What I'm Watching: BBC Two's "The Fall"

The third season finale of BBC Two's The Fall brought the pain in so many ways, a gripping hour that managed to be brutal and truly haunting right up to the final scene. That the series, which stars Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan in a psychological game of cat-and-mouse, offers such an unglamorous portrayal of murder and murderers — after two seasons of glamorizing both the killer and his crimes — is precisely the point. This (final?) season is about cause and effect, consequences and damage, treatment and cures. The monster behind the mask and the monsters who hide beneath less obvious ones. Wow.