‘The Fall’ season 3 debate: Should Jamie Dornan – Gillian Anderson series have long life?

At the moment, the third season of “The Fall” is on a little bit of a production break. However, rest assured that the series is going to return in 2016 with new episodes, and they will chronicle what is next for Stella Gibson and Paul Spector after the shocking shooting to close out season 2.

So while we await more production news when the show resumes work in Belfast, let us raise the following question: How much longer should the series proceed? How much life is left in it? You’ve got two stars in Jamie Dornan and Gillian Anderson who certainly seem to be on the rise at the moment, and that’s an incentive to keep it going. However, there can be too much of a good thing, so you want to make sure that you don’t run the series to the point that it starts to lose a little bit of the magic.

The good news – For now, we’re not close to “The Fall” being on the decline. The second season was tremendous, with Dornan and Anderson giving exceptional performances. The ratings are also set to probably improve thanks to the actors’ face-time with the “Fifty Shades of Grey” franchise and “The X-Files.” While dramas in the UK / Ireland do tend to have shorter lives (unless you are talking about soaps), there are plenty out there like “Downton Abbey” and “Call the Midwife” that have went more than five seasons.

One other great thing about this series is that structurally, there is no pressure. Like “Sherlock” and “Luther,” everyone can reconvene whenever the schedules line up to make more. With this, the show never runs into a situation where it goes stale, or the story doesn’t have enough time for creator Allan Cubitt to develop.

The other side – You’ve already almost-killed Paul once, and the longer he stays on the run, the more terrible the police are going to look at their jobs. Sooner or later, this is a show that may just reach a realistic end … at least unless you arrest Paul and move on with him behind bars. This has to be taken into careful consideration. We could see there being at least one more season beyond this one in the show’s current format, but beyond that you run the risk of repeating yourself.

Do you think that “The Fall” still has a long life on TV? Share below, and head over here to get some other news when it comes to the series! Also, you can sign up over here to get some more TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: BBC.)