The narrative structure is unusual -- different, but not incomprehensible. The first episode shows Rosie Byfield, the end product; the second is told from Rosie’s father’s point-of-view, looking back at his daughter’s teen years and convinced that it was he who made her into a monster; the third is Wendy’s remembrance of even further back, showing where things first went wrong with Rosie, and how present-day Wendy believes that she is to blame for Rosie’s psychopathy. It’s not a truly original way to tell a story (e.g. 2000’s Memento), but it is uncommon enough to be interesting.
I enjoyed this miniseries although I found it to be a little slow, particularly dragging in the second episode. The first episode is exciting because we have just been introduced to serial killer and master manipulator Rosie, and the third is good because evil children are creepy and fun to watch. The second episode, however, gets bogged down in the satanic priest subplot -- which I thought could have been done away with entirely. Enough is going on in Rosie’s life to screw her up without bringing black magic into it. This subplot must have been much more developed in the three books Fallen Angel is based upon; I think its excision for the miniseries would make for a tauter and less bloated thriller.
Fallen Angel is approximately 207 minutes long and the DVD includes a 45 minute behind-the-scenes featurette. It contains numerous interviews with nearly the entire cast, the source material’s author, the screenwriter, other crewmembers and a professor of psychology.
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