User Reviews

I've watched both seasons, the last one in three days. With the teaser(S) at the end of Season Two, there has to be a third season. Why? Well, I will explain:

First, this series is solid because of the acting across the board. I hadn't noticed in season one, but two of my favorites from the "Fringe" series are here: Anna Torv and Michael Cerveris. The others, particularly Groff (Holden Ford) and McCallany (Tench) are great as the FBI agents who founded the unit.

Second, the writing is wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the interview with Charles Manson, as well as the other "serial" killers. The writing staff is superb in the way they have taken characters from our collective consciences and given then a character we begin the understand.

Third, there are too many shoes left to drop: What is going to happen with Wendy (Torv)? What is Tench going to do about his son? What is Ford going to do? And what about this one guy with a mask we have seen throughout this season??

I could go on and on, but Netflix has an obligation to us to bring some sense of closure to this series and it can't be left hanging like this. Come on Netflix; announce the third season coming in 2020!

Season 2 ground to a halt somewhere in the middle and never started, again. I was very disappointed. If it had been titled "Wendy's Broken Romance" or "Bill Tench's Crazy Kid" I wouldn't have watched it. They made BTK the central focus of the season, right from the outset, and then just let it fall. The Atlanta child murders, as heinous as they were, were introduced to the viewers under what seemed like a side plot and then quickly evolved into the main plot of the show, but then they dragged it out so long, had it been a rope, it would have snapped early on. They ultimately told very little story, very slowly, and with unnecessary side plots cluttering the whole bit. That's not even to mention the practical absence of the awesome serial killer interactions from season one. They did do a few interviews, but very few, and at least half weren't even conducted by Bill and Holden, and the ones Bill was involved in were corrupted by his rage at his unfortunate family situation which obviously distracted him throughout, and ultimately made the interview segments devolve down to the level of side plots when those segments were a principal factor in making season 1 as great as it was. It wasn't good. If I had known how it was to be handled, I'd have banked season 2 so that I could watch it and season 3 back to back. Watching season 2 by itself felt like a real non-starter. For what it's worth, I've already seen some compelling depictions of the madman that was BTK. I could just go watch those again.

The story of the FBI's Behavioural Science Unit, which apparently invented the term 'serial killer' back in the seventies. They start off interviewing all the hi-profile serial killers in jail, and we get to witness the mind games between a hard-bitten, chainsmoking career cop, an earnest rookie, and people like Charlie Manson, etc. These are the best bits, but once Dr. Evil from Aus**n P*wers joins the team, it starts to go off the boil.

Naturally there are girlfriends, wives, children but we know why you're here. you're sick of watching cheap serial killer documentaries on the Fr**V**w channels. What you want is authenticity.

The depiction of years gone by is quite subtle and the US-wide location jumps are interesting (together with the vintage airline stuff, cigarettes and all). Gratuitous sex scenes which add nothing to the story, dozens and dozens of vintage cars (30+ drivers in the credits) for which they must have trawled all the USA's vintage car clubs when the film unit came to town.

Drama? Character? Well, the actors do their best I suppose, but by the middle ofseason 2 Mindhunter gets completely bogged down in the Atlanta Child Murderer case. Completely. One of the main characters (Doctor Wendy) is just forgotten about. It really does bring home the tedium of police work. For several episdodes. Don't expect any variety or suspense after they go to Atlanta; it gets stuck in Serial Killer Procedureville and becomes just another cop soap, updated with gay and racial themes.

Worth a look, but bingeing is not recommended.

I object! Throughout the two seasons, there are snippets of a guy wearing a girdle and a mask doing creepy things with a doorknob-- WHAT IS HIS DEAL??? Why does the show not follow through on this? I'm very upset about it. Season 3, guys! And Tench's wife and creepy adopted son-- GONE? Not even a note? There's another season 3. What the hell.

I liked the idea behind season 1 of getting into the minds of serial killers to find more serial killers. Season 2 started out as a continuation of that then jumps off into way too many directions.

