After hearing Jordan Peele rave about Mindhunter, I figured I had to give it a look. I wasn't disappointed. While not the biggest David Fincher fan, this was a fiendishly clever serial that still has plenty of room to grow. It would be great if Peele took a turn directing one or more of the episodes next season.
Fincher had been a bit too schlock for my tastes. My daughter convinced me to watch Gone Girl the other night, and while it started off well enough, the twists and turns were too contrived to lead to any meaningful or caustically funny resolution. I couldn't tell whether I was supposed to read this as melodrama or dark comedy. In Mindhunter, Fincher deals with real cases, as he did in Zodiac, with much more satisfying results.
He's not the only director in this Netflix production, but you can see his hand throughout the series as he sets the tone in the opening and closing episodes of season one. We meet a range of serial killers starting with Ed Kemper, the notorious Coed Killer, impeccably played by Cameron Britton, as you can see by these side-by-side comparisons.
Holden Ford doesn't think FBI training goes far enough and with the help of Agent Tench sets up a basement operation where he and a reluctant Tench are tasked with interviewing serial killers. Ford hopes to probe their minds and use this information to profile open cases, much like The Silence of the Lambs. Not surprisingly, the serial and the Hannibal Lecter movies both stem from the book by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, who did the groundbreaking pathological work in the 1970s, when this serial is set. Ford and Tench more or less act as their television doppelgangers.
While on the surface this is no different from the highly popular Criminal Minds in the way Ford and Tench use their profiling and forensic techniques to help local law enforcement solve complex cases, Mindhunter offers a deeper perspective. The interviews with the serial killers are mesmerizing, especially the ones with Kemper that come to a stunning close in season one.
There's also some interesting turns like when Holden lectures a group of elementary school students on the early signs of psychopathic tendencies. The headmaster of the school, Roger Wade, wanted him to tone down his language as not to scare the students, only for Holden to find out from teachers that the headmaster likes to tickle students. A tickle for a nickel. Holden decides to press the case despite there being no actual crime, thinking that the headmaster might be exhibiting early pathological traits. This raises the thorny issue of how far do you go with this profiling.
Ford and Tench aren't alone in their investigative work. Tench solicits Dr. Wendy Carr to join their team. She is a psychology professor specializing in the pathological traits of CEO's, but is unable to gain access to them the way Ford and Tench are serial killers. She believes the traits to be very similar and figures she can use the interviews to help her gain a better understanding of these controlling impulses. I'm hoping Season 3 will explore this theme in greater depth, as to this point Carr has been little more than a third wheel.
The series moves forward in time from the late seventies to the early 80s in season two, focusing on the Atlanta child murders, which was recently the subject of a HBO documentary. Wayne Williams was believed to have killed most of these children, but the Atlanta Police Dept. in coordination with the FBI were only able to pin him to the murders of two men in their early 20s. This was a very controversial case as many still believe Williams innocent of the crimes, although the child murders stopped after his arrest. Kudos to Mindhunter for leaving the investigation open ended rather than trying to provide a neat resolution. You can thank Carl Franklin for that, as he directed the final four episodes.
Mindhunter proves time and again that fact is often stranger than fiction. If you recall, True Detective tried to cover similar territory, but was too steeped in gothic themes to ever be anything more than schlock, even when the series moved to Los Angeles for one season. Mindhunter avoids the diabolic overtones, presenting the serial killers as they are.
The Season Two interviews with Charles Manson and Tex Watson carry with them a lot of nuance, and more closely fit the pattern Dr. Carr is looking for in how persons are able to convince others to carry out the dirty work for them. Manson was able to manipulate Watson and the "Manson girls" into committing heinous crimes. To the end of his days, Manson never acknowledged any complicity in the murders, saying it was their choice. This sounds very similar to the way CEO's often dismiss the harm their companies inflict on society, or they way certain presidents dismiss the many crimes of their administrations.
The serial also does a good job of showing how the work affects the home life of the principal characters. Holden starts profiling his girlfriend and tailing her the way he would a suspect when he thinks she is cheating on him. His character could have easily gone the way of Carry Bradshaw in Homeland, but the creators wisely reel him back in. Wendy has a hard time bonding as well, especially given that homosexuality was severely frowned upon in the FBI at the time, forcing her to keep a low profile. However, she amusingly uses it in her interview with Elmer Wayne Henley and no one is the wiser for it. Tench's family life slowly unravels over the two seasons taking a Damien/Omen turn with their adoptive son, without delving into the supernatural.
This is great television! I have Jordan Peele to thank for it, as I probably would have taken a pass otherwise. I figured it would be more in the mold of Seven and Gone Girl, given Fincher's propensity to indulge in the macabre and perverse sexuality. He plays this one close to the bone, and it is much better for it.
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