Mindhunter

Season 1 (2017) (S01) 

After a few annoying disappointments where a third of the plot of a normal feature film happens over six episodes of a series, I needed a reminder that a so-called quality TV series can, in places, defend their format. With this slight bitterness, I was already slightly more critical of Mindhunter, because on a second viewing the unnecessary personal overlaps stand out more, which though they have their importance to the story (the context of Holden and Tench's background, Holden's character transformation, but which appears practically out of nowhere in the last episode), but it is clear that they were mainly due to the show's inclusion of female, or rather queer, characters (the prefiguring of Dr. Carr; Ann Burgess is not a lesbian by the way). It's with Dr. Carr in particular that it rankles that the typecast and first-rate Anna Torv is essentially an alibi woman who serves the plot only to patronize or chastise the two protagonists upon their return from the field. But the rest of the series is otherwise a really first-rate and patient concept that doesn't try to hide its fascination with evil and the dark post-Manson 1970s zeitgeist, for which I have a particular fondness. The dialogue and performances of the killers it features are a total masterclass, and I keep coming back to the scenes with Edmund Kemper in particular with the passion of the main hero. To the point of making me a little nervous. (06/09/2021)