It starts with them forgetting the main characters subplot of having panic attacks that affect his ability to do his job (they forget about it entirely halfway through the season).

Then it jumps to the 2nd subplot of the older agent (Agent Tench) and his future serial killer son and nonsupporting home maker wife that drags on scenes that you get tired of watching very quickly as it adds nothing to the story what so ever.

The third subplot which is even less needed is the lesbian love life of Dr. Carr. In this season she falls for a woman who is basically the female version of a male loser. Her relationship is full of pointless boring scenes only there to remind the audience that one of the characters is gay and the show is edgy.

Let me just say this I watched Agent Scully and Mulder go on all kinds of investigations for like 8 years and I don't recall any of the episodes being about either of their love lives. Just their partnership and their work. I don't get why this series has to have all this extra stuff without even establishing the man plot first. It's like the movie has ADD. One scene it's the main story, next scene it's the nagging housewife, next scene the lesbian bartender I mean give us a break and focus on the plot.

The main plot? I thought it was about the BTK killer but it switches to another serial killer named Wayne Williams. Why didn't I like season 2 is mainly because of this story even with the extra stuff thrown in there. Too many racial politics thrown in and stuff that reflects on what still goes on today with the current news and politics so it's really depressing. It seemed to lean away from the plot of meeting serial killers and learning about them to just focusing on one killer that whose story had and unsatisfying ending even worse it's based on real life so it's that much more depressing of a season.

The problem with the main plot is that it's supposed to show that thing FBI's Profiling Program is capable of catching a killer and well most of the episodes are spent with their profiling skills being ignored entirely. If this was a documentary about Wayne Williams it would be well done. If this was a show about the inner workings of serial killers and dissecting their behavior to prevent future crimes it wasn't so great to watch.

This review is specifically geared towards season 2. I have only praise and admiration for season 1 which was superbly executed, well-structured, psychologically probing, fascinating and immensely satisfying in terms of character and plot development. Season 1 is fine television, far better than the usual dreck masquerading as supposed good television.

And that's what season 2 is... basically dreck but done with the right amount of detail, style and execution to allow viewers to feel compelled to watch it even though it is rehashing or rather borrowing blatanly from itself or other television series.

I suppose dreck is a harsh or rather, overly critical word. One should focus on the positives and with the first season and this one, the acting talent remains at a distinct and wonderful level. It was the actors that kept me returning until the last and utterly disappointing final episode. The early episode gave me hope. I loved and welcomed the addition of Ted Gunn, the new head of the Behaviorial Science Unit. Micheal Cerveris played the character with the perfect balance of casual menace and unnerving respect. His character has an obvious agenda and his presence lends the show a daunting and taunting element whereby the characters must both feel supported and uncertain of his intentions. He was the highlight. He breathed his role and his presence on screen made the season matter to me. And yet, his character and many others were unexplored and left dangling in the wind or abandoned to the backseat as other subpar plot took up the viewer's attention.

The returning cast - Jonathon Groff as Agent Ford, Holt McCanally as Tench and Anna Torva as Dr. Wendy Carr - are all excellent. They give great performances, embodying their roles but I felt they too were squandered by bland and less than the inspiring side-stories. For instance, Tench is now faced with an obvious sociopathic son to deal with while his wife, played by Stacey Rocca is becoming consumed in varying bouts of despair, panic and callous helplessness. So many times I felt like Rocca or the screenwriters or both were extracting pages and bland inspiration from the nag-a-minute playbook of Skylar from Breaking Bad, aggravating the viewer with this eye-rollingly dull character. Her screen presence did nothing, her blank stares and minor monologues made me cringe. Also, the son's character bored me. The writers were pounding so hard on my nose with this one - "look, look, you see...the guys who chase serial killers, look... one of them might be raising one at home... whoa... right?" Yawn and pedestrian. Someone shot sublety in the face and expected everyone not to notice or be forgiving.

