TV REVIEW: 'Mindhunter' Season 2 raises the bar and makes you think
Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany return as Holden Ford and Bill Tench on Mindhunter, available on Netflix.
They will have to look all over the walls and ceiling for pieces of my brain. Mindhunter, Netflix’s gloomy crime drama, returns after a two-year hiatus with a mind-blowingly good Season 2, this time covering the events of the Atlanta Child Murders from 1979-81. Three directors split duties this season but it’s seamless; the final product is a three-headed beast of David Fincher’s cynical mind, Andrew Dominik’s care for detail and dialogue, and Carl Franklin’s knowledge of racial relations and his unflinching examination of them.
Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) has shined brightly as a pioneer of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSU), but he’s still recovering from a panic attack induced by serial killer Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton, still good in a smaller role). Tensions at the office are high between Ford, his FBI partner, Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), and psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), after a cover-up in Season 1 blew up in their faces. They are saved by their new assistant director, Ted Gunn (Michael Cerveris), who has taken a keener interest in their work than his predecessor, only for the team to find out later he’s much more interested in the results than the means.
The show begins where Season 1 left off, with the fallout from a doctored interview tape with serial killer Richard Speck. Interspliced with scenes of the BTK killer, a subplot that will undoubtedly take center stage in later seasons and perhaps serve as the finale, Holden, Bill and Wendy deal with their new boss and their increasing profile. As their scope widens, arguments concerning the goals and methods of the BSU arise. Gunn believes profiling criminals will yield a promising future, both for the FBI and for themselves, aligning himself mostly with Holden, but also recognizes that Bill and Wendy are key players in making sure the hot-headed Holden doesn’t break any rules.
Season 2 tracks the investigation of the Atlanta Child Murders.
When a series of unsolved murders of young black boys in Atlanta catches Gunn’s attention, he dispatches Holden and Bill to investigate and asks Wendy to build a training program for future criminal profilers. Holden struggles with bureaucratic red tape and the local police, while Bill’s troubles are literally closer to home; his adopted son is witness to a murder and suffers from deep trauma. Wendy, meanwhile, bristles under Gunn’s direction, denouncing their involvement in Atlanta and continues to interview incarcerated serial killers, but with mixed results. Holden was the main subject in Season 1, but it’s Bill and Wendy’s characters who get the forensic treatment in Season 2, probing ideas about sex, identity and relationships from all angles, a feature that has become a signature of the show.
The breakout star for Season 2 is Nancy (Stacey Roca), Bill’s embattled wife who is stuck caring for their traumatized son and forced to confront harsh realities from unfriendly neighbours and an even more unfriendly social worker. There’s so much strength in her performance for a character who is calm on the outside but furiously paddling underneath, and like many female characters on the show, has a lot of agency over her own actions. Wendy is challenged by her girlfriend, Kay (Lauren Glazier), and also has to come to terms with the harsh reality that people – even serial killers – aren’t always who they say they are. In fact, it’s Bill who becomes the least forthcoming character among the main cast.
It would’ve been easy to allow the bureaucracy and a rival police unit be Season 2’s main antagonizing forces, and certainly those elements are present, but Mindhunter elevates itself because there are no dumb characters. Even the ones most distrustful of the BSU acquiesce to their logic and reason, and the result is a compelling show in which everybody pulls in the same direction regardless of their methods.
Atlanta Police Chief Redding (Gareth Williams) could’ve made their lives difficult, but he doesn’t. Mayor Maynard Jackson (Regi Davis) could’ve pulled every political lever to steer the investigation, but his involvement is minimal and resigned to damage control. The concerned mothers of the victims provide a mostly positive force, even though they distrust the white man FBI. It pins the frustration resulting from the investigation on the police work itself rather than on characters who only serve an adversarial purpose, a trope too many murder mysteries follow.
Anna Torv returns as Dr. Wendy Carr.
Without spoiling much, there’s still plenty of material for Mindhunter to move ahead. The BTK killer storyline needs to be wrapped up. More interviews need to be conducted. Holden, Bill and Wendy seem to be heading down diverging paths. The BSU has yet to really move into the national spotlight. If we’re to follow the events of the show chronologically, there’s no shortage of serial killers to hunt, including the West Memphis Three, which was investigated by John E. Douglas, the real-life investigator Holden is based upon.
There is so much care, thought and detail put into the show it’s mesmerizing even on second watch. The era-specific cars, restaurants, technology and social issues is compelling television. This is absolutely Fincher’s doing, whose characters are often investigators, and by extension pays a lot of attention to details in his scenes. It’s why three directors can helm the show but make it feel as one whole. The dialogue is smart and the performances nuanced, and the chemistry between the three leads is a major driving force. No plans for Season 3 have been announced, but Netflix’s home run deserves an extra inning, no matter how many years it takes to realize.
Mindhunter - Season 2 gets four stars out of four.
