Mindhunter - Season 1
If it seems like years have gone by since Netflix first released Mindhunter, then you technically wouldn't be wrong. The first season was dropped in October 2017 and later renewed for another season in November 2017. Then, it took another year and a half to get the first glimpse at Holden Ford and Special Agent Bill Tench's latest adventures.
Mindhunter - Season 1
But alas, the wait is over. Season two of the thrilling true-crime series is back and it promises the return of Jonathan Groff. However, last season's cliffhanger of a finale truly left the series in limbo.
It's important to watch the entirety of Mindhunter Season 1 before diving into Season 2, as the second installment in the serial killers series picks up right where Season 1 left off. Critics seem to think this decision was because of the depth of the show, and how it's been almost two years since the first season was released, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Two of the largest murder mysteries this season will be of BTK and The Atlanta Child Murders, two polarizing real-life cases. There's also a third case in Season 2 that critics seem to think is not entirely rooted in reality.
The binge allure of Mindhunter is interesting because there aren't really any big cliffhangers episode to episode, nor is there a sense that the season is heading towards a major climax or twist. Instead, the pleasure in the series is in its slow, systematic approach, as special agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench work up a methodology for understanding murderers out of nothing and constantly tweak it. There's a laboratory feel to the show - a sense of test tubes being poured incrementally into each other - only the chemicals the pair are playing with are America's most dangerous and deranged serial killers.
Compared to a show like House of Cards, where the protagonist became president within two seasons, Mindhunter is glacial, aiming to reflect how slow change in law and policing can be as The Wire did before it. It also gleefully pre-empts a potential salacious affair storyline, having Ford lust after the new-to-town teacher figure, Carr, only to swiftly reveal she is lesbian and remove the possibility of some kind of tryst betwen them.
The world has had a few months to let Mindhunter stew in their brains and Netflix has announced that the show will be back for a second season. But first, we have to watch the rest of this season.
What does get lost in the shuffle, just a little, is the Richard Speck interview. The interview is used as a setup for inter-office conflict, but should really be examined by itself for being a riveting scene. Jack Erdie plays Speck like a tornado of emotions, all anger and hate. Speck is only in one episode, but I hope the show finds room to bring him and Rissell back for next season.
David Fincher directed the four episodes that bookend the season, and the show is much more in the vein of his Zodiac than Seven. Though Ford and Tench in their travels occasionally get involved in active investigations, the focus is primarily on trying to make sense of long-ago atrocities committed by men like Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton, electrifying in the way he uses his tremendous size to both intimidate and reassure the feds), who abused the decapitated corpses of his victims.
Rader and a few other bumps aside, this is a fascinating, surprisingly restrained debut season. The world may not need another serial killer drama, but this one justifies its existence not only by being so good, but by showing the foundation so many others have been built upon.
The music sometimes just sums up the feeling of the whole episode, or sometimes points towards a certain aspect that will become important later. The soundtracks were chosen very carefully, to keep in sync with the tone of the episodes. With the next season, the style of music will change accordingly. Since Atlanta child murders will be at the focus, be ready to have some Afro-American music echoing in the end.
By the end of the season, Nancy has fled their home with Brian in tow. With a broken family and an increasingly distant adoptive mother, all the signs are pointing towards Brian going down the same route as many of the serial killers his father interviews.
Even if Netflix is becoming notorious for killing off shows after two seasons, I find it unlikely that Mindhunter will find itself on the chopping block and unable to finish on its own time with another season or two. Mindhunter is easily one of the best shot, best written, best acted shows on Netflix, a level of quality that they should be dying to hold onto. Everyone has their own list of the best shows on Netflix these days, but for me, Mindhunter is easily top five, possibly top three, across the entire service.
The latest news arrived in February 2023, with Fincher telling French publication Le Journal du Dimanche that while he's "very proud of the first two seasons", the cost of the show means a third season isn't in the offing, as the viewership was not high enough for Netflix to "justify such an investment".
But what else has been said about the potential for more Mindhunter? Read on for everything we know so far about whether Mindhunter season 3 will actually happen, potential release dates and cast news.
With David Fincher having been busy with Mank and animated series Love, Death and Robots, it didn't look as if Mindhunter season 3 will be gracing our screens in the near future despite The Hollywood Reporter's reports that Fincher had five seasons of the series mapped out.
The latest news on the state of the series came in 2023, with Fincher speaking about it in an interview with French publication Le Journal du Dimanche. Translated from the French, Fincher seemed particularly certain that a third season wasn't in the offing, because of the budget needed for the series and comparatively low viewership.
Other potential returnees include Stacey Roca as Bill's wife Nancy Tench (Roca was promoted to series regular for season two), Joe Tuttle as Greg Smith (likewise promoted) and Michael Cerveris as Ted Gunn, the new overseer of the Behavioral Science Unit.
Great joy tends to come with great sacrifice, and such is the case for next month's coming and going from Netflix list. (Maybe that's a little melodramatic, but this is TV we're talking about.) While we're excited October comes with the highly anticipated second season of Stranger Things, we wish a tearful goodbye to all (yes, all) seasons of some of our favorite shows, including 30 Rock and One Tree Hill. 041b061a72