Netflix’s new crime series will give you the creeps

OBSESSED with the psychology of the most depraved criminals? You’ll love this new Netflix series.

MINDHUNTER has the advantage that any project involving director David Fincher will have the fanboys and cinephiles flocking. Thankfully, it doesn’t disappoint.

The new 10-episode Netflix crime series drops on the streaming platform tonight and if you were a fan of Zodiac or Seven, you’ll find a lot of similarities in Mindhunter. It’s almost like an extended, more reflective TV version.

Executive produced by Charlize Theron and based on real-life FBI pioneers John R. Douglas and Robert Ressler’s book, Mindhunter follows two agents during the 1970s as they probed the psychology behind serial killers. Douglas was the basis for Scott Glenn’s character in Silence of the Lambs.

It’s 1977 and the US is reeling from the murders of Son of Sam, a notorious serial killer who killed for no discernible reason. Until then, most killings had a clear motive – a personal vendetta or greed. But the likes of Son of Sam and Charles Manson were game-changers. It pointed to a pathology that law enforcement couldn’t understand.

Agents on a crusade.

FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) manage to carve out a side project for themselves, travelling around the country to local police stations, talking to sceptical cops about deeper reasons behind why some people do what they do.

The most chilling aspect is when Ford and Tench decide that to understand how depravity works, they have to go and speak to the depraved.

These scenes will make your spine crawl.

Ford is earnest and young while Tench is wizened and experienced – the two are a good balance.

Early on in the first episode, two characters talk about the social upheaval of the proceeding 15 years, including the Kennedy assassination, Kent State and Vietnam. They wonder if democracy was failing and if that accounted for these “new” kinds of crimes.

It was the dawn of criminology and behavioural psychology, two fields the old-school FBI establishment didn’t want to know about. It’s easier to believe that some people are just “born evil”; no one wants to humanise Manson by linking his crimes to his childhood abuse.

Creepazoid. (Merrick Morton/Netflix via AP)

Beautifully composed and tensely paced, Mindhunter is darkly addictive. The show deals with more than a few disturbing concepts and cases – those with a weaker constitution for such grim matters may find the stark details a little challenging to bear.

But don’t think it’s all about gore and blood, Mindhunter is surprisingly cerebral at times and a lot of it is people sitting around and talking.

Fincher was responsible for launching Netflix’s first gamble in original content by serving as executive producer and directing the debut episodes of House of Cards in 2013. Mindhunter is the only other TV project he’s worked on.

The first two episodes have his marks all over it, from the contemplative pacing to the textured aesthetic – it has the look of an expensive production. Even though he won’t direct the rest of the season, he’s set the template for the series.

Mindhunter may be set 40 years ago but there are unsettling parallels to our own era, and anyone who’s been lapping up all the true crime or Scandi-crime stories in recent times will certainly binge their way through this.

Mindhunter is available to stream on Netflix now.

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