I have to admit until they featured Speck I didn’t realize the killers they were talking to were real criminals.
I’m enjoyng it. I love Tench. Fauxlivia 2 is a little too weirdly intense.
ShelliBean!!! Where you been, girl??
Finished the series and loved it. The color palette reminded me of Zodiac, which isn’t a bad thing. I thought that Holden Ford had a little bit of Billy Rosewood in him, at least in the early episodes.
I imagine that many folks here are familiar with the basis of John E. Douglas for Holden, and that he was also the inspiration for Jack Crawford (and also the characters from Hannibal and Criminal Minds).
I’m interested to see where they go, multiple season story arc, with the BTK character, as Ressler and Douglas had both been long retired when he was eventually caught.
Bumping because my wife and I just started watching this over the weekend. Three episodes in and here are my thoughts:
After the first episode, I looked at my wife and said “I like it, but I have no idea where they’re going with it.” I also had one very minor nitpick about a scene early on when Holden’s class gets out and then he is out in the hall listening to the lecture by the guy he goes out to have a beer with. Shouldn’t that guy’s class have also let out at the same time as Holden’s?
Agree about the guy playing the coed killer - his scenes are just fascinating to watch. I’m curious to see how much Holden gets played by him (as Tench has warned).
Another fascinating scene was the one where Holden and Tench were questioning the poor white trash dude who had attacked the two old ladies and their dogs, while the local detective just sat there watching the two of them work. I really liked the way that whole scene was set up and shot.
(As an aside, I kept trying to figure out where I had seen the actor playing the local detective before. I finally realized he was the L.A. detective in the Seinfeld episodes where Kramer was in L.A. and they thought he was a serial killer!)
And yeah Shellibean I did notice the cars, especially the Nova, which I had one very similar to back in college.
Only about 5 episodes in here, but we like it. As noted the guy playing Kemper is spot on. I had never heard of Kemper before before.
What I find odd is that the Wikipedia article used to list BTK as one of the subjects, but he was both 20 years later, and a complete failure of the profiling process. I see the link to Rader has been removed, so does the show mention him?
It does, but it is subtle. Pay attention to the beginning and ending of each episode.
I think you’re right about Rader falling outside the profile. The problem with profiling is that the data comes from relatively cooperative perpatrators who were caught and convicted. The ones who evade capture may not fit that profile so well.
It reminds me of the WWII anecdote about engineers examining returning planes to see where they were hit so they could increase the armor in those sections - until someone pointed out that they should do the opposite, since the aircraft hit in places unscathed in returning planes were the ones that didn’t make it back.
My wife and I just finished this last night. We really enjoyed it. My wife has long been fascinated by serial killers and has read lots of books on the subject. She recognized some of the killers before they were introduced.
The actor who plays Kemper was gripping.
Hannah Gross (Debbie) is so not… gross. I know lots didn’t like the relationship storyline, but I liked seeing how being immersed in all that violence changed the two men. I think that was the point of it. How can one look at a 12-year old girl raped and with her head smashed in and not be changed somehow? And that last case was among the more mild.
The principal tickling kids’ feet was the most unsettling story they followed, and the most obviously NOT an FBI matter. Was that story based on real events? It seems to me that the school superintendent should have been able simple to tell the principal to knock it off and, if he persisted in tickling, fire him for insubordination. I thought the problem was solvable without FBI involvement.
We’re only up to the episode that ended with the principal about to be fired. I thought it was an interesting way to end the episode, that Holden’s theoretical investigation is about to have real consequences. But yes, it should have been handled by the administrator.
I also liked how the meetings with Brudos affected Holden’s sex life, re: the shoes. I’ve always had this feeling that working sex crimes could seriously mess up one’s view of sex. Too much crossover, too close of boundaries between “normal” sex and “deviant” sex.
One thing the study needs is interviews with people who hove fetishes and yet don’t become killers. People who’ve maybe started down the “deviant” path, but then pulled back. What is the difference between the groups? I know this is TV, but I hope the real behavioral sciences group considered these questions.