Then there's Dr. Wendy who is now in a lesbian relationship but oh, bloody hell, they just regurgitated Debbit Mitford, Ford's girlfriend from the previous season but a little more bohemian and less well-educated and played out to the same tune but becoming crap for the viewer. The reason for their breaking up at the end of the season as a result of something Carr overheard the new girlfriend saying to her ex-husband was another dreck moment. It felt telegraphed, less foreshadowed. Meanwhile, there was no chemistry between the two actors. No tension. No sense of risk and beauty. The entire relationship felt fumbled because the two actors were basically hampered with cliches. Lena Olin, the great Swedish actress of Berman fame, played Carr's older lover in the first season and what a presence she brought. Like a dominant mother, you respected and resented her at the same time. In this instance, though the viewer might understand Carr's attraction to someone like Lauren Glazier's Kay Manz, that she is rebelling against type and academia, I couldn't wait for their scenes to be over. The small scenes in the first season where she is attempting to gain connection with a cat in her new building had more heart and depth than the conversation between the doomed relationship.

Under-utilization ... this would be the main theme of the season. The scenes with Ed Kempner and Charles Manson were under-utilized. It felt like this second season began with the temptation to see these individuals again only for them to fall by the way side and be neglected. What was their puprose? They had no relationship with the rest of the season, with the Atlanta child murders. Nothing. Meanwhile, characters like FBI Agents Gregg (Joe Tuttle) and Barney (Albert Jones) were also unexplored. They were basically pawns placed in certain places so the main actors could talk to someone other than themselves. Gregg has a distinct moral compass, a hesitation in him and it was only hinted at. You feel for his character yet are given little else. The same for Barney. Actors who brought a lot and were given little in return.

The reason I loved the first season is that the minor characters, such as the policemen and detectives Ford and Tench encounter during road school grounded the show in a deeper humanity. They brought a context of complexity in their sincerity and bafflement regarding the murders they have trouble solving. This was contrasted with the disgusting humans in jail, those responsible for the heinous crimes.

In this second season, everything is floating and dissolving and while I admire David Fincher's work, it felt like he was trying to rework Zodiac. The Atlanta child murders sequence, when this started to take precedence and one episode left the viewer clinging for the next, I was reminded of Broadchurch. By episode six then seven, then eight, I got so tired of the race card being played. White men in suits are bad and they don't care about inner city kids. And politics and politicians are bad and this is bad and that's bad. Someone should have at least called up David Simon from The Wire and asked him how to handle depicting the multi-racial panorama of a city. His writing staff created true three dimensional character and not once was the moral chess board set up in front of the viewer where they had to feel one emotion for one character and one for another. The mothers grieving for their missing children were cardboard cutouts in this season, characters that basically gave the FBI agents the stink eye. That was it. Or they were sad. Their stories deserved more. Again, under-utilized, under explored.

And the ending, subverting expectations seems to be the theme of 2019. Game of Thrones really miffed fans. Yet this kind of subverting was for me lazy and sloppy storytelling. Basically, you begin the show by trying to borrow a page from the first season, abandon it for boring side stories, throw in some one-dimension racial divide and end with a whimper. Watching this season, I longed to rewatch The Wire. It made wonder if Fincher should return to film but I guess the golden paycheque is keeping him working for the small screen.

If there isn't a season 3 I will make it my mission to become a billionaire and create a season 3, this show needs a season 3, it's my favourite show straight up ever, and it is my favourite piece of media (meaning series, video, or film) ever made, so here is my review:

I usually write reviews starting with the good, and ending with the bad, but there is so little bad about this show, that I think I'll just start off with it to get it out of the way.

The first 2 episodes are very slow, most people who aren't invested in characters, David Finchers work, and/or FBI history, will click off very quickly, and with the addition of the intro being the most action packed scene in the entire series, it kind of feels like clickbait to some extent, as the rest of the series is just people talking in rooms. Also, the character of Holden's girlfriend, Debbie, isn't featured enough in the series to give her any character development. That right there is the absolute worst I can write about this series when I'm being as picky as possible.

