Netflix Psychological Crime Thriller Series Will Leave You Wanting More In The Worst Kind Of Way

Mindhunter is a psychological crime thriller based on the very real and similarly named John Douglas-written true crime book, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit. While Special Agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) are loosely based on real-life investigators John E. Douglas and Robert K. Kessler, the series masterfully blends fact and fiction to tell the story about how the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit came to be. Holden and Bill are joined by a psychology professor named Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), who is loosely based on Ann Wolbert Burgess, a psychiatric forensic nurse researcher who works for Boston College.

There’s no doubt in my mind that a substantial amount of creative liberties were taken to make Mindhunter as compelling of a series as it could possibly be, but it’s the kernels of truth that are folded into the narrative that make it a flawless series nonetheless.

Throughout Mindhunter’s two-season run, Special Agent Holden Ford becomes obsessed with learning about the minds of the nation’s most notorious serial killers, and he does so by interviewing the likes of Edmund Kemper (brilliantly portrayed by Cameron Britton), Charles Manson (Damon Herriman), and David Berkowitz (Olive Cooper), to name a few. Whatever artistic license was used to create fictional analogs to the real-life Special Agents depicted in Mindhunter can be forgiven because the interviews that take place in each episode are lifted, nearly verbatim, from the actual real-life transcripts.

As Holden, Bill, and Wendy attempt to perfect what would ultimately end up becoming the measuring stick for all future violent criminal profiling (like the kind you see used in Criminal Minds), they get involved in active investigations to field-test the intel they gather from Holden’s troubling interviews. While the primary focus of season 2 involves an active and ongoing investigation of Wayne Williams (Christopher Livingston), a suspected serial killer who was active in the Atlanta area during the early ’80s, another story emerges that focuses on Dennis Rader (Sonny Valicenti), more commonly referred to as the BTK killer.

What truly sets Mindhunter apart from other crime thriller series is Bill Tench’s family dynamic as he reluctantly follows Holden from state to state, training local precincts how to properly profile criminals during their day-to-day operations. Holden may be a lone wolf with nothing to lose, but Bill is a family man who has trouble separating his work from his home-life. The contrast between Holden’s singular obsession and Bill’s familial obligations becomes apparent, causing a healthy amount of complications as if there wasn’t already enough at stake.

GFR SCORE

Leaving us with an epic season 2 cliffhanger, both Netflix and David Fincher have confirmed that Mindhunter will not see a renewal after years of hinting at a possible third season. As disappointing as this fact may be, the series is rooted enough in reality for you to pick up some literature (or listen to some podcasts) about the investigations that are portrayed in the series, and that can give you some sense of closure. So if you’re really wondering how things turn out for everybody involved, all you have to do is fire up Netflix and indulge in the true crime documentaries that dive into the same subject matter explored within the series.