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[g11]

Shotgunned the entire series over the weekend. The vibe is exactly that of Zodiac but arguably more tense. The interviews with Edmund were just chilling at times. Generally I don't care for the family/home life scenes in a series like this as it's the subject matter and not so much the toll it takes on the characters that interests me, but Mindhunter found a decent balance with it. The evolution of Holden wasn't as seamless and subtle as I would have liked. He got too cocky too quick for what his personality would suggest, to me at least.

Spoiler

The principal subplot was great though. It served the dual purposes of elucidating Holden's growing confidence to overconfidence and narcissism while also making you question of he's seeing a boogeyman where there is none, or if his methodology is actually working. It walked the line very finely to the point that I honestly now don't know in my mind if that principal was just a little bit weird but harmless, or a potential abuser in early stages. Clearly Holden poked his nose in where he probably shouldn't have, but the fact that the principal had so much conviction about it being his right to tickle kid's feet and give them money for it despite the parents wishes, it makes it hard not to assume the worst and that if there wasn't something inherently sexual about it, it could go that way eventually.

Between Mindhunters and Ozarks, Netflix is looking really good in 2017 with their new stuff.

 

[Arrogant Bastard]

Wife and I just binge watched the sass on today, crazy good show. Any idea on how long till S2?

 

[ShaneB]

Just finished. Fantastic stuff.

Realized that I've had the book on my kobo for longer than I remember. Maybe I'll have to read it finally.

 

[Tsukumo]

Just finished. Fantastic stuff.

Realized that I've had the book on my kobo for longer than I remember. Maybe I'll have to read it finally.

The book is more shocking than the show, mind you.
I read it fifteen years ago and I still remember it vividly.

 

[Timeaisis]

Just finished episode 7. Really like this show. I kind of wish there were more... Well crime. But the charcters are interesting enough to keep it intriguing all the way through.

The actor who plays Bill is fantastic.

 

[jerry113]

Anna Torv can't get away from these FBI roles can she? Not that I'm complaining. She's terrific.

 

[Karak]

Jezuz christ. Ep 1 was sort of slow but since then its just rolling

 

[therealminime]

The fellow playing Ed Kemper did such a good job.

 

[Merchandise]

K I'm done and I noticed I only paid 70% attention because

Spoiler

who the hell is the guy they keep showing from Kansas? The one who shows up almost exclusively in pre-credits sequences or at the very end? He was weird about electrical tape as well. Who is he? Was he a major character I missed? Like...

 

[kirblar]

K I'm done and I noticed I only paid 70% attention because

Spoiler

who the hell is the guy they keep showing from Kansas? The one who shows up almost exclusively in pre-credits sequences or at the very end? He was weird about electrical tape as well. Who is he? Was he a major character I missed? Like...

"spoilers" (since it's a real case)

Spoiler

It's the BTK Killer, who was only caught in 2005, his story appears to be planned to stretch the life of the series.

 

[forrest]

Just watched Zodiac again tonight as I love the movie and the trailer for this aired after. Looked really promising. Didn't know Fincher was involved until seeing this thread. Will check it out now for sure!

 

[therealminime]

I think my only major problem with the show is that I just really don't like Holden at all. There's a lot more of him and a lot less of Bill in the last few episodes and I just don't find anything about his character or performance compelling. Bill though, he is much more interesting to me and the show seemed to start to care less about him as it went on which was a real bummer.

 

[kirblar]

I think my only major problem with the show is that I just really don't like Holden at all. There's a lot more of him and a lot less of Bill in the last few episodes and I just don't find anything about his character or performance compelling. Bill though, he is much more interesting to me and the show seemed to start to care less about him as it went on which was a real bummer.

I would agree, I like the character but you're just cringing hard through the last few eps and the story isn't letting you escape to any other characters.

 

[Jarmel]

Holy shit the last few episodes came together in a great way. After the final batch of episodes nobody should be criticizing Jonathan Groff's acting. He fucking nailed Holden's transition.