Although it does start slow, I wish more series did, it introduced us to the characters of Holden Ford and Bill Tench perfectly, with lines being drawn between both their interests, whilst a very clear difference in their personality and life is shown. Tench is a family Guy, and his interests at the start of the series seem lie with his family and kid. He's just not trying too hard to be noticeable in the hierarchy of the fbi. On the other hand, Holden is a loner for the most part, just starting out his Love life, and in general trying to draw attention to himself and his work. This spilt of personality and goals creates an incredibly real dynamic between the two characters, which is something I can say even I experience in my life. The introverted personality also contrasts with his desire to speak to people (serial killers), whilst also working with as an almost evil side of his life. I think the reason that Debbie's character, and Holden's love life in general isn't shown in any grave detail, it's because it's not part of his work, and his work is his life. Think about it, the only time the audience ever sees Holden and Debbie together is if and when it will hold him back from doing a job. I think this is intentional, and contrasts perfectly with Tench's character having everything about his family on film, as he cares about it, whilst Holden doesn't to the same extent.

The way the characters develop throughout is also interesting, especially when Holdens' work impacts his s3x life (imdb doesn't allow swearing). It all makes a character that is both relatable, at least to my introverted personality, whilst also having loads of room to grow. The way his character, throughout the first series, also grows, not from worse to better, but better to worse, is also something I appreciate throughout the story, as it isn't a style of character development most stories try to focus on. Usually the character development effects the environment around the characters, in this case, the environment effects the character development, which was refreshing. You can most clearly see this during the season 1 finally, where Holden has a panic attack that effects him through most of season 2 as well.

The character that I think is most interesting though, is Wendy. As a gay character in the early 70s, her story is incredibly strange, and as a more masculine personality than most characters are given with the same sexuality, especially on Netflix, it gives an insight on the politics of sexuality during the area. She's an incredibly complex character, with a development arc that's hard grasp, but incredibly entertaining to watch. The fact that she constantly gets hit on by men, also adds a comedic ting to what is a very dark story to begin with, which is brilliant.

The story throughout this series is also the definition of perfection, Fincher somehow made a bunch of people sitting in rooms interesting in The Social Network, and he also did it here. Every conversation is real, and there are no slight acting bumps that hurt the story or feel of the show. This is definitely enhanced by the insane attention to detail throughout the edit by Kirk Baxter as well. Every cut has a meaning, and cutting the scene the basic way with use of all of the coverage only when necessary. The best example of this is the scene with Manson in season 2. We see the majority of the scene from Holden and Tench's POV, looking at Manson, and only see a shot of the two characters together once in the whole scene. This aids the story best and it would have been very easy to use that shot as a crutch. The breaking of the 180 degree rule to create a jarring effect throughout some of the scenes in this show is probably the best implementation I've seen ever.

Now onto cinematography, it's clearly Fincher-esq, with perfect camera movement, character tracking, and realistic lighting, but Erik Messerschmitt somehow managed to make this my second favourite looking piece of media Fincher has done, Mank being my favourite. There's just this sort of spark, that only started when Erik started working with Fincher. The lighting is very Fincher, as normal, but it's toned back to some extent, with slightly less saturation and contrast than most of his media, but delivering the same level of detail and character.

When I first watched this series, other than the initial exploding head, I didn't really think about CGI, but this series, probably had the most VFX of any series ever, the attention to detail of even removing curbs from pavement to make them historically accurate, and every single car scene being filmed on blue/green screen, makes this entire series a masterclass when it comes to computer generated visuals.

I could talk about this series for years, but I think I'm just going to leave it here

Cinematography - 10/10

Editing - 10/10

Story - 10/10

Acting - 10/10

Character Development - 9/10.