Netflix’s and David Fincher’s Mindhunter is probably the best TV show of the year

Creator: Joe Penhall

Director: David Fincher, Andrew Douglas, Asif Kapadia, Tobias Lindholm

Starring: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Anna Torv,  Hannah Gross, Cotter Smith, Joe Tuttle, Cameron Britton

Genre: Crime, Drama

Year: 2017

Mindhunter is a new American TV show, a crime drama created by Joe Penhall (screenplay for Cormac McCarthy’s The Road) and based on a true crime book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit written by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. Mindhunter is, among others, produced by David Fincher (who also directed a couple of episodes) and Charlize Theron and debuted worldwide on Netflix on October 2017.

The story is set in late 1970’s and it revolves around early days of FBI profilers. Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) is a young FBI hostage negotiator who is transferred to work behind the desk as an instructor after an incident which occurred during his last case. Not long after that, he meets veteran FBI agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) from Behavioral Science Unit. Tench is lecturing police officers around the country and helps them with some cases. Tench gives Ford an offer to join him and soon the two of them start interviewing some of the most notorious and imprisoned serial killers and psychopaths to better understand how they are thinking and what made them do all those horrible things.

These were the early days of criminal profiling and criminal psychology at the FBI and the show is based on the real-life experiences of John Douglas, an FBI agent who pioneered the practice of psychological profiling during his 25 years with the FBI.

Mindhunter starts little slow and in the 1st episode, you’re actually not sure where all of this is going. I didn’t know much about story and show besides it is a crime drama based on real events. Holden seemed like a bland and boring character and his relationship with his new girlfriend Debbie wasn’t especially interesting. But soon things pick up and after they start interviewing killers and psychopaths and working on real cases, the show got me hooked up until I finished the whole first season. But don’t think it is some fast-paced show with two agents running, shooting and catching killers. The focus here is on characters and dialogs.

Two main characters were really well-written and portrayed and they fit well together. It was interesting to watch Groff’s character Holden, transforming from young, boring and naive agent into someone who gets these psychopaths really well. His partner Tench is here more as a moral compass and to keep Holden from going too far. Actually, almost all characters in the show are well-written and they are not some one dimensional, paper-thin characters. All actors did very good job, especially actors who played killers and psychopaths. Almost each of them was excellent in their roles, with a standout performance from Cameron Britton who plays Ed Kemper.

Script and dialogs are on the same level, I found their conversations with these psychopaths engaging, interesting and tense. The same can be said about their cases and their conversations with psychologist Wendy Carr who soon joins their team at the FBI.

Famous director David Fincher, who did four episodes of the first season, is no stranger to this theme as he already covered serial killers, but in a different fashion, in crime dramas like Seven and Zodiac. And this is maybe his best work since The Social Network. If you didn’t watch his previous works or missed some of his movies, I suggest that you fix this ASAP as in my opinion, he’s one of the best American directors in the past 20 years.

Mindhunter is not a perfect show, I think they could leave out some parts as I didn’t find them especially interesting, important or well made. For example Holden’s girlfriend Debbie. Yes, I understand that they needed to give him some background and show how his work is affecting his personal life. The problem is I found Debbie irritating, boring and not so well written. And I don’t have a much better opinion about Hannah Gross performance. SPOILER – thank God, they brake up at the end of the season so I hope she’s not going to appear in the second season.

Nevertheless, Mindhunter is an intelligent, interesting and engaging TV show with excellent performances from the actors, strong characters and script and I can’t wait for season 2. Probably the best TV show I watched in 2017.