Series writer, Allan Cubitt, takes over directing duties as well in the second, and assumingly, final season of the serial killer epic, THE FALL.

Season one was a five part thriller with Gillian Anderson’s Detective Super Intendant Stella Gibson brought in to Belfast to catch Jamie Dornan’s psycho-sexual stalker, known as Spector.

Series 2 settles into a six part police procedural, where Gibson is still delving into Spector’s crimes even though the killer has, apparently, retired and moved away.

Anderson and Dornan are splendid again, building on their characterisations, really two peas in a pod, the hunter and the hunted, haunted by demons, the psychology of cop and criminal not too distant bedfellows.

The supporting cast is impeccable, with series regulars making welcome returns including Archie Panjabi as post mortem pathologist Reed Smith, Bronagh Waugh as Spector’s spouse, Sally Ann, John Lynch as assistant commissioner Jim Burns, Niamh McGrady as WPC Danielle Ferrington, and Aisling Franciosi as Katie Benedetto.

Benedetto was the Spector’s babysitter, smitten by Paul, and her preoccupation with him is central to the narrative drive of this installment.

Profiling has become a pivotal tool in police procedure and the series focuses on trying to figure out what makes Spector tick, what are the triggers and latencies. Identified as an orphan, one of the lines of enquiry leads to an imprisoned paedophile priest, Father Jensen, a chilling cameo by Sean McGinley. The meeting between him and Jim Burns is one of the highlights of the production.

Writer/director Cubitt’s obvious intention is to reflect our own fascination with fractured psyches, how many of us drawn to the sinister and the salacious. A video tape of a victim in obvious mental and physical distress is post scripted by the assailant with the query to the observer of “why are they watching this?” with the clear implication that the observer is just as sick as the perpetrator.

There is also a tendency to linger, Days of Our Lives like, on pensive poses portrayed by Gillian Anderson. As executive producer, it seems, she can have executive screen time.

While still eminently watchable, the second series stretches episodes a little too much, and the narrative and pulse of the show suffers from a lack of crispness. However, the psychological mapping is so well done in both writing and performance, any lapses in pace are soon forgotten, especially as it gallops compulsively down the home straight to a very satisfying denouement.

THE FALL SERIES 2 is now available on 2 disc CD package through SBS/Madman.