Mindhunter: Season 2
Ratings: 4.8/5
Creator: Joe Penhall
Producers: Jim Davidson, Mark Winemaker, Liz Hannah
Genre: Psychological thriller
Release Date: 16th August, 2019
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:
Mindhunter expands its narrative horizons in the second season with the same consistent details that made its first season so chilling.
Season two is set in 1980 through 1981 and covers the Atlanta murders of 1979-81. This is based on the real case of Wayne Williams who was charged for the murder of two adult men but was never found guilty of killing at least 28 children and/or adolescents.
Review:
Mindhunter makes a lot of changes in Season 2. Most noticeable is a protagonist switch as Bill Tench. While Holden, Wendy and Bill are fictionalized versions of real people, Bill Tench is based on the real BSU's (Behavioural science Unit) Robert Ressler. However, Ressler had three kids — a son and two daughters, but Bill only has one.
Tench takes centre stage over the ‘I-know-everything’ Holden Ford. This early repositioning sets up more drama to come, as the research-based behavioural analysis seen in Season 1 gets pushed into early field testing in Season 2.
Last year’s important case of the week format is replaced by an another dimension dealing with the Atlanta child murders of 1979-81, reinforced by police officers’ distressing efforts to catch the so called ‘BTK strangler’.
Oh yes! The BTK Killer (Sonny Valicenti) returns this series yet again who, instead of lifting weights or recruiting an army, practices autoerotic asphyxiation in a doll mask.
The ever-so-cool psychotherapist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) dissolves in front of us as her social life enters the picture, while it’s Tench’s turn to suffer the domestic consequences of the horrors he deals with professionally when a killing close to home startled his wife Nancy. Stacey Roca offers a good line in unremarkable wildness escaping from underneath Nancy’s huge eye glasses and the signature permed hair. Ultimately, Mindhunter - this season, dramatizes the real occurrence of the BTK and Atlanta cases.
These nine episodes examine how public scrutiny and systemic political issues can tarnish noble intentions. The Season 2 is unsettling in many ways and that’s what makes it so absorbing.