 

[Einchy]

Holy shit the last few episodes came together in a great way. After the final batch of episodes nobody should be criticizing Jonathan Groff's acting. He fucking nailed Holden's transition.

Full season.

Spoiler

I love how you can slowly see him becoming more and more fucked up as the season progresses. That "eight ripe cunts" isn't even surprising when he saids it.

 

[metalslimer]

I agree Bill is the more interesting character but I thought Groff did a pretty good job portraying Holden. I wanted more Torv personally though

 

[Jarmel]

What's great about Holden's development is that you can see it from the very beginning of the series. It's such a natural progression for his character.

Also Groff did an stellar job with Holden's body language. When he walks down the hallway at the end to meet Kemper, it's completely different from when he initially talked to Kemper. He has a swagger to him now.

 

[duckroll]

What's great about Holden's development is that you can see it from the very beginning of the series. It's such a natural progression for his character.

Also Groff did an stellar job with Holden's body language. When he walks down the hallway at the end to meet Kemper, it's completely different from when he initially talked to Kemper. He has a swagger to him now.

The swagger started with the camerawork when he was setting up the interrogation in the final episode. Lol. That was so deliberately showy and unsubtle coming from Fincher.

 

[Jarmel]

The swagger started with the camerawork when he was setting up the interrogation in the final episode. Lol. That was so deliberately showy and unsubtle coming from Fincher.

Oh of course. School was in session. It's just the final one parallels with Holden entering the prison for the first time.

 

[kirblar]

What's great about Holden's development is that you can see it from the very beginning of the series. It's such a natural progression for his character.

Also Groff did an stellar job with Holden's body language. When he walks down the hallway at the end to meet Kemper, it's completely different from when he initially talked to Kemper. He has a swagger to him now.

One consistent thing that doesn't change- Holden never gets better at teaching. He'll be talking over people's heads to the end of time.

 

[Wollan]

Watched four episodes so far and I'm loving it. Great cast across the board and very intriguing. I am streaming this at the highest quality at 4K w/HDR and it is gorgeous.

 

[Jarmel]

I'm curious where they go for S2 considering

Spoiler

Holden looks to have burned his bridges at the FBI

.

Also I hope that rat gets stomped out but he'll probably get a promotion.

 

[robotrock]

first episode kind of put me off. pacing is generally fine but the dialogue felt really strange, especially between holden and debbie.

reading impressions in here though, sounds like I gotta push through at least a few more eps.

 

[Vuze]

first episode kind of put me off. pacing is generally fine but the dialogue felt really strange, especially between holden and debbie.

reading impressions in here though, sounds like I gotta push through at least a few more eps.

Yeah same here, watched the first episode yesterday but didn’t really enjoy it. Maybe I’ll watch the second one tonight and see if it can convince me to continue

 

[duckroll]

I'm curious where they go for S2 considering

Spoiler

Holden looks to have burned his bridges at the FBI

.

Also I hope that rat gets stomped out but he'll probably get a promotion.

Spoiler

I don't think he burned his bridges at the FBI at all. He just pissed some people off and showed what a douchebag he was. He'll likely get a suspension and/or written warning, take some time off, and return to the office forced to accept a tighter leash on how he conducts interviews.

 

[Jarmel]

Spoiler

I don't think he burned his bridges at the FBI at all. He just pissed some people off and showed what a douchebag he was. He'll likely get a suspension and/or written warning, take some time off, and return to the office forced to accept a tighter leash on how he conducts interviews.

Spoiler

Yea I'm not sure how serious this internal investigation is. Seems like if you just walked out like that, you could easily get fired.

I hope they don't put him on a leash. The interviews are a lot more interesting with Holden's approach. I wouldn't mind seeing a competing team develop.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Watched the first three eps. Quick thoughts:

1) Great acting. Loving Bill. Holden is alright. Like his girlfriend. Glad to see Anna Torv. Guy playing Kemper is pretty fantastic (and creepy)

2) Really like the atmosphere and style. Got that Fincher feel.

3) I feel like this takes place in the same universe as Zodiac and Se7en.

