We recently learned Netflix may be $20 billion in debt, so good time to drop a trailer for one of the original shows that’s putting them in the hole? It’s “Mindhunter” — not to be confused with Renny Harlin’s ridiculous film “Mindhunters” — and it looks at the FBI’s attempts to study serial killers, see what makes them tick. It tackles the book “Mind Hunter: Inside FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unite,” by author Mark Olshaker and retired agent John E. Douglas, and the spendthrifts over at Netflix have already renewed it for a second season. Whee!
If they had to write a blank check for anything, though, it may as well be this. “Mindhunter” is David Fincher’s latest foray into TV, and though that may elate those who liked his last one, the pilot for “House of Cards,” the real Fincher title they should be thinking of is “Zodiac” — aka, our pick for the greatest film of the aughts. Audiences went in expecting a grisly murder-rama, another “Se7en”; what they got was a three-hour ode to OCD and our very human, and very foolish, need for closure even when there is none. (In other words, no, we will almost certainly never know who the Zodiac killer was.)
“Mindhunter” seems to be in the same wheelhouse. There doesn’t appear to be one investigation. Instead, our heroes — played by Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany and Anna Torv — struggle to get several busted serial killers to talk. They want to know what makes them tick. “How do we get ahead of crazy if we don’t know how crazy thinks?” asks McCallany’s agent, and it’s a worthy question we still don’t entirely know. We’re guessing (or at least hoping) that Fincher’s latest is a deep, unsettling dive into the unknown that will end with more questions posed than answered. Failing that, at least it will look as handsome as all Fincher product.
The show hits Netflix on Oct. 13. Watch the trailer below:
