Mindhunter was created by Joe Penhall who is also the executive produced of the show along with David Fincher and Charlize Theron and a few others. The show is based on a book called Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. The show itself follows the early days of the Behavioral Science Unit as it was formed.
Jonathan Groff plays Holden Ford who, after an incident on the field, is teamed up to help Bill Tench (played by Holt McCallany) with traveling school. They go from town to town and teach police officers about some F.B.I. techniques. When the police asks them for a help with a particular shocking case, Ford gets the idea that they should interview convicted serial killers (who didn't have a name then) to see what makes them operate and how. Wendy Carr (who is played by Anna Torv) is a psychology professor who helps them with their research as she is the first one who believes that this will be important for the world.
This season takes place in the late 70s. It focuses mainly on their interviews with Ed Kemper. Through the insight that they get through him they manage to arrest several people involved with several murder cases. But what is the price for such a work? And how do others see it in a time when criminal psychology wasn't a popular topic?
I have to say that the biggest downside of the show is that it focuses too much on the agents personal lives. I get it that the show wants to show the emotional impact of working on such terrible cases and with such terrible people, but it is mostly boring and uninteresting. Ford's girlfriend and Tench's family, despite their importance, are not a real draw.
The crimes however are very interesting. The show feels almost like a documentary as it doesn't focus on only one thing. There are other murderer and other problems that comes up, are shown and then get pushed back to the background, as it so often happens in real life. But, almost always, they come back in a most interesting way. I binged the season in two days. It is that fascinating in my opinion.
Jonathan Groff is the heart of the show. He moves all of the pieces most of the time and the emotional transformation that he goes through is the most noticeable one. He goes through more than one change and it is fascinating to watch. Tench is a cliché of a tough and yet nice guy who doesn't talk much. Carr is also a cliché of a super smart independent woman, but she is so well acted that it doesn't really bother me. Plus the changes in her work make up for the cliché, making her a pretty brilliant character. So the acting is superb. So it the 70s setting. It is subtle, but you never think that this is present times. So the acting and the setting are pretty spot on.
This is not a regular crime show, it doesn't really follow the same format. But, once you get into it, it is really hard to stop watching.
Mindhunter is now streaming on Netflix.
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