‘Mindhunter’ is Mesmerising

Netflix continues to feed a frightful fascination in ‘Mindhunter’ (2017). The streaming behemoth’s latest in the wake of true crime drama successes ‘Making a Murderer’ (2015) and ‘The Keepers’ (2017).

Ditching the documentary for a binge-worthy drama series starring Johnathan Groff, Holt McCallany and Anna Torv (‘Fringe’), ‘Mindhunter’ delves into the psyche of some of America’s most notorious serial killers while weaving a spellbinding FBI story sure to leave you Google’ing deep into the terrifying night.

Introducing audiences to the inner workings of the murderous minds of Edmund Kemper, Jerry Brudos, Richard Speck and Monte Rissell while teasing the ascent of Dennis Rader, the 10-episode series follows the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit’s special agents Ford and Tench who travel through America interviewing the country’s worst of worst.

Set in 1977 and based on John E Douglas and Mike Olshaker’s true crime book ‘Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit’, the Joe Penhall series pulls both its serial killers and its investigative team from history.

With Ford, Tench and Torv’s Dr Wendy Carr loosely based on real life FBI agents Douglas and Robert K Ressler as well as psychology professor Dr Anne Wolbert Burgess, ‘Mindhunter’ walks us through the beginnings of criminal psychology and profiling at the FBI.

Paying close attention to physical resemblance while using dialogue from actual prison interviews (watch some of these on YouTube – they’re chilling), ‘Mindhunter’s’ play for realism is both physical and archival while its protagonists’ compelling side stories add a much-needed human element to all the grisly.

Intriguing, repulsive and oddly familiar in terms of the continued attitudes towards women, be it with regard to violence or negative assumptions about the solo bar-goer, the unmarried or even the jumpsuit wearing, the series, though occasionally veering into rogue-officers-constantly-being-chewed-out-by-their-boss terrain, is surprisingly multifaceted.

Tune into this if you, like Groff’s agent Ford, are oddly fascinated by the most depraved of human beings; their psychology, their deeds and their lack of remorse.

The crimes are gruesome but rarely depicted.

Psychology takes centre stage and is horrifying in its banality.

David Fincher (‘Fight Club’, ‘Seven’, ‘Gone Girl’) directs four of the 10 episodes and the arch, creeping horror and performances are borderline perfect, expertly directed and completely mesmerising.

‘Mindhunter’ (2017) premiered on 13 October and is now streaming on netflix.com.

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