‘The Fall’ season 3 debate: Should Jamie Dornan – Gillian Anderson series be longer than six episodes?
We’re enjoying being able to pop up from time to time over the past several months with stories on “The Fall,” and this is something we anticipate doing still up to when the series actually returns to film new episodes later this fall. We’ve talked extensively about release dates, but today let’s touch on a slightly different subject: Episode count.
For many of us in America, one of the great things about TV is that you get a pretty large dose of pretty much everything. Specifically, most shows tend to bring you anywhere from 10 to 24 episodes in a given season. We’ve always felt like the latter is far too many hours of one thing in a year. It is hard to maintain a singular vision in that time, which is why we have a tendency for many of these shows to not being among the most-popular with critics.
However, shows in Britain tend to run for far shorter periods of time. We’ve seen ones as short as three episodes (“Sherlock,” though to be fair their episodes tend to be almost like movies in length), and the max we tend to get is around twelve for a show like “Doctor Who,” and then a Christmas Special. Eight plus a special tends to be more of the magic number when you look at the nation’s most-popular series “Downton Abbey” and “Call the Midwife.”
Season 1 of “The Fall” ran for five episodes; meanwhile, season 2 ran for six. Should season 3 have an even longer run? We understand that fans could want it, but we figure that there are some limitations that could keep it from happening.
1. Unlike most American shows, Allan Cubitt writes all of these stories himself without a writers room around him.
2. There may not be the story that suits this amount of time on the air.
3. Stars Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan are extremely busy. Getting them for six episodes is a feat in itself.
Ultimately, we imagine that the order will likely stick around six, mostly because this keeps the season long enough to have viewers hooked, but it’s also short enough that everyone involved can do other things. We’d be more than happy to see it extended to eight at some point, but we don’t see it ever getting longer than that. Of course, feel free to chime in with your thoughts in our attached poll!
If you do want to get some other updates right now when it comes to “The Fall,” our suggestion for you is fairly simple: Be sure to head over to the link here right away! Also, you can sign up here in the event you want some other TV updates on just about everything we cover, sent right to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: BBC.)
50ShadeSeattle
September 7, 2015 @ 11:17 pm
For this kind of show it seems 5-6 episodes is not nearly enough. I think a good 13 episodes a season would be good enough! I mean the show is amazing, we need more of it! And I love Gillian Anderson she’s awesome, and Jamie Dornan is brilliant and plays a damn good creeper and he’s super hot too!
SansSyntax
August 15, 2015 @ 6:43 pm
5-6 is a good number to wrap up this storyline. This, to me, is more like a 16-17 episode show wrapping up in the last series. Expanding the finale series could be pushing it like many American shows have done. That has never once provide better TV.
What I’m really wanting is more Stella Gibson after this series ends. I believe she’s far more interesting than Paul and she has plenty of backstory we haven’t seen. (A 5-6 episode series is more likely to get Gillian Anderson on board to play, what she’s called her favorite character of all time.
I’m sure Cubitt can devise ways to bring Stella back to Belfast (I like her dynamic with the officers there).
We also haven’t seen her on her own turf. How does she interact with those who know her really well and have worked with her a long time? Does she handle physical relationship the same at home when she knows she won’t be leaving any time soon? Does she have friends outside work that she confides in? How does she work a case when she already knows the lay of the land and has her own sources and resources to work with?
And there’s always the possibility of starting a case in London then a lead moving it to Belfast, then back to London, bringing a Belfast cop or two back to London with her for a bit.
I and many others love this show because of Gillian Anderson and her portrayal of Stella Gibson. I don’t need anymore Jamie Dornan or Paul Spector.
Flora
August 23, 2015 @ 11:13 am
I agree, the third series should have 5 or 6 episodes. Enough to flesh out the Gibson/Spector dynamic. If The Fall goes beyond three seasons, we will be introduced to a new case. I love your idea regarding a London/Belfast joint investigation, I think it would give Cubitt some great material to work on. The PSNI characters would still be in the picture, and we would get to know Stella’s team within the Met. That would be awesome.
Back to the upcoming series: I wonder how Allan Cubitt will account for Stella keeping “seeing” Paul. As Burns said, her interrogating Spector was already a “departure from normal practice”. Stella has no reason to see him anymore. Paul has no leverage left: they have his confession and they have Rose.