Within five minutes of episode 1 of the BBC2 drama The Fall we know who the killer is. We are immediately thrust into the lives of the two main players in this clinical killer drama. Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) resides in London but has come to Belfast to investigate the murder of a politician’s daughter; and Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan), bereavement counselor, husband, father of two, and murderer of women. Season 1 will spend its 5 episodes inter-cutting between Stella and Paul as they inhabit the daily routine of their lives.

We will look upon these lives without interference, back and forth, killer and cop, with equal distance between ourselves and these two characters. We will not feel much warmth, for either really. But we will watch, as medical students likely view the dissection of cold bodies beyond one’s capacity to reach.

This sounds hard, and The Fall isn’t easy viewing. Nor is it for everyone. Before I began the show I mentioned to a friend my excitement for the new Gillian Anderson show. He told me that he and his wife had tried watching it, but they quit. Not only did they not want to watch it, he said, but it was the kind of show they didn’t want to have watched. Perhaps I’m a twisted viewer; that only piqued my excitement for the show. And to be fair, The Fall is not all clinical iciness and distance.

There are emotions to be felt in the wide net cast as the drama unfolds. Belfast, the city and its violence, provides a complex backdrop for the procedural thriller at the show’s core. So too Paul’s wife Sally, a NICU nurse, provides an undeniable sadness and strength in the show. While Paul works nights at a suicide prevention hotline and days as a bereavement counselor, Sally must bear the emotional stress of her work with the additional weight of childcare. Sally is an emotional rope provided for the audience, keeping us from losing touch.

And we need it, as the show unfolds, and we get more and more of Stella and Paul. Stella, played with intense quiet by Gillian Anderson, carries beauty and power with her in every scene. Her presence attracts attention-from men and women-and Stella strives to remain removed from it when necessary. She is clear-eyed, intelligent, admirable, unafraid of the men who surround her, be they police or personal. Paul, rugged and thin and darkly portrayed by Jamie Dornan, has the power of his physical nature, and a quiet demeanor to match his hidden life. His work as a bereavement counselor is not uncaring, and good comes from his practice.

The inter-cutting of Paul and Stella’s scenes is the standard operating procedure of The Fall. We are meant to see these lives of cool consideration, killer and cop, as parallels. As mirroring. Paul is distant, isolated, and removed from reality by his action. Stella, it would seem, is similarly programmed. In an early episode the camera cuts from Stella’s sexual encounter with a young cop, a one-night stand of little emotional value, to Paul’s bathing, dressing, and caring for the body of a woman he has just murdered. Back and forth we travel, without judgment. He’s a killer and dad, she’s a cop who sleeps around. Back and forth. The show is methodical and snail-paced, repetitive. Back and forth again. Slowly re-enforcing its thesis of parallel structure, hypnotic.

And this is where a lesser show would leave off. A story more interested in thrills and violence and exploited emotions might just draw these comparisons and unfold the drama. But The Fall is smarter than the simple mirrored character portrait it uses. The structure is a tool, used chiefly to break down the lie it creates. The Fall takes apart the notion that a lesser show would embrace: that these two characters are alike. That a man who finds joy in the murder of women could be comparable to a woman who is beautiful and powerful and un-intimidated by men. The Fall understands what it means to parallel a powerful female cop with a killer of women.

Eventually this thesis, that Paul and Stella are the same, is spoken into the show, and the clear absurdity of it becomes apparent. This is the lie that The Fall knows, and tells anyway. And in telling the lie The Fall becomes a surprising, great success. It’s a remarkable experience to slowly watch that lie exposed for what it is. I cannot wait for season 2.

The Fall is currently streaming on Netflix.