Mindhunter
BOXSET
Based on actual events, this compelling drama series is set in America in the late 1970s when the FBI was first exploring the potential value of criminal profiling.
Jonathan Groff stars as keen young FBI agent Holden Ford (loosely based on real-life agent John E Douglas whose book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit inspired the series) and
Holt McCallany as his seasoned older colleague Bill Tench who runs the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit, training police officers in criminal psychology.
Together, they begin to interview criminals who have committed several violent crimes in an attempt to understand what motivates them to kill. They are helped in their research by Dr Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), a psychology professor at Boston University who joins them full-time at the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, Virginia. As Ford and Tench travel the country speaking to repeat murderers such as Ed Kemper, the “Co-ed Killer”, and David Berkowitz, AKA Son of Sam, they begin to build up a picture of the kind of person who would commit such crimes and what their triggers might be, eventually inventing the new term “serial killer”.
The subject matter means it’s hard to watch at times, but the series benefits hugely from director David Fincher’s cinematic eye and a high-quality, intelligent script from Joe Penhall. The period detail is beautifully realised and the performances are impressive.