 

[jipewithin]

Watched 6 so far, love the series!

 

[UrbanRats]

On episode 3 so far.
Ed Kemper is definitely the high point of the show, the dude playing him is great.

The protagonist is the lowest point instead, i find that guy particularly dull.

 

[squidyj]

someone talk to me about these ringing phones. Is this just an affectation to make the scenes seem more natural or is there a deeper meaning?

 

[RastaMentality]

i know there’s some serial killer knowledge in this thread so i just wanted to ask. Has there actually been a decline in these crazy type of serial murderers? Because it seems like they’re all from the 70-90s. And i feel like if there was any time they’d be heavily publicized it would be now.

 

[Spiritual_Chaos]

i know there's some serial killer knowledge in this thread so i just wanted to ask. Has there actually been a decline in these crazy type of serial murderers? Because it seems like they're all from the 70-90s. And i feel like if there was any time they'd be heavily publicized it would be now.

The "boom" of serial killers in the US was in the 70s.

EDIT:

Seems the 80s was even worse.

But the number of serial murders seems to be dwindling, as does the public's fascination with them. "It does seem the golden age of serial murderers is probably past," says Harold Schechter, a professor at Queens College of the City University of New York who studies crime.

Statistics on serial murder are hard to come by—the FBI doesn't keep numbers, according to a spokeswoman—but the data we do have suggests serial murders peaked in the 1980s and have been declining ever since. James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University and co-author of Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder, keeps a database of confirmed serial murderers starting in 1900. According to his count, based on newspaper clippings, books, and Web sources, there were only a dozen or so serial killers before 1960 in the United States. Then serial killings took off: There were 19 in the 1960s, 119 in the '70s, and 200 in the '80s. In the '90s, the number of cases dropped to 141. And the 2000s saw only 61 serial murderers. (Definitions of serial murder" vary, but Fox defines it as "a string of four or more homicides committed by one or a few perpetrators that spans a period of days, weeks, months, or even years." To avoid double-counting, he assigns killers to the decade in which they reached the midpoint of their careers.)

 

[120v]

i know there’s some serial killer knowledge in this thread so i just wanted to ask. Has there actually been a decline in these crazy type of serial murderers? Because it seems like they’re all from the 70-90s. And i feel like if there was any time they’d be heavily publicized it would be now.

i think that's more or less what the show covers; how even the FBI was unequipped to deal with how well serial killers could assimilate into society up until fairly recently (the 70s weren't particularly ancient times)

modern forensics and profiling generally root out these people before they can move onto to eating the face, or whatever, of 20 other people over the course of several years. but yeah, they're still out there

 

[Robot Pants]

first episode kind of put me off. pacing is generally fine but the dialogue felt really strange, especially between holden and debbie.

reading impressions in here though, sounds like I gotta push through at least a few more eps.

First two aren’t great.
But 3 on are really fantastic. Stick with it

 

[Einchy]

200 serial killers in the 80s? Jesus christ...

I guess if the era of serial killers is past than we're right in the muck and mire of the mass shooting era.

 

[Baconsaurus Rex]

Interesting theory is that leaded gasoline was a cause for the huge boom in crime in the '70s and '80s. Children exposed to heavy metals are at risk of developing antisocial and aggressive tendencies later in life and generally have lower IQs.

Leaded gasoline was banned in the '70s and the crime rate dipped dramatically in the following decades.

See mad hatter disease for an interesting example.

Just another ingredient of the serial killer secret sauce. No doubt they'll touch on some other interesting aspects in the coming seasons as they continue their research.

 

[Spiritual_Chaos]

For comparison.

The Swedish wiki article about serial killers have only 5 listed. But that have taken into account people who have killed less than 4.

 

[Zakalwe]

Up to Episode 8. So far this is pretty great. I'd have liked a little more horror elements like Zodiac gave us (re-enactments etc...) but considering the scope for TV this is doing really well.

The interview scenes are really, really good. Especially with Big Ed.

As someone said above, this and The Ozarks are top of the list Netflix productions.

