Sunday, December 01, 2019

Mindhunter 2017-2019 Series 1.








Deep and dark. This is a compelling series now on Netflix streaming based on fact concerning the F.B.I.’s Behavioral Science Unit and the growth of it thanks to 2 of the agents who in the mid 70’s set out to interview and archive the stories of horrendous serial killers. Back then the term was not yet “invented” and we are there when the agents have their ah ha moment and give birth to the now familiar term. The title of the series is a play I think on the very good Michael Mann movie “Manhunter” from 1986 which is an early look at the monster Hannibal Lecter and his serial killing and is much better than the later “Silence Of The Lambs.” The series set in many places around the country, but filmed mostly in West Virginia and Pennsylvania is very talky which might turn off some viewers, but I found it chewy and tangy. The series is also not graphic since none of the murders and crimes are shown which also might be a turn off to all those network crime shows viewers. The horror comes from their interviews with the killers and one of them Edmund Kemper a giant of a monster played by the terrific Cameron Britton is particularly scary.
We get our knowledge from the killers just as the 2 investigators do and occasionally we get a glimpse at some awful evidential photos. Jonathan Groff who is known as a Broadway musical heartthrob and theatre star plays Holden Ford a young and attractive instructor at the F.B.I. headquarters in Quantico Virginia Where he teaches bored young recruits on hostage negotiations. His name brings up two iconic figures for me Holden Caufield and John Ford I might be projecting here, but since this is a project of the director David Fincher and his name is not factual I might not be too far off the mark.
The other agent who is avuncular and opinioned is Bill Tench (another “real” fictionalized character played by Holt McCallany with great relish. The higher ups at the academy are not too happy with the work the two misfit agents are doing but go along with them at least for a while. Into this duo mix comes a young attractive female psychologist Wendy Carr played by Anna Torv who teaches at Boston University and for a while commutes between the two cities as a consultant but at the urging of the assistant director agrees to transfer to the academy on a permanent basis and takes up residence with the two guys in the basement of the building. She also brings with her a huge grant for the work from several foundations and a past. All three of them have pasts and degrees of troubling lives some more than others, which add to the characters having weight and reality. The director David Fincher served as executive producer and directed the first two and last two episodes of season 1 and he is no stranger to dark material. I’m thinking especially of his trio of startling films”Zodiac”, “Se7en” and “Fight Club” all of which have troubled “heroes” and a great sense of place which this series also has. Highly recommended.

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