"The Fall" (BBC)

"What will you tell your daughters in the future? About how to stay safe?"

"Pretty much what I tell them now. Don't talk to strange men."

"Strange men?"

"Any man."

- conversation between Stella Gibson and Tanya Reed Smith of "The Fall"

I was under the impression that Season 1 of "The Fall" (see also: wiki) was a six-episode mini-series thing.

Apparently it is a five-episode mini-series thing.

I'm a bit upset to have discovered that by hitting the end of episode five and HAVING NO MORE EPISODES TO WATCH. At first I was like, "Maybe . . . maybe Netflix doesn't have all the episodes???" But IMDB confirmed it: five episodes.

AAAAAAAAAAH. What kind of number is five episodes for a season, for serious?

Here's the thing about "The Fall." It stars Gillian Anderson out-awesoming her Scully-self by BEING EVEN MORE BADASSLY INTELLIGENT and SAYING MIND-BLOWINGLY FEMINIST THINGS while being a COMPLEX WOMAN WHO IS A HYPERCOMPETENT DETECTIVE/INVESTIGATOR/PROFILER but whom you may or may not like because her attitudes and opinions fly in the face of (female) conventions. She also speaks with an accent.

She drops these burns left and right in people's faces who are judging her or others and it's like "OH MY GOD, YOU ARE SO HOT RIGHT NOW BECAUSE YOU ARE LIKE AN AVENGING ANGEL OF 'TAKE NO BULLSHIT.' SCULLY! GIBSON!"

I grew up loving Scully. But MOTHEREFFIN' STELLA GIBSON. She will judge the shit out of you for judging her. Or for judging victims. Or for enforcing patriarchy. I love that the things that she points out are words and attitudes that are so normalized that they never get called out because it's status quo to do and say those things. NOT IN STELLA'S OPINION. NOPE.

It was pretty much Tumblr gifs of the things that come out of Stella Gibson's mouth that made me go, "I think I need to watch this show. Scully is laying down some hard truths, yo."

I HAD ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA.

There was at least one scene where an exchange of dialogue made me say aloud, "Oh, damn."

But the thing is, the thing is, this show can trigger any woman's rape fears. Oh my God. I had watched the first episode a few weeks ago and had hesitated to continue because it was hard to watch the end of the first episode. And knowing that "The Fall" would follow--and parallel--the journeys of workaholic Stella Gibson and the serial killer she is tracking made me hesitate to commit to seeing more of the horror.

Yet where "The Fall" is so, so good are the conversations about gender roles and norms and calling them out and confronting them and yet also having those conventions and roles play out.

And the women. So "Orphan Black" made me lots of happy because it is also a subtly feminist show, where all the main characters are women who are nuanced and individuals and inhabit different archetype roles with a twist. Thus Sarah is the anti-hero punk con but also a mother driven by love; Alison is the soccer mom suburbanite whose paranoia and control freak tendencies also means she's very close to being off her rocker; Cosima (puppy!) is the science geek who is free and social and sexual and whose passion encompasses and often focuses on people; Helena is an angry murderous psychopath angel who is also vulnerable and longing and obviously wronged. And I cannot wait to see the twists other clones will bring.

"The Fall" also has women, women, women, too. And complicated men-women relationship dynamics. And women supporting women and working together. And both women and men looking at Stella like "Whoa, you crazy" and uncertain about how to approach and interpret and respond to her. There are just so many brilliant little touches that I don't want to reveal because I was delighted to see them incorporated.

Just. Stella Gibson, man. Just step right up into my Pantheon of BAMFs, yes.