The series, starring Jamie Dornan as serial killer Paul Spector, is created and written by Allan Cubitt and features Gillian Anderson as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson.

When it becomes apparent that a serial killer is on the loose, local detectives must work with Stella to find and capture Paul Spector, who is attacking young professional women in the city of Belfast.

As time passes Stella's team works tirelessly to build a case but they are met with complications inside and outside the PSNI.

Cubitt said that he originally was researching another show he was planning on writing and read a book on the BTK ("Bind, Torture, Kill") serial killer, Dennis Rader.

The focus could then become the motives for the killings and on the insights that might be gained about the psychology of the killer, even in the face of what might be considered a normal, functioning person with a job, wife and children.

[26][28][29] In 2014, it was announced that Colin Morgan and Bronagh Taggart had joined the cast in starring roles as Tom Anderson and Gail McNally, respectively.

Anderson, Dornan, Lynch, Waugh, Franciosi, Kane, O'Neill, and Morgan all returned as regulars for the third series, alongside new cast members Aisling Bea, Richard Coyle, Barry Ward, Richard Clements, Ruth Bradley, Genevieve O'Reilly, Aidan McArdle, Denise Gough, Martin McCann, Conor MacNeill and Krister Henriksson.

Former main cast members Niamh McGrady, Stuart Graham and Bronagh Taggart returned in guest arcs.

Cubitt was inspired by guitar manufacturing companies when naming some of his characters; Stella, Gibson and Spector are brands of guitar, as are Benedetto, Brawley, Breedlove, Burns, Eastwood, Hagstrom, James Olson, James Tyler, Kay, Martin, Music Man, Paul Reed Smith, Rick Turner, Stagg, Terry McInturff, and Tom Anderson.

Its consensus is, "Less sensationalistic and more provocative than most police procedurals, The Fall is unapologetically sexy with pressure-building tension driven by plausible characters and motifs.

The third series consensus reads, "The Fall stumbles somewhat in its third season, but still delivers enough to satisfy fans of the show—and slow-burning psychological thrillers in general.

"[41] Ken Tucker also felt that the show lost its quality, criticized the character development, but found Anderson and Dornan to be "good" and "handsome and skilled" respectively.

[46] In the book Crime TV, Streaming Criminology in Popular Culture, Jonathan A Grubb and Chad Posick, assistant professors in the department of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia Southern University, wrote that the show conveyed "a fairly solid understanding of the thinking of a psychopathic killer."

In August 2016, it was announced that the French private national TV channel TF1 was producing a remake of the series, titled Insoupçonnable ("unsuspected").

The French adaptation starred Emmanuelle Seigner and Melvil Poupaud as the leads, and supporting cast included: Jean-Hugues Anglade, Claire Keim, Patrick Chesnais, Bérengère Krief and Sofia Essaïdi.