SERIES PREMIERE: David Fincher, who helped make Netflix’s reputation in the original drama series arena by directing the first few episodes and co-executive producing
House of Cards, does the same thing here, returning to Netflix to helm the first few installments of
Mindhunter. Created by Joe Penhall,
Mindhunter is set in the late 1970s, and dramatizes the formation of the FBI’s profiler unit – and how two agents in particular, played by Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, combined forces to convince their boss that talking to imprisoned mass murderers, to learn about their pasts and motives, wasn’t a waste of time, but a valuable tool in understanding and identifying future killers. Fincher’s direction is crisp, and once the first killer shows up for a chat – the real-life “Co-Ed Killer,” played by Cameron Britton, pictured –
Mindhunter gets creepy and compelling, immediately. For my review on NPR’s
Fresh Air with Terry Gross, visit the Fresh Air website. And for full reviews by TVWW columnists,
see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower and
Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes.