Review: Mindhunter

Language: English (American dialect)

Type: Psychology/Crime

Criminal Minds meets Hannibal and puts all the whodunits at rest as a new, far more alluring genre emerges: the whydunit.

Plot:
Back in the 1970s, when profiling was a controversial new branch in the behavioral unit of the FBI and an uncommon methodology in uncovering cases, agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) alongside psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) were the first to dare break prebuilt ethical walls in the name of general interest: they interviewed incarcerated serial killers in order to understand their psyche in depth, hence creating profiles that allowed them to catch criminals with similar behaviors in the future.
However, their approach was perceived as immoral, for it contradicted social conventions.

Why this show?
Buckle up, you’re in for a a long one.
I’m obsessed with serial killers myself -and before you roll your eyes on me I’d like to explain my reasoning first.
The human brain is -and will always be- an infinite universe in itself. However, cultures, morality and universally deemed acceptable behaviors seem to restrain its capacities, and therefore, a lot remains undiscovered. Though, killing isn’t -and shouldn’t be- something to link with the word « fascinating », the atrocity of twisted minds and sociopathology is, kind of.

In fact, this show deals with the scrutiny of the criminals’ psyche: from their backgrounds to the seemingly irrelevant details that might otherwise go unnoticed but that play a major role in unfolding their intentions.
It’s about the psychological dissection of the human mind -the corrupt ones at least- and it goes beyond physical evidence and eye witnesses, by being a whole new outlook in criminology that had not been precedented at that time. On the contrary, it was met with a great level of skepticism and rejection.
What makes it even better is the that the show is derived from reality; John Douglas (portrayed as Holden Ford) was the FBI agent that wrote a book detailing his professional life and accomplishments then sold the rights to Netflix, which took the liberties to alter some events for dramatization purposes but stayed true to the overall events, including the actual serial killers that were interviewed and the things they said throughout.

Critics:

Rotten tomatoes: 97%

Metacritic: 79%

IMDb: 8,6