Anna Torv can't get away from these FBI roles can she? Not that I'm complaining. She's terrific.

She over-acted in Fringe a little (as did everyone though I guess), but she was still great. She's better here, imo.

 

[RastaMentality]

If Fincher replaces the cold opens with Zodiac style reenactments and adds in 2-3 basement scene levels of tension in s2, it’ll be 10/10.

 

[awcarew]

Anna Torv is grossly under-utilized in film and television.

+1000. Granted some of this may be by choice. Anna Torv has appeared in several Australian indie films and miniseries since Fringe ended. I'd highly recommend Secret City, a really fun political espionage thriller she starred in last year for Foxtel.

Anna seems to be really selective when it comes to working in the US. She did a very rare interview with the Sydney Morning Herald last year and mentioned that she's turned down lots of US work. Ryan Murphy wanted her in his HBO pilot that ended up not working out and AMC wanted her in Fear the Walking Dead but she dropped out (talk about dodging a bullet). Thankfully, it seems David Fincher made her an offer she couldn't refuse.

 

[RastaMentality]

the family drama with Tench and how the work is pulling at the seams of his life is surprisingly interesting.

 

[holygeesus]

What's great about Holden's development is that you can see it from the very beginning of the series. It's such a natural progression for his character.

Also Groff did an stellar job with Holden's body language. When he walks down the hallway at the end to meet Kemper, it's completely different from when he initially talked to Kemper. He has a swagger to him now.

That is the whole point of the overlong bar-scene at the beginning. In context it is there to establish a bookend for his character progression throughout the series. Groff does an amazing job.

I'd never seen the actor who played Debbie before, but noticing her Canadian accent, looked her up on Wiki, and had my mind blown when it turns out she is the daughter of Paul Gross aka Benton Fraser. I'm now officially old.

 

[Dalek]

This guy is a goddamn great actor.

 

[slider]

Overwhelmingly positive reactions, eh? Just switched on Netflix (erm, to watch Line of Duty Series 2) and Mindhunter was right there. Will dive in soon especially if I can convince my wife to give it a shot.

 

[near]

I'm 3 episodes in and I'm absolutely loving this so far. It's everything I'd hoped it'd be and more, despite the lack of gruesome scenes or the set peices you'd expect from a typical detective series each episode has been pretty epic from a narrative perspective. Every episode is built around conversation and there's a creepy chilly horror at its core. I'm trying not to binge watch this because I don't want it to end but I've just watched 3 episodes back to back without realising. It's so gooood.

 

[D4Danger]

If Fincher replaces the cold opens with Zodiac style reenactments and adds in 2-3 basement scene levels of tension in s2, it'll be 10/10.

I couldn't quite put my finger on what was missing until I read this and it's because you never really see any of the crimes. I actually like most of the cold openings with

Spoiler

the BTK guy

. Once I figured out that's who it was it felt like a side story or a like a parallel universe that was going to collide at some point. Maybe they could've used some of those openings to create reenactments or partial accounts of the crimes committed by people they were going to talk to as well.

Anyway, absolutely fantastic show. Definitely a heavy Zodiac vibe which I never thought we'd see so I'm totally on board for whatever they have planned.

 

[Lan Dong Mik]

This guy is a goddamn great actor.

My man

I'm binge watching the fuck out of this right now. Just started ep 7. Absolutely loving it.

 

[JOKERACN7]

Two episodes in and man I'm already in love with it!
David Fincher is one of my fav directors and you can see his footsteps here, reminding me of SE7EN, Zodiac and The Social Network
And I also adore the show's subject matter!
Btw, have heard Fincher has only directed 4 episodes, is this true? or is he involved throughout the series?

 

[JOKERACN7]

I shouldn't have opened this thread, had convinced myself to watch the rest later as I'm busy atm but impressions here are so damn good that make me say "fuck it" and start the episode 3 now!

 

[Retsudo]

Binge watched everything with the wife yesterday. When the last episode ended, we were both ready to throw shit at the screen for more episodes.

Can't wait for S2.