I have just finished bingeing both seasons of Mindhunter, and I am very disappointed they delayed production of season 3. What an excellent show.
Title : Mindhunter
Genre : Psychological Thriller
Cast: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Anna Torv
Directed by: Multiple
Screenplay by: Joe Penhall
Summary :
Two FBI agents and a Professor of Psychology form the FBI’s now-famous Behavioural Science Unit in the late 1970’s by travelling the country interviewing notorious serial killers.
Review:
The best TV series I’ve watched in a long-time. Probably goes in my top 10 of all time. If you are fascinated by psychopaths and serial killers, and what makes them commit completely debased, inhumane acts, this is the show for you.
What makes the show so unique, in my opinion, is the ability to scare you shitless without any actual violence. It is very similar to 7even in that regard, a 1995 film directed by David Fincher who was Executive Producer of Mindhunter. That’s the difference between low-rate Thrillers or Horror movies and intelligent Psychological Thrillers - the suspense of thinking something will occur, without it actually occurring.
The show pairs two polar opposite FBI agents - Holden Ford and Bill Tench - based on the real-life John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. Ford is more intellectual, taking night classes at the University of Virginia, with idiosyncrasies comparable to the killers they study. He uses instinct and gets in the mind of the killer to figure out their psyche. Tench is a red-blooded American and a family man. He is still highly intelligent, but behaves more procedurally.
The series begins with the pair interviewing infamous serial killer Ed Kemper, who killed female college students, had sex with them posthumously, and cut their heads off as trophies. The actor who plays Kemper does an amazing job portraying the real life Kemper, who was over 6 ft 9 inches and had an IQ of 145. Through these interviews, the pair gain insights into the behavioural profiles of killers they hope to mold into a methodology to prevent similar crimes in the future, or catch the killers much sooner.
Jonathan Groff, who plays Agent Ford, has been praised for his performance. He’s arrogant, narcissistic and operates purely on instinct, yet he’s highly effective and surprisingly empathetic. He seems to genuinely care, although his mannerisms are formal and awkward and he seems to not understand social queues. Holt McCallany is also great, providing a practical and stabilising force to balance out the ambitious Ford. I like Anna Torv as an actor, but I found her character annoying. I know she was meant to be the intellectual helping provide intelligent insights and build the methodology to apply, but the show made her feel unnecessary most of the time. She basically just stated the obvious. Her acting was on point, but the script didn’t do her any favours.
Throughout two seasons, the show evolves from interviewing killers like Kemper, Montie Russell and Richard Speck, to applying the insights they’ve developed to the real-life case of the Atlanta child murders committed by Wayne Williams. Most episodes also follow the life of Dennis Rader aka BTK, who terrorised Wichita for almost three decades. These are some of the most interesting scenes. Each is highly suspenseful and some lead you to believe you’re about to witness a murder, but don’t.
The score, cinematography and set design are incredible and make the show. It feels very real for the time (not that I was alive in the 1970’s or 80’s) with all the faded mustard coloured clothing, chain smoking and noisy American cars. Perms are abundant, as are aviator sunglasses. The scene titles use bold typography representative of that era. And the score is eery as fuck. It does a brilliant job of building the tension and adding sinister tones to scenes that may have otherwise felt normal in a more procedural crime drama. You’ll be watching BTK argue with a library assistant about a broken Xerox machine while thinking he’s the second coming of Satan (which he probably was, to be fair).
I can’t recommend Mindhunter enough. It’s available on Netflix.
Score: 9/10
