Mindhunter : the new series from David Fincher is a little gem not to be missed

Cinema 16 October, 2017

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For the past few years, Netflix never ceases to surprise us by trying bets that people thought was until then reserved only to HBO. And, despite a few bust-ups, it sometimes happens that one passes a few millimetres from the big masterpiece.

David Fincher had launched the kick-off of the conquest of the world of Netflix series House of Cards. Through the first adventure of Frank Underwood, he had imposed a degree of quality such that it was very hard to understand that we were still in front of our tv and not in cinema. If the series has helped the network establish itself, particularly in France, Netflix has not, however, not rested on its laurels and has continued to drink original productions to a variable interest but always with the same want of we propose a diversified offer that meets certain standards of quality to appeal to the largest number. And if all eyes turn to the season 2 of the Stranger Things that will land in two weeks, it would be wrong to ignore the extraordinary Mindhunter which is available from the Friday, October 13. It would be a huge mistake.

The ORIGIN OF EVIL

The basic premise is simple : After a hostage situation that turns short, the special agent Holden Ford was transferred to Quantico to give during negotiations. A progress that he takes it as punishment and a closet that reflects his impression that the techniques of the FBI are not adapted to the american society of 1977, when does the series. His meeting with Bill Tench, special agent at the head of a unit of psychological research a little bit special, will be the trigger. Together, they will travel the roads of the United States and go to the meeting killers the most vile, who are languishing in prison to draw up a psychological profile that will help anticipate and prevent new tragedies of a disease occur.

Adapted from a book, Mind Hunter : Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by Mark Olshaker and John E. Douglas, Mindhunter thus invites us to attend to the birth defects of the profiling as we know it today and the creation of the term “serial killer”. Produced by David Fincher and Charlize Theron, the series is obviously much more than a case study because, like the director had done with Zodiac, it is the entire society that is passed to the scanner.

OCCUPATION : PROFILER

Zodiac, the word is out. Besides, during the promotion it has been made regular reference to the masterpiece of Fincher whose Mindhunter would be more or less a version tv. This is of course true and completely false. Of course, we lingered over a society traumatised by a dreadful drama (in the case of Charles Manson in the series), of course we follow the two heroes on opposing but complementary, which ensure not to fall into madness and darkness, but the comparison stops there. Because, in reality, it could be considered Mindhunter as a deepening-general of all the themes that were overflown in the film and that will, in the end, much further.

Through its history, Mindhunter essentially tells the american company, and thus western, today. Enameled tragedies, scandals and wars (Manson, Watergate and Vietnam in the lead), she does not know where she is and the impression left by these tragedies the change in depth. Logical, therefore, that this loss of orientation gives rise to a certain number of monsters. The great intelligence of the series, it is set at the same level killers, federal agents and ordinary citizens. We all have this darkness rooted in our human nature that can lead us to commit the irreparable, to switch to the horror, and it is only thanks to a number of barriers to social, moral and cultural that we are staying the course.

The different interviews made the show well : originally, the serial killers are the first victims of their psyche and if it is not the excuse, it should, however, submit their psychology in perspective, and re-enter it in a given context. Perfectly using the fascination that we all have vis-à-vis the great figures of evil, Mindhunter plays a lot with this celebrity-morbid to lift the curtain on the human part of these monsters. Désacralisant as much as it plays on the legendary status of the killers, the series manages, therefore, to lay the things flat out, sparing no horror but reminding us constantly that such a fate lies ultimately in the very little things. And it’s pretty fantastic.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

From a formal point of view, it is not necessary to expect the big action scenes, the series is asked, théseuse and can appear cold, clinical and austere. This is all the intelligence of the team to have chosen this approach without affect for the better we provide a framework in which is instilled gradually the evil. Moreover, the series always comes back to this : prevent the poison of invest the body social and moral characters. It is thus that we are witnessing the slow progression of the main character, Holden, Ford, mesmerized by the figures that he encounters and that leaves little by little sidetracked by his obsession. An arc that might appear more conventional if it was enriched by many details that make it exciting. It is also a constant.

All the characters of the series have to deal with their study, at work and in their private lives, and each is in a specific situation, which will be impacted in its own way. The goal is obviously to reconcile the two. Mirrors of the general theme, our characters are themselves in search of meaning and seek to understand and integrate the profound changes that have shaken the society in which they live, either by entrenching themselves behind an older model, paternalistic, formal, and rigid, either by plunging fully into the darkness, trying to find a little ray of light.

The other great idea, it is not to do Mindhunter only a series of corridors but to raise the question of the practical interest of such a study. If on one side we have the aspect speculative of the survey with the interviews, our agents are regularly faced with actual cases that allow them to test their teachings and see if, yes or not, they have a real purpose. And it is in the heart of the series since in these cases, the ambivalence of our heroes is exposed to the great day. If their actions are not really wrong, the methods are already more, as well as their conclusions, and the question remains as to whether they bend the reality to their desire to be right or if their innovative methods are actually the right solution. By denying any bias, Mindhunter enriches the blur moral, characterizes its thematic and brings us back constantly to this internal struggle between light and darkness that tears apart even the people are better educated and more noble of spirit.

Mindhunter is a fantasy series that will baffle them not bad. Cold and slow, it becomes a hypnotic experience and calls us to a serious reflection on our nature as a human being in a society that is less and less. At the time we will probably go in one of the darkest areas of our recent history, Mindhunter is a work vital because it invites us to rethink about ourselves, introspection, reflection on our status of being civilized while asking us kindly to move our point of view and to let down our pride purely western in we prove that it is also the bereceau of all the horrors. It is strong, it’s intense, it’s beautiful, it is hard, it is great, it’s Mindhunter.