compulsive viewing. Great cast and excellently put together.
Jamie Dornan as Paul Spector is a terrifyingly calm and methodical serial killer and we are under no illusions as to what he is from the very start. This reminds me of the superlatively good "Cracker", where the viewer also learned from the outset who the culprit was but got the chance to sample the murderer's twisted fantasies and complex motivations through the superbly written and directed action and dialogue in a way that 8 seasons of Dexter did not quite achieve even despite having Dexter's voice-overs to clear up
While Dexter was great I am trying to get across how much more gritty, dirty and realistic good British drama can be than its less demanding and more accessible American counterparts and The Fall epitomises that perfectly.
John Lynch plays the police chief with the beautiful brooding tragedy that has been his trademark for several decades and Gillian Anderson plays the beautiful but cold SIO who is as cold and unempathetic as the killer himself.
It should also be pointed out to previous reviewers Stateside that Anderson's well spoken southern English accent was flawless as it is in all British dramas that she does.
I would have liked to see a bit more of Robbie Coltrane "post-match analysis" but in a way the ending, while not to many people's taste, was refreshingly different at least and I look forward to the next series with relish.
Crusoe (2008)
Could Have Been So Much Better
As a lifelong Robinson Crusoe fan I was excited to find this show. The drama flits between excellent period drama driven by Sam Neill's conniving Jeremiah Blackthorne and the absurd and twee politically correct world on the island.
Robinson Crusoe has set up an Ewok style village in the trees with Ichabod Crane style ingenuity that, just as in Sleepy Hollow, is designed to amuse a modern audience. Phillip Winchester plays a decent role as Robinson Crusoe for the most part but is so much lighter in countenance than Defoe's Crusoe or anyone else marooned on an island for years and is reminiscent of Michael Praed's Robin Hood but Praed's romantically brooding sadness has been replaced with a slightly smug confidence in his own ability and 21st century values.
I am also confused at the choice of Tongayi Chirisa as "Friday", a rescued sacrificial victim. He looks and sounds African which would have made no sense for a South American tribesman in the 17th century. Also why he would speak English to his father when the Spanish sailors speak Spanish to each other is a mystery of modern screen writing.
The dialogue between Crusoe and Friday is often trite and primarily involves Crusoe being right about more or less everything yet telling everyone how much he respects Friday as an equal - yet he admits on several occasions that he only calls him "Friday" because he couldn't pronounce his real name, which slightly smacks of racism "a l'indifference".
Crusoe's biggest problem as television is patchy writing and while the finale ticks all the boxes and is genuinely exciting, huge chunks of the show seem to just feature Robinson and Friday playing around and this is not only wasted story time but ultimately meant that ratings dropped beneath the recommissioning level. I would have been far more interested in both characters' backstories in a more detailed way than the barely satisfactory flashback sequences we are given and also just a little bit less smiling and a bit more grit.
Also it drives me crazy how when fighting bloodthirsty cannibals or pirates that Robinson and Friday are happier to kick their foe in the head than kill them...very "A-Team" I am afraid. Also despite Friday being lauded constantly by Crusoe for his warrior skills and intelligence, Friday twice allows captives to play dead and then take him prisoner and fails to realise that when he has his own hands chained that he could easily throttle his captor with his foot long manacle chain.
Visually superb however and a great show for kids, I wanted this to be so much better than it was and it had the cast, crew and writers (based on the bits filmed in England at least) to do so. Sadly not surprised it didn't get a second season. Too bad!
Fallen Angel (2007)
TV Drama at its best!
This is the story of a young female so obsessed with perfection and vengeance that she sees killing as a logical way to order her day to day and spiritual life.
Starting in the modern day Rosie/Angel (Emilia Fox) seems a cold and intense young woman who stalks and murders with a cool efficiency to honour her hero, Francis Youlgrave a disgraced former priest. Devoted to a pseudo-Catholic cult of her own making based on Youlgrave's poetry where she learns the cleric believed himself to be an angel and drifted along into the world of blood sacrifice in order to complete the Eucharist.
What pleased me most was that the TV trilogy is extremely faithful to the excellent Roth Trilogy books by Andrew Taylor, which like this were also in reverse chronological order. We learn in the first five minutes that Rosie mutilates children. However, this is not the mystery. The mystery is why she does it: what awful things could have happened to her to make this young, intelligent and beautiful woman act this way.
We are taken on a journey into the three most important parts of her past: Rosie in her 30's in busy London; Rosie as a seemingly happy-go- lucky teenager in the idyllic village of Roth, applying for a place at Cambridge and Rosie as a five year old with a terrible secret.
Fallen Angel is superbly put together as is the cast: Charles Dance as the stern, sinisterly cerebral vicar David, Emilia Fox as his daughter 18 year old Rosie and 30 something Angel who has taken her father's characteristics and changed them just slightly and become a monster, Mark Benton as Angel's dim-witted flatmate and Clare Holman the keeper of the family secret who tries to keep sanity and order throughout the three decades of the piece. Sheila Hancock and Peter Capaldi make creditable appearances too.
The plot gives many suggestions as to what makes a murderer: an obsession with Christ's body and blood, parental careerism, lust, personality disorders or simply living with secrets. Make your own decision
One thing is for certain Rosie is far from being a two dimensional villain and this drama left me unable to think about anything else after it had finished. Remarkable. This could not have been better.