Mindhunter: Season 1
Ratings: 4.1/5
Creator: Joe Penhall
Producers: Jim Davidson, Mark Winemaker, Liz Hannah
Genre: Psychological thriller
Release Date: 13th October, 2017
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Star Cast: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Hannah Gross, Cotter Smith, Anna Torv, Stacey Roca, Cameron Britton, Michael Cerveris, Joe Tuttle, Lauren Glazier, Albert Jones, Sierra McClain, June Carryl
Plot:
Catching a criminal often requires the authorities to get inside the villain's mind to figure out how he thinks. That's the job of FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench. Mindhunter revolves around FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt Mc Canally), along with psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), who operates the FBI's Behavioural Science unit within the Training Division at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia. They attempt to understand and catch serial killers by studying their damaged psyches. They interview imprisoned serial killers to understand how they think, with the hope of applying this knowledge to solve on-going cases.
Along the way, the agents pioneer the development of modern serial-killer profiling.
Review:
Season one is set in 1977 to 1980, in the early days of criminal psychology and criminal profiling at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Notorious serial killer Edmund Kemper (Cameron Britton) has a recurring role in this season as he assists Ford and Tench in understanding how a serial killer's mind works.
The 10-part first season dispels the mysteriousness around the cult of the serial killers. The series show the real persona of the convicted real-life murderers- played by amazing actors. It is based on the work of FBI agent John E Douglas, who in 70s and 80s had encounters with Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Ed Gein and others inspired Thomas Harris’s Silence of the Lambs.
Fincher, the executive producer doesn’t de-glamorise these men. Even though played out by actors, they are presented as dangerous individuals as they truly were. For instance, their first subject is ‘co-ed’ killer Edmund Kemper (Cameron Britton), a hulking nerd who targeted female students before beheading his mother, defiling her head and ripping out her vocal chords, so that her nagging will stop.
Disgusting, horrific and unbelievable, right? It is. The show presents such realistic descriptions of these criminals and their crimes. If not anything else, it would take a tough heart to sit and watch through all of these episodes.
