Winter is a dreadful time for TV viewers. While Autumn gave us a glut of great television (here’s looking at you How to Get Away With Murder), the Winter hiatus of our favourite TV shows means we’ll have to spend a few chilly weeks without.

So, save we all freeze our toes off, forced to watch Elf a few hundred times over Christmas, it’s time to recommend a new show. Called The Fall, this gripping crime thriller is now in its second series. Set in Northern Ireland, it focuses on a serial killer and one woman’s hunt to catch him.

Mighty good stuff. Read

reasons to watch the show below.

1 Gillian Anderson Plays the Lead

Coming out as bisexual in 2012, Gillian Anderson already has a massive queer (and female) fanbase. However, in The Fall her portrayal of Stella Gibson, a no-nonsense detective who pulls no punches, will win her legions more.

Not only is Gibson a certified badass, but she also enjoys casual sex too. Very often on television we get either/or – we can have a powerful woman who’s a lone wolf or a woman who likes sex but gets burnt too many times – so to see Gibson be a wonderful combination of both is actually quite refreshing.

2. Archie Panjabi’s In It

When Archie Panjabi announced earlier this year that she would be leaving The Good Wife (and therefore bisexual character Kalinda would no longer be on the show) many queer ladies shed several thousand tears. But on The Fall we get another chance to see her stellar acting chops.

Here, Panjabi plays Reed Smith who likes leather jackets and riding her motorbike. A pathologist, she works alongside Gibson studying crime scenes and dead bodies meaning we see her quite a bit (she’s in four of five episodes of the first series and makes a return in the second).

Also worth noting that although in the first series Reed is portrayed as straight, a recent episode from the second series featured a kiss between her and Stella. Having not seen it I can’t say what this means for her identity but it’s certainly something.

3. A Gay Main Character

Yes, although Panjabi’s Reed may or may not be L, G or B (again, this is all per the first season), Niamh McGrady’s character Danielle Ferrington is.

The right hand constable to Detective Gibson, Danielle’s queerness isn’t really a big deal. She mentions that she’s gay in one of the last few episodes of the first series and Gibson seems to be fine with it.
So far, Danielle hasn’t gotten a love interest, which is a little disappointing. However, it also means that you can ship unashamedly and with no guilt whatsoever, so that’s sort of a plus point!

4. It’s Incredibly Creepy

Not that you’d expect a show about a serial killer who preys on young women to be anything else, mind. But really, The Fall is one of the most gripping, thrilling and terrifying shows on TV at the moment.

Killer Paul Spector invades the homes of his unsuspecting victims, and kills them coldly. Many have noted that the the show alludes to sexual violence too which is grim but makes the killings all the more horrific.

It also means that the show will have you watching from between the cracks in your fingers, so expect that when you watch.

5. It’s On Netflix

Now in it’s second series on BBC, UK readers will be able to catch all of the episodes from the second series on BBC iPlayer (do a bit of digging online and you’ll be able to find the first series hosted by other means). It’s US viewers who get the luck of the draw though, as The Fall is available on US Netflix.

Those with a Netflix subscription and a US Internet connection can fire up the app or the website search for ‘The Fall’ and stream every episode from the first series.

Take a look and when you’re done, leave a comment below and let us know what you thought!