The Fall (TV Series 2013–2016)

[kizanski]

The Wife and I love the British detective/murder mysteries (yes, there is guitar content coming), and we even PAY FOR the PBS app in order to stream them.
I know... unprecedented honorable behavior.

The latest one we streamed is one called The Fall. It features Gillian Anderson as the lead (she is amazing, by the way) and a supporting cast of actors who, if you watch a lot of these series as we do, find yourself saying, "Oh yeah... Isn't that the actor from that other thing...?" fairly often.

So why I am posting this here:

As we're watching this 3 season, 17 episode collection (included with Amazon Prime), I keep hearing familiar names as characters are introduced or referenced.
The surname of Gillian Anderson's character is Gibson.  Ok, that's not so odd. She's chasing a suspected killer named Specter.    Hmmm...?

There are goons arrested in side plots, as is often the case.  One is named Bill Nash.  The other is named Terry McInturff.  Wait a minute...

As the story progresses, characters with surnames such as Benedetto, Ferrington, Dean, Eastwood, Martin and Turner start to show up.

No detective show would be complete without a top notch Coroner character. The lovely Archie Panjabi plays a Prof. Reed Smith.

They say two is a coincidence, three is a trend.  But this is off the charts.
At one point the suspected murderer is brought in for questioning.  The arresting officer's name is Tom Anderson.

Some more surnames in the show; Alvarez, Warmouth, Chandler, Fender (yes, "Fender"!), Breedlove...

I got a big kick out of the names as each was revealed.
"Another guitar name!" I'd blurt out.  My wife would chuckle, politely.

 

You guys get it, right??

[Drew816]

I only watched season 1 and 2, they lost me at 3. And at the time I noticed a few of the names but stopped paying attention. Obviously someone on the writing staff is a guitar nut! 

Good catch!

[kizanski]

43 minutes ago, Drew816 said:

I only watched season 1 and 2, they lost me at 3.

It's worth seeing it through to the end.

[Stike]

That's pretty funny but as a youngster back in the days of one television households my parents would watch as much Agatha Christie and Murder She Wrote as they could and I hated it, not sure I can overcome a dislike that was engrained in childhood. 🤣

[Dave Scepter]

Gillian Anderson aka Stella Gibson or~🤣

[kizanski]

14 minutes ago, Stike said:

That's pretty funny but as a youngster back in the days of one television households my parents would watch as much Agatha Christie and Murder She Wrote as they could and I hated it, not sure I can overcome a dislike that was engrained in childhood. 🤣

I hear you, and I agree.  Those older shows were a little too campy, a little too glib for me. I was watching one recently where my wife and I eventually came to the conclusion that this particular one must be the English "Matlock" - meant for older folks who enjoy more caricature-ish characters. Personally I hate it.
And I definitely can't get into the Downton Abbey-type programs.  That whole genre/time period is incredibly off-putting for me.

That said, series like Broadchurch, Collateral, Unforgotten, Endeavour, The Fall and the like are superior to any drama you will find on American television. I'm sorry, it's just true.  Check them out and you'll see.
The stories are better - no cliche "oh it was a dream" nonsense, the actors are more appropriately cast (unlike on our TV shows where everyone has to be gorgeous - How is Téa Leoni the Secretary of State), and they don't milk the shit out of the story until the end of time.  Most series are three or four seasons and then they end it.  They'll even kill off the main character sometimes so that you know they mean it- lol.

[Biz Prof]

2 hours ago, kizanski said:

The Wife and I love the British detective/murder mysteries

Same here.  Not sure if the increasing list of similarities between Kiz and me should be cause for concern, indifference, or feelings of affirmation. 

Anyway, kudos to Kiz for discerning the guitar themed list of character names.  We watched seasons 1 and 2 of The Fall and while we enjoyed the series, the guitarcentric naming trend never even dawned on me.   Now, I'd really like another season of Line of Duty.

[kizanski]

1 minute ago, Biz Prof said:

Same here.  Not sure if the increasing list of similarities between Kiz and me should be cause for concern, indifference, or feelings of affirmation. 

I would certainly keep an eye on it.

[Biz Prof]

2 minutes ago, kizanski said:

I would certainly keep an eye on it.

