Over the last two weeks, I’ve watched all of Mindhunter on Netflix. That’s as pretty close to binge watching from me as things are going to get these days, as by the fifth hour of anything, I’m usually apt to passing out in my recliner, no matter how good of a show it is.
But after watching both seasons of Mindhunter, I have to say that it’s a pretty excellent show from beginning to end. Often times, I feel that shows tend to start too slowly, and as I get into a show by the midway point, I have one of those revelation moments involving something seen at the start of the first episode that I might have to go re-watch to remember.
That wasn’t the case with Mindhunter, which starts off with a metaphorical and literal bang, and establishes characters quickly and begins their development immediately, that it’s easy to become interested right away. And it’s the characters that I think are the strength of the show as a whole, because there are three core characters, and it’s really easy to become fairly interested in all of them, whether it’s collectively as the Behavioral Sciences Unit, or their own personal lives.
Typically, whenever I watch just about anything, I have a tendency to dick around on my phone when I begin to feel restless. It doesn’t matter if it a movie, a subtitled show, wrestling or sports, my mind eventually begins wandering at some point, and then I do shit like play Fire Emblem Heroes or actually look at Facebook, and only partially pay attention to what’s on the screen. Occasionally, it backfires on me, and I’ll need to rewind to catch something important or a cool wrestling move or a sports play or a subtitle that I didn’t comprehend verbally, and I’ll actually have to backtrack to actually make myself pay attention.
But with Mindhunter, none of that tomfoolery came into play, because the show is written so well, the characters are so compelling, and the visuals are all so engrossing, that I can’t even find the opportunities to multitask, even if I wanted to. It’s been a long time that there’s been a show with a continuously ongoing plot that has been able to capture me so hard to where I’m pretty much eyes glued from opening credits to end credits.
Ultimately, Mindhunter was a great show, and I highly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in psychology, crime stories, and scarily enough, delving into mostly real-life serial killers.