I applied to be a Special Agent in the FBI, but was never accepted. Watching shows like this, combined with learning about the real FBI, makes me think I got lucky by not being accepted. The FBI really does seem hide bound, stuck in the past. I think I would have hated working there. They don’t seem to value innovation, or “out of the box” thinking.
I binged it over a weekend back in October, and loved it. I especially love the little vignette shown every episode …
which show Dennis Rader (BTK) getting started, developing his pattern, etc. Freakingly-well done, IMHO.
True story: A few weeks ago I was at my barber’s and we were discussing the show and were talking about serial killers. Living in Kansas, we naturally started discussing John E. Robinson and Dennis Rader (BTK). One of the guys in chair finally volunteered that when he was a kid back in the 70s or early 80s, Dennis Rader was their neighbor. I think they may have lived in the same trailer park. He said that Rader was a difficult neighbor, and, in fact, his father (not Rader, but the guy in the barber chair) with a car. His dad had pulled Rader from car and beat the snot out of him.
The really scary part is that his family completely fit the pattern of BTK’s victims: father at work during the day, mom alone at home, etc.
My barber has known this guy for about 20 years and said he knows he had grown up in the Wichita area, and the guy is not known for telling whoppers.
Finally finished with season one. please hurry up with S.2.
Ditto.
Season 2 of Mindhunter dropped Friday. I’ve already binged the whole thing. I won’t post any spoilers yet, so I’ll keep my comments general.
I enjoyed it as much as season 1. This season has a more defined arc to the story. It’s a bigger story than season 1, with a much bigger cast of characters. Tensch (the older FBI partner) and Carr (the psychologist) each have fairly involved subplots involving their personal lives, but the main focus of the show is still on the work.
The show still does a great job with the sets, design, and costumes.
For those who know Anna Torv (“Carr” on this show) from the series Fringe, there is a new recurring cast member who will be familiar!
I watched the entire second season in one night this past weekend. Holt McCallany (Tench) is an good actor who should be more famous than he is.
I love it when they are talking about cases and talking to the killers. I think it really bogs down when we get in to the ‘personal lives’ subplots.
I was looking for the actor who played Manson because I thought he did such a great job. I was shocked to learn it was Damon Herriman!
Dewey Crowe! I had no idea he was Australian until I saw him in the Australian series Secret City, which stars… Anna Torv.
He also portrays Charles Manson in the new Quentin Tarantino movie “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.” I haven’t seen that yet but I believe in the movie he plays Manson in the time leading up to the Tate murders, so 10-12 years younger than in this series.
Same here. We have plenty of general drama shows, let Mindhunter concentrate on work drama.
I like the intersection of Tensch’s personal situation with his understanding of serial killers. It makes sense that personal experience can shape perceptions of other events. For me, the side stories work.
Just finished season 2 over the weekend. It started out good but I felt that it really got bogged down in the Atlanta story and Tench’s family issues. I was hoping that with a new boss who was really trying to get the unit more exposure, that we’d see more in the way of expanding the unit. You know the scene in one of the last couple episodes where AD Gunn is telling Dr. Carr that he needs her to continue with her analysis instead of doing interviews, that they’ll be hiring and training more agents to interview more serial killers? That’s what I wanted to see in season 2!
(Side note: the actor who plays AD Gunn looks like the love child of Ed Harris and Wallace Shawn. :D)
I agree. But I actually wish they’d show more interviews and whatnot with the serial killers too. In fact, can we just have a spin-off series on Ed Kemper? I did enjoy the stuff going on with BTK throughout.
Very mixed feelings about season 2. I love the interviews and the investigation elements, but the fictional personal life stories are distracting and feel “phony” in comparison. The centering the season on the Atlanta killings was a downer because the outcome of that investigation was so unsatisfying. Holden spent most of the season stuck on a few hunches and nothing really pays off.
I think the season’s best moments were early on when he gets drawn into the Atlanta cases – lots of cool period world building and strong character moments from the various figures in Atlanta. But it just bogs down from there.