Jonathan Groff (Holden Ford) has a perfect future role awaiting playing the role of Emmanuel Macron, the President of France. I found the likeness quite distracting at times.
I like that he is so white bread at the beginning but then he evolves, changes gets all into this. he becomes obsessed and it destroys his relationship. I thought he was perfect
Oh, he changes? Thank Goodness. I couldn't have taken the "good little boy" act much longer (overacted). Finished two episodes. At least the serial killers are interesting. I'm also slightly put off with yet another show hitting you over the head with the 70s nostalgia. What is this a trend? I guess the 70s are the new 50s (hated "Happy Days," btw).
One trick they did with the parking lots and wide street shots is sometimes, they'd bring in about 25 cars, shoot them, then stop the camera and move the cars to other parts of the shot, and then composite the two shots together so that you now have 50 cars in the shot for the price of only 25. This is an old trick they've used for years to enlarge the size of visible crowds in movies & TV shows. BTW, all of the car interior shots (for the most part) are green screen composites, and they look incredibly real to me. They do a great job at making this stuff absolutely seamless.
Yes, and compared to "Tin Star" (a show I watched a few times and then dropped), the difference is obvious. Some of the shots where the producers wanted to integrate mountains and other elements stuck out in a pretty obvious way.
This show is excellent. I found the first episode started slow but I was hooked. Episode 10 final scene made me jump. That was a scary stuff. I’m not usually scared easily. Nice Job David Fincher .
Yeah it's amazing work. I can guess green screen outdoor shots quite often. They have a more cosy ambience to them. The lighting is very very slightly different (obviously) but if I'm not specifically looking its not really noticeable. However, give it another 2-3 years and they will have it totally sorted.
I should clarify the scene I was referring to was with Kemper. Don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet. Can’t wait for season two.
'Hitting over the head' - that's nonsense. There are very few if any pop culture references in it at all. I mean it's set in the late 70's so it does have to look that way but apart from that Fincher has steered clear of any nostalgia. I mean most of the time they are in an office or a prison cell so I don't get your comment at all.
Blew through the first four last night. Whew is this good, with each episode like a movie. And I like Hannah Gross, the actress that plays Debbie (the lead actor's girlfriend). All the acting is very good here.
i started it on a whim, and boy did it have just about everything i love in a tv show. the acting by the two leads is superb--nuanced, dramatic, believable. the direction is first class. i found the finale a little heavy handed, but that's a very minor complaint. what a cool show.
Agreed, the last episode lays it on pretty thick. Was it really necessary to have the lead character have this arc? I really wonder where they're going with all of that, but I can't wait for season 2.
I think the lead character in real life actually did suffer from depression and borderline breakdowns after too much contact with serial killers. This was referred to in Silence of the Lambs, when they reveal that Clarice Starling's boss (based on the guy in Mindhunter) had to have months off to recover from hunting down and catching Hannibal Lector. So I think this is just foreshadowing what the FBI criminal profilers have to go through in order to put themselves into the same mental space as the killers they're going after.
I really liked it. It was interesting to see how much Holden changes from the beginning to end; not so much externally, more internally, as he becomes willing to do or say anything to get what he wants out of someone. Also, I didn't really care for his girlfriend Debbie (although honestly, I don't care for Holden, either). I thought for sure that by the end they were going to show that she has some sort of dark secret. She just seems to be monotone. The only really likeable guy is Bill. Hell of a guy, Bill. Except he smokes a bit much. I bet his son ends up being autistic.
I just read Mindhunter and John Douglas nearly died from a health condition caused by the stress of his work.
Haven't read the book, but I don't doubt at all that those guys were under horrific stress. Particularly when they had to closely examined the effects of the most damaged criminal minds on the planet.
I think that's true. But I also think there is another magnifying stress factor - cultural norms at the time. Back then, culturally, we weren't exposed to the same level of graphic violence & depravity etc as people are today via widely available entertainment, pervasive news and social media, etc. These days people going into that kind of work would be a lot more desensitized to the potential horrors, at least in theory.
I agree it is quite good and definitely getting creepy I also agree about the retro 70s thing, maybe they are the new 50s, also I wonder if it is easier to write for that era so much simpler...
It's not a new subject, but Mindhunters is about the darkness in all of us, only those who have been poked, prodded, strung out, or just plain born into darkness is what makes a deviant, versus most of us who manage to keep the animal,within, well-caged behind our own upbringings and/or predilections. The film makers want us to believe that Holden is "white bread," as it's been mentioned above. Holden, however, doesn't want us to believe this. He mentions a few times that he is from Brooklyn, whereupon he's met with good humored chuckles and smirks. It's when Holden is with the criminally insane do we see his monsters behind the curtain, kept in check yes, yet his language changes, his methods cut against the grain; he's wise, he's on point, and though he might grapple with what could make a human being do such unspeakable things to another person, he knows he's onto something by showing something of himself that mustn't be shown. Bill Tench, on the other hand, if I'm not mistaken, is the only real psychologist on-board, until Wendy Carr shows up. Bill knows the animal. It's been alluded to that Bill spend time in the military, possibly during Korea, maybe Vietnam; perhaps he's even killed. Regardless, his world has been turned upside down, because he's a rock - a rock that can't keep Holden in check, nor his family life. The rest? The killers? They are academic. Bill knows "crazy," either in the antiquated psychological sense of the time, or from his past; he can look an photos of murder scenes and never lose a brain cell. Bill is certainly not Holden's foil. He's not Holden's mentor either. Bill is along for the ride, too, but as a representative of the old guard. At some point Bill amalgamates himself with the new psychology, or he gets off the bus to coo-coo land. I find myself loving Bill's demeanor, but probably because he's every man's father. Holden isn't willing to accept that fathership; Holden is just trying to make sense of it all. I think it's a really good show.
