The Mindhunter Dossier

Amazing Mindhunter art by Roberta Ingranata

I actually felt bad for Gregg in this scene. I will never, ever listen to those tapes.

“We start wide and move closer and Holden sits down,” said Baxter.”Then we go wide again when Kemper is standing. Now they’re slowly going to get closer together until he’s finally going to be wrapped like an anaconda by this guy. And then he makes a break for it and you’re wide again. That’s the stuff editorially that you’re looking for…slowly tightening the noose in the frame so that it’s in lockstep with the danger.” http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/mindhunter-david-fincher-editor-kirk-baxter-emmys-1201969290/ I really enjoyed this Indiewire interview with Mindhunter editor Kirk Baxter, which reinforces how much effort goes into every detail of this series. Reading it has me all excited for Season 2, which no longer seems like it’s forever away.

Just to keep you in the Mindhunter mood until Season 2 drops--presumably some time in late 2018--here’s the official Netflix Spotify playlist. 

Amazing alternative poster by Tibor Lovas, aka Fourteenlab

Douglas's novel approach emerged from an epiphany. He told her that they would never get rid of the illegal game: "You can not stop us, John, whatever you do. We are that way". That "we are like this" made him think that "there was something inherent, deep in the mind and psyche of the criminal, that pushed him to do things in a certain way. Later, when I began to study the minds and motivations of serial killers, when I began to analyze the crime scenes in search of behavioral clues, I looked for the element or set of elements that made the crime come to light and the criminal, 'who would represent what he was'. At the end I found the term 'signature' to describe that unique element and personal obsession, which remained static.

Netflix’s Mindhunter is Full of Truly Great Cars I think the car wranglers for Mindhunter must have shed a tear when they read this Jalopnik article, which provides a highly entertaining survey of the show’s impressive array of vintage wheels. In other news, I didn’t even know such a thing as a Pinto station wagon even existed. 

FBI guy side eye

How Stephen Shore’s Photographs Inspired Netflix’s Mindhunter Shore’s most well-known series, “Uncommon Places,” offered consistent fodder. The body of work corrals photographs of the town squares, diners, and occasional passersby he came across during a series of road trips in the ’70s, when he was in his twenties. There’s nice connection between Shore’s tendency to drift and the main character of Mindhunter’s own penchant for cross-country travel. The former’s photographs are often titled to include the name of the town where he shot each image; likewise, the occasional title cards that pop up on Mindhunter remind the viewer where a scene is located: “Wichita, Kansas” or “Santa Cruz, California,” for instance.

Images like this one remind me just how much technology and acting prowess it takes to produce a convincing illusion . Also, I just really like this shade of green.

Debbie does not break up with Holden and we don’t really know how far things have gone with her lab partner, and yet I’ve heard far worse invective aimed at her than I’ve heard aimed at the guys here who are, you know, killing and dismembering women. How’s that for today’s #showerthought?  

As someone who spent years reading everything I could find about aberrant behavior in general and murder in particular, I tend to lean toward a more generous interpretation of that interest. Fortunately, so does the show’s creator, David Fincher: "We’re very quick to judge. That should be looked at as a human failing. But I think at its best, people’s interest in true crime is people’s interest in trying to understand why we behave the way that we do."

There's a scene in which Agent Holden Ford, or John Douglas, comes up with the term for "sequence killer" off the top of his head. Were the agents really coming up with this in a vacuum?  Ann Burgess: They were just tossing the terms around. For some reason "serial" caught on more than "sequential." People would make fun of it, like "corn flakes." They had to have some levity in this, because this is pretty tough crime-scene stuff to work with. John came up with the "signature" term, and he would always look for that in the crime scene: What was it in the crime scene that was psychologically motivated? He would really hammer in on that. That was an important part of their learning and teaching.

I’m glad someone out there is doing the important work.

Jonathan Groff on the Principal Wade Storyline: It’s one of my favorite aspects about the show, in regards to this particular storyline, is that it’s very easy to see all sides,” said Groff. “I remember in our rehearsals, it was very important for everybody to understand every side of each argument. I remember David [Fincher] saying that an argument is only interesting when both people are right. In that particular example of the foot tickler, you have a man’s life who is completely devastated and ruined, and I think it’s really heartbreaking, especially when the wife comes off the elevator. But then you also have the simple answer of ‘just stop doing it.

Please interstellar policeman Oh won't you give us a sign Give us a sign that we've reached you With your mind you have ability to form And transmit thought energy far beyond the norm