Oh, don't worry; I will.

[kizanski]

15 minutes ago, Biz Prof said:

...the guitarcentric naming trend never even dawned on me.

Not even when the Terry McInturff character was introduced??

[MCChris]

If they ever introduce a character named Hortense Epiphone, I trust you'll cease watching the show immediately.

[kizanski]

6 minutes ago, MCChris said:

If they ever introduce a character named Hortense Epiphone, I trust you'll cease watching the show immediately.

lol - There was a Nurse Sheridan!  Sadly no Robin Hamer, though.

[Stike]

48 minutes ago, MCChris said:

If they ever introduce a character named Hortense Epiphone, I trust you'll cease watching the show immediately.

I would think an Epiphone would have a first name like Yiorgos?

[kizanski]

Oh, and I forgot to mention... The codename for the taskforce assembled to catch the serial killer is "Musicman."

[Rich_S]

Played by Robert Preston?

[Carl.B]

There isn't an old Korean named Hamer that's in the Slammer by chance?

[veatch]

If Detective Schlabotnik arrives on the scene, questions will be asked. 

[Biz Prof]

3 hours ago, kizanski said:

Not even when the Terry McInturff character was introduced??

No, but I likely dozed through the reference to his full name.  I just never heard them utter "Terry McInturff". 

OK, I admit that there are times when I start daydreaming whilst looking at Gillian Anderson instead of taking in the plot-related details of the scene.

[scottcald]

3 hours ago, MCChris said:

If they ever introduce a character named Hortense Epiphone, I trust you'll cease watching the show immediately.

Especially if he's played by this guy:

 

[crunchee]

6 hours ago, kizanski said:

As we're watching this 3 season, 17 episode collection (included with Amazon Prime), I keep hearing familiar names as characters are introduced or referenced.
The surname of Gillian Anderson's character is Gibson.  Ok, that's not so odd. She's chasing a suspected killer named Specter.    Hmmm...?

There are goons arrested in side plots, as is often the case.  One is named Bill Nash.  The other is named Terry McInturff.  Wait a minute...

As the story progresses, characters with surnames such as Benedetto, Ferrington, Dean, Eastwood, Martin and Turner start to show up.

No detective show would be complete without a top notch Coroner character. The lovely Archie Panjabi plays a Prof. Reed Smith.

They say two is a coincidence, three is a trend.  But this is off the charts.
At one point the suspected murderer is brought in for questioning.  The arresting officer's name is Tom Anderson.

Some more surnames in the show; Alvarez, Warmouth, Chandler, Fender (yes, "Fender"!), Breedlove...

I got a big kick out of the names as each was revealed.
"Another guitar name!" I'd blurt out.  My wife would chuckle, politely.

 

You guys get it, right??

Why does this sound to me like a guitarists'/gearhead's drinking game?  Reminds me of what college students supposedly used to do when watching the old Bob Newhart show on TV..."Hi Bob.", take a shot.  "Hi Bob." Take another shot.  Repeat every time someone says "Hi Bob.".  

Edited to add: "Hi Bob." even has it's own Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi,_Bob#:~:text=According to the Tampa Tribune,says "Hi%2C Bob".

[princeofdarkness56]

Nobody does detective/ who done it better than the Brits. Going all the way back to Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. Best American detective show in a long time is Bosch. 

[cmatthes]

I think I pointed this out on here a decade or so ago during the first season.  My wife was hooked after the first episode and said something like - “Hey!  All these characters are guitar company names!”.
 

There was also a James Tyler, a Stagg, Larson…

The creator/writer (Alan Cubitt) is an avowed guitar nerd.

[Carl.B]

3 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

Yeah, I too was picturing Kiz doing end-of-evening inverted yoga poses against the bedroom wall

Thanks for giving me a reason not to give up my day drinking! Have to do something to get that image out of my head!! LOL

[Biz Prof]

28 minutes ago, princeofdarkness56 said:

Best American detective show in a long time is Bosch. 

Totally agree. And it's probably miles down the line to second place.

[kizanski]

19 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

I think I pointed this out on here a decade or so ago...

I figured it was unlikely that I would have been the first to discover this, but here we are.