Netflix's Mindhunter Season 2 TV Show Review

In the mind of madness

by Casimir Harlow

The slick Charlize Theron/David Fincher-produced Netflix series Mindhunter returns to further clinically explore the birth of the FBI's serial killer profiling unit some 40 years ago.

Finely crafted, often feeling (not least in the credits sequence) like Fincher's hand is guiding the construction and style of the piece, Mindhunter is resolutely dedicated to its slow-build precision-designed exploration of the nascent stages in the FBI's profiling division, which - at least back in '77 - was supposedly non-existent. In the first season, young Special Agent Holden Ford starts pitching to his partner, seasoned vet Bill Tench, that there's some mileage to be found in exploring what makes repeat killers (soon dubbed series, and then serial killers) do what they do, perhaps through extensive interviews with the ones they already have in custody. This attracts the interest and, eventually, assistance of psychology professor Wendy Carr, and eventually secures funding to dedicate more time and resources to the project, even though Holden's controversial methods to 'get in the mind' of his grotesque subjects not only threatens to close them all down, but also puts his own life in danger.

Mindhunter is resolutely dedicated to its slow-build precision-designed exploration of the nascent stages in the FBI's profiling division

Season 2 sees the Behavioural Science Unit still under the shadow of an investigation into their controversial methods, but with a new Assistant Director brought in (as the old one inauspiciously departs) who ostensibly wants the team to succeed, moving them to a much bigger location and promising them new staff, resources - a break room and even a toilet! It all comes with a cost of course: their 'study' into serial killers can no longer take years to put together; they need to show how it can help practically, now. And to do this they need to work as a team, which is difficult enough for the closet lesbian Wendy (who has her own personal distractions and concerns), or for Bill (who just wants everything to be smooth, at work and home), but almost impossible for Holden, whose breakdown has left him teetering on the brink.
Netflix
Mindhunter is wonderfully compelling almost pure character development, affording viewers a 10-episode (well, 9 this time around) season of 40 minute chapters (if you are binging and skip the credits start and end), which work best in relatively quick succession. It is a show more than prepared to spend half an episode with a serial killer regaling how they dissected a victim and then abused the remains, and then exploring the fallout of that knowledge when it comes to the team, who all have to 'take it home' in their own different ways. Indeed, almost the entire first season could be sumerised like that.

In some ways, almost nothing happens (although the impetus clearly shifts in this season - and this was arguably needed), but Fincher's production is keen on taking its time to build up the characters, the setup, and the evolution of the profiling unit, maintaining an almost documentary-like attention to detail in a way that the show's Netflix peers (like, perhaps, Manhunt: Unabomber) or cinematic predecessors (one might reasonably assume the similarly titled Manhunter) simply don't. There's little here that's designed to thrill, ratchet up tension for effect or deliver punchy moments of 'traditional' entertainment, this is a series that actually has considerably more in common with Fincher's Zodiac than any of the more obvious choices mentioned above.

Jonathan Groff is the damaged Holden, kind-of like a very young Will Graham (Manhunter again, or the Hannibal TV show) in that he instinctively knows how to relate to serial killers in a way that his colleagues don't, but is also too inexperienced to know when to stop. It's kind of a thankless role, as Holden hasn't graduated to cool and assured, and instead often flails around in quite a potentially damaging way - to both himself and others. Fringe's Anna Torv too often gets the cold end of the stick but is clearly going places this season, but it's still Holt McCallany's Bill Tench who absolutely steals the show; the grizzly veteran who can't stomach what he sees and hears, but still tolerates it for the greater good, hoping this time around he can channel Holden's wild racehorse to actually solve a crime.

Compelling and character-driven, for all the quantity over quality that Netflix has become synonymous with, this is certainly one of their best shows

And that's perhaps the key to this impressive show: they spent a season (and the year(s) it covered) researching serial killers, and now they need to be shown to put that knowledge to use, faced pretty early on with their first live case, and a slew of notorious killers (including Charles Manson, played by the same actor as in Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) to help them, almost Hannibal-style, to get there. Compelling and character-driven, for all the quantity over quality that Netflix has become synonymous with, this is certainly one of their best shows.

Scores

Verdict

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9

9
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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