Perhaps something of a very unofficial prequel to “Red Dragon” and “Silence of the Lambs,” “Mindhunter” (not be be confused with Michael Mann’s 1986 serial-killer thriller “Manhunter”) comes to us from screenwriter Joe Penhall, who adapted Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel “The Road” into the 2009 Viggo Mortenson movie. Netflix’ “House of Cards” producer-director David Fincher, whose serial-killer resume includes “Seven” and “Zodiac,” directs the first two of the 1970s-set “Mindhunter” episodes.
... superior new drama … This is no bleeding-heart show — it’s on the side of law enforcement and incarceration. But Mindhunter’s underlying belief, that the enemy ought to be respected and known, feels almost radical.
... overall, the series lacks sharpness. The first two episodes feel almost deliberately incomplete, begging for something bigger to arrive. …
... the series’ linking of irrational times and unspeakable acts resonates with today’s stories of mass shootings and a widening gyre of chaos in the headlines. …
… In choosing to accentuate the cerebral nature of horror over visceral displays, at least at first, “Mindhunter” departs from the standard approach to such lurid subject matter. These days, an in the realm of streaming, that deviant in itself — and it makes me curious enough to press onward and see what lies in wait for Ford, Tench and a nation on the cusp of a frightening new age. …
... An unusually cerebral and chillingly absorbing drama. …
... The show struggles to make Holden make sense -- which makes for a slow, rocky start through his career woes and love life. Though the pilot’s tone is an intriguing combination of wry humor and ‘70s noir, it’s otherwise a slog of exposition and painfully on-the-nose scene-setting. …
... This is certainly a compelling beginning, right from the tense scene that introduces us to empathetic young agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) as he attempts to defuse a situation involving multiple hostages and a shotgun-toting man off his meds. Groff is immediately persuasive as a person whose raw talent is as much a hindrance as an advantage, and Fincher's surgically precise touch is evident in even tiny details like the police bullhorn that distorts a cop's voice to just the right unnerving degree. …
12:01 a.m. Friday. Netflix.
