Written by Daryn Kirscht
David Fincher’s episodic adaptation of John Douglas’ and Mark Olshaker’s crime novel Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit debuted its sophomore season on Netflix. The first season was critically acclaimed, earning numerous accolades most notably a Primetime Emmy nomination to Cameron Britton (portraying Ed Kemper) for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
As for this new season’s premiere, Kemper is only mentioned in regards to our main trio of characters: the daring, yet recovering Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), the street smart, business-as-usual Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), and brains of the operation, Wendy Carr (Anna Torv).
The Mindhunter Season 2 Premiere is mostly a table setting episode, which easily could be a boring, filler episode, but the brilliance and expertise of David Fincher (alongside teleplay writer Courtenay Miles) brings the most out of an intriguing episode. Fincher’s signature style of mature dialogue, noir-esque lighting, and crafting tension in scenes containing either minor and major importance to the plot “make” instead of “break” this premiere.
The acting in this episode is phenomenal. Yes, they have a well-written, dialogue-friendly script to work from as well as a top-notch director in the business guiding them, but the actors really come to play in this episode. The most fascinating to watch is the new Unit Director, Ted Gunn (Michael Cerveris). He brings forth an inquisitive energy to his scenes that could have easily gone the other way.
This is not a perfect episode, but with this much great material from not-so-much plot happening (and an appearance from Charles Manson waiting in the wings), I can only imagine what is yet to come this season.
Rating: 8.5/10
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