Mindhunter ended six years ago, yet consistently since then, fans have been begging for a third season of the thriller. Periodically, fan posters pop up on social media about a new season (that doesn’t exist) simply because diehards are desperate for more and want to will one into existence. The outcry has become so loud that executive producer David Fincher had to publicly confirm that the series is done — there’s nothing more to come.
But the urging persisted, so much so that there are talks of resurrecting the series in the form of follow-up movies. What’s the big deal about Mindhunter, and why do fans want so badly for a new season to be made? It comes down to a mix of our obsession with true crime, the compelling nature of the show and its focus on the psychology of killers, and the incredible cast that brings it to life.
‘Mindhunter’ Is the Product of Casting Genius
Netflix
Never mind Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv playing the lead characters, three individuals from the newly formed Behavioral Science Unit in the FBI. The real draw of this great Netflix detective series are the actors who play real-life serial killers. Whoever was in charge of casting for this show should have won an Emmy, because it’s downright brilliant. Not only do these actors resemble the killers they depict, some uncannily so, it’s also as though they spent months observing footage, analyzing vocal inflections, mannerisms, and motivations, to fully emulate them.
A few standouts are Cameron Britton as the sick and twisted killer Edmund Kemper and Damon Herriman as Charles Manson. You almost feel like these two killers are on-screen, really meeting with the men who finally coined the term to describe what they do and who they are. You have a window into this archival footage, except it’s not.
With that said, Groff, McCallany, and Torv are worth celebrating as well. Groff is at the center as special agent Holden Ford, who pushes his department to let him meet and talk to these terrifying killers in jail. He wants to pick their brains to figure out why they do what they do. Through his conversations, he learns what makes these killers tick and recognizes that there’s something different about these people. They aren’t your run-of-the-mill shooters, stabbers, or even rapists. There’s something inherently psychological to their motivations, a deep-seated reasoning and compulsion that drives them to do what they do for reasons beyond just a thrill.
It’s deeply fascinating, eerily disturbing, and fantastically acted. With Fincher’s track record with similarly dark and twisted movies and shows like Zodiac, Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and Love, Death & Robots, it’s no surprise the series feels like a movie. Either way, the casting across the board allows for storytelling that draws you in, sending shivers down your spine.
‘Mindhunter’ Is Based On a Real Story
Netflix
What makes Mindhunter even more fascinating is that it’s based on a true story about the origins of a now popular term and of a way of studying criminals we take for granted today as having always been just part of police work. Back in the 1970s, the term “serial killer” wasn’t part of the vernacular. If someone killed multiple people, they were simply a murderer, or a repeat killer. On the show, Holden Ford and Bill Tench (McCallany) worked together to determine that there was something different about a specific subset of killers. They formed the term serial killer to describe them and worked with psychiatrist Wendy Carr (Torv) to figure out how to tap into them and use their sickness as a way to find others like them. At least that’s how it goes in the series. But it’s largely like how it went in real life, too.
Ford is loosely based on real-life FBI agent John E. Douglas, while the show is based on his nonfiction crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit. Douglas is credited as being one of the first criminal profilers who worked in the BSU in 1977. He taught hostage negotiation and applied criminal psychology, and created and managed the Criminal Profiling Program, which went on to become the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). He was integral in determining that, to study serial killers, the best person to ask about it was the perpetrators themselves. This tactic, of course, has been used in pop culture and real life since, from Silence of the Lambs to complex interrogations of modern-day killers.
Douglas did indeed interview many serial killers through his time, including David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Edmund Kemper, and others. His profiling helped convict people like Robert Hansen, known as the Butcher Baker, his analysis even rightfully predicting that the killer would have a stutter. According to The Telegraph, Douglas’ interview with Bundy helped police arrest the man known as the Green River Killer. Douglas is a brilliant mind who Groff portrayed well, even if the story takes some creative liberties.
Tench, meanwhile, is based on Robert K. Ressler. The FBI agent is widely credited with coining the term serial killer, though its origins stem back to 1930 by Ernst Gennat, who used the term Serienmörder, a direct translation. Recruited to work in the BSU in 1970, he eventually worked alongside Douglas to coordinate interviews with 36 serial killers, looking to better understand their motivations and what their backgrounds might have in common. Most notably, he helped set up Vi-CAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program), which centralized data on unsolved homicides from across the U.S. This database has become instrumental in tying murders together from different states that would otherwise not have been possible. Some of the cases he worked on throughout his career include Jeffrey Dahmer, Bundy, Richard Chase, John Joubert, and Montie Rissell.
