Apr 10, 2024
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Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide
Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide
Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide
Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide
Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide
MINDHUNTER
Another Netflix series with David Fincher’s fingerprints all over it is as safe (and enticing) as Sex Panther cologne—it’s got bits of real production value in it, so you know it’s good. If you’ve ever Wikipedia’d the difference between yams and sweet potatoes and 45 minutes later find yourself sucked down a rabbit hole thumbing through crime scene photos from the Zodiac murders, then MINDHUNTER is for you. It’s smart enough, and the pacing from episode to episode is spot on. The acting gives you goosebumps, particularly on account of how well these real life monsters of the not-so-distant past are reanimated.
The show’s entertaining first season tracks the whereabouts of two FBI detectives in the 70s as they criss cross the country to speak with the era’s most sadistic rapists and murderers. On a tiny town tour from the likes of Salem, Oregon to Altoona, Pennsylvania we follow partners Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff, Frozen) and Bill Tensch (Holt McCallany, who had like one scene in Fight Club). They are on a quest to uncover some kind of a motive for the emergence of brutal and repeated incidents of Manson-level violence. Their methods are as distinct from each other as the conclusions they draw about their subjects’ extremely deviant behavior. Although they can’t capture the lighting in a bottle of True Detective's Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, it’s still pretty fun.
The real novelty of this first season and what makes it stick for me is that it turns the modern crime drama on its head. Today’s audience is smart. They know that everyone’s a suspect, especially the guy who just happened to find the body or willingly went down to the station house for questioning because he’s got nothing to hide. But back in the 70s before serial killers were even a thing, it was anathema to the police to think anyone in their community was truly capable of heinous violence. They couldn’t spot the warning signs.
MINDHUNTER’s magic lies in those little moments where you zig and it zags. You see what’s really going on and get a fictional front row seat to the drama as the detectives and local cops play catch up. The escalation of this crackling suspense keeps you engaged. And in brief scenes before each episode’s visually stimulating intro, they are laying the groundwork for a promising second season showdown between the FBI and the BTK (that’s bind-torture-kill) Killer.
Be forwarned: the cast is white and male dominated. I did really enjoy Anna Torv’s portrayal of Dr. Wendy Carr—a sharp, deadpan clinical research psychologist and lesbian who actually insists on being called “doctor.” Her presence on the FBI team and that side storyline with the can of tuna, they have a lot of potential. But Hannah Gross’s Debbie character seems pretty one-dimensional as Holden’s withdrawn grad student girlfriend. And there was, what, one scene with a black person?
At first you think, oh yeah well that makes sense, because it was the 70s… man, we’ve come so far! Then you look at Game of Thrones and realize that in 2017 Winter is still here. Already renewed for a second season, my hope for the next flight of episodes is an influx of creative, diverse talent and a continuation of what proves a captivating storyline.