Girl Crush Friday: Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson in The Fall

Or should I say, woman crush Friday? Sounds weeeird. Anyhoo, I found out about BBC TV series The Fall when I was reading an article about American actors in UK TV shows. The beautiful Gillian Anderson was on the list and I remember the article saying her ‘convincing’ British accent probably stemmed from the fact that she lived in London when she was a young girl. I know, that’s such a random and irrelevant detail to remember, but I love crime drama so I was intrigued by The Fall and decided I must watch it.

The show is one of those series with hour-long episodes and short seasons. Season 1 only had five episodes. Gillian Anderson plays Stella Gibson, a senior police officer who’s leading the task force investigating the murders of young women in Belfast. Stella Gibson is beautiful, strong, successful, calculating, focused, and very driven. She comes off as unfeeling and her colleagues seem to think she doesn’t have any emotion at all, but we can see that that’s not entirely true. She feels deeply for the murdered women and won’t stop until she catches the killer, who happens to be played by the equally beautiful Jamie Dornan a.k.a. Christian Grey (ugh).

The series is fascinating. I love the camera shots and the angles. Though the tone is dark and somber – reminds me sometimes of The Killing – the scenes are shot beautifully. Gillian Anderson is awesome as usual and Jamie Dornan isn’t bad either – I think this is the first time I’ve seen him anywhere. The series can get pretty disturbing since it revolves around a very gruesome and sadistic crime against women, but I find it interesting and worth watching.

The series just had its second season (which I have yet to watch) and it’s unconfirmed whether a third season is in the works. So far the series has earned interesting reviews. Here’s one from a Daily Mail writer who called it “the sickest show on TV” and described it as “extended rape fantasy” and “rape porn.” This write-up on The Atlantic called it the “most feminist show on television” and pointed out the significance of the female characters and their treatment in the series. Interesting reads both of them, but I would suggest you watch the show and see for yourself. Gillian Anderson as Stella is stellahhhr.

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