Carr is a fictional character added to the show, though she’s based on psychiatric forensic nurse researcher Ann Wolbert Burgess, who did indeed collaborate with the FBI BSU to research serial killers and child molesters. Burgess was also recently the subject of her own Hulu documentary. Currently working as a professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing in Boston, she consulted for Douglas and Ressler, helping them develop modern profiling techniques for serial killers. While her research had historically been with victims of rape, they wanted to flip the script and use her strategies to question the perpetrators. Her motivation in assisting, she has said since, was to ensure that the work with the killers would indirectly help victims.
Along with the fascinating real stories behind the characters they’re based on, blowing viewers away even more is the knowledge that conversations Ford has with these killers in prison on the show are based on real interviews with the killers themselves, using actual transcripts, so some dialogue is word-for-word. Considering how graphic and disturbing some of these exchanges are, easily making your skin crawl, that adds to the authenticity of the show. The entire story as it plays out in the show might not be exactly as in real life. But the basis behind it, and the main characters and killers, are rooted in truth. That’s a large part of why fans can’t get enough. It’s admittedly a bit of a morbid fascination.
We Crave More to Understand
Netflix
So, why are we so obsessed with Mindhunter? Just as Douglas, Ressler, and Burgess became fascinated with the psyches of these killers, we are intrigued with the idea of learning more about what makes them tick and do the heinous things they do. Understanding doesn’t make what they do better, but it helps us tap into their need for justification and motivation, the warped senses of reality in which they live. There’s no sympathy for these killers, but there is a sense of wonder, a questioning of nature versus nurture, the effects of one’s upbringing, and what can truly make a person snap.
Each conversation leaves us questioning if everyone has the capacity to do such evil things. Is life circumstance all it takes to drive someone — anyone — to such negative thoughts or actions? Is it strictly related to an anomaly in the brain? Maybe it’s a mix. Listening to the stories of these killers, many though not all of whom come from fractured families, sparks conversation, thoughtful debate, and raises questions about human nature. Mindhunter is not about the murders, the victims, even the graphic nature of the crimes. It’s about the psychology behind them. That’s what gripped viewers from the start right through to the end of the two-season series. And that’s what has fans wanting more.
What’s Next For ‘Mindhunter?’
Netflix
Despite Fincher’s definitive “nos” in the past, it seems there could be a chance to resurrect the popular series after all. McCallany noted during an interview about his show The Waterfront (which has since been canceled) that he met with Fincher and was told that there’s a chance the show could come back as three two-hour movies. He added that writers are working on it, but if Fincher isn’t happy with the scripts, it won’t happen. Charlize Theron, who is also counted as a producer, says the decision to bring Mindhunter back lies in Fincher’s hands.
Thus, it’s possible the show could return, diving into new cases that occurred in real life after the timeline in Season 2. In that season, the story follows an ADT serviceman who is suspected to be, and it’s later revealed to be the BTK killer. The season takes place in 1980 and 1981, so there’s so much more to cover beyond those years, like Gary Ridgway (The Green River Killer), Doug Clark (The Hollywood Ripper), Dahmer, Gary Ray Bowles (The I-95 Killer), and more. Sadly, there’s no shortage of options to consider.
This is in large part why fans were so puzzled at Mindhunter’s cancellation. The show has so much more material to work with, all of which ties back to what happened in real life. Fincher has noted that the show’s cancellation came due to budgetary constraints. They were unwilling to deviate from the original vision of the show, which would have come with a high price tag Netflix wasn’t willing to support.
However, based on fan desires, it’s a given that if there’s a Mindhunter Season 3, or a Mindhunter movie, people will be lined up to see it. So please, give us true crime fans what we want and bring it back. Our obsession goes far beyond just entertainment. The show satisfies a psychological need to understand why these types of killers do what they do, and helps us learn more about the brilliance of the team that first tried to make sense of it. Stream Mindhunter on Netflix.
mindhunter-tv-poster.jpg
Release Date
2017 – 2019
Showrunner
Joe Penhall
Writers
Joe Penhall
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