‘Mindhunter,’ Series Two: Hard Not To Binge

The second series of “Mindhunter,” the Netflix show about the FBI’s initial attempts at developing the profiling of serial killers, starts off right where the first series left off. Senior agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) is jetting off to rescue wunderkind agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), who had a bad panic attack when he was physically embraced by the immense (and immensely verbose) serial killer Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton).

The fledgling Behavioral Science Unit gets a new boss, Ted Gunn (Michael Cerveris), who despite looking like Mike Myers’ Dr. Evil is enthusiastic about the unit’s work and making the world safe for the development of “Criminal Minds” some 40 years later.

And that’s it for the spoilers.

For a show about serial killers, it’s remarkably light on bloodshed and mayhem. Yet “Mindhunter” is undeniably creepy.

And it’s not just the killers they interview who have, um, issues. Ford is living on the edge of disaster. Tench has major league problems at home. The role of Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), the academic who works with the unit and tries to keep everyone on the same page, becomes more important as well. Carr doesn’t get as much front-and-center attention, but a side plot involving her private life adds to the mix.

The interviews with the killers, where the tension between cop and con, between academically sound research and the third degree, and between the agents’ goals and their personal lives all combine into a compelling package. 

It certainly doesn’t hurt that the producers have gone to great lengths to find talented actors to play notorious killers such as Charles Manson and David Berkowitz. 

By the end of the series, the agents wind up in Atlanta, where they get involved in the Atlanta child killings of 1979-81. These episodes emphasize procedural work, which is familiar territory for mystery fans.

And the fact (noted by the producers at the end of the final episode) that Wayne Williams, the main suspect in the killings, was convicted of the murders of two adults but never for the child murders drives home the tenuous business of trying to predict what people will do.

Hovering all through the series is the specter of the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) killer, shown in brief vignettes at the beginning of each episodes. 

Which leads me to believe there will be a third season.

Which can’t come fast enough for me. I’m hooked, and it took all available self-control not to binge through “Mindhunter’s” second season in one sitting.

“Mindhunter, ” series one and two, are available on Netflix.