TV

True Crime Obsessives, Assemble — New ‘Mindhunter’ Is Coming Very, Very Soon

Director David Fincher has also revealed some of the serial killers set to appear.

by Joseph Earp  13 July 2019

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In an entertainment landscape saturated with true crime content, Mindhunter is the very cream of the crop.

Sure, there are a lot of other shows out there about serial killers and the obsessives who chase them, just like Mindhunter. And sure, most of those shows have a colour palette that could best be described as dour, just like Mindhunter.

But unlike the glut of very grisly deep dives into the dark hearts of those who choose to kill, Mindhunter has an extraordinarily talented cast and crew going for it — not many other TV shows can boast the combined talents of producer Charlize Theron and director David “Gone Girl” Fincher, for example. And that’s not even to mention the show’s remarkable intelligence and sensitivity, best exemplified in that gut punch of a season finale.

So yep, that’s all a long-winded way of saying we should all currently be beside ourselves, ’cause a bevy of factoids about the much-anticipated season two of the show have finally been slung our way after literal months of rumour that it was coming ‘soon’.

Well, now we know exactly how long ‘soon’ is. Season two of Mindhunter is hitting Netflix in full on August 16.

But that’s not all. As a guest on the podcast The Treatment, Fincher has also given fans of the show some clues as to which direction this new season will be going. According to the showrunner, the series will focus on Charles Manson, Son of Sam, and the Atlanta Child Murders.

The first two figures will probably be well-known to most: Manson was a notorious cult leader, and Son of Sam, AKA David Berkowitz, was a serial killer who haunted the streets of New York.

The Atlanta Child Murders, meanwhile, were a string of killings in which 28 African-Americans lost their lives. It’s those murders, in fact, that Fincher has described as serving as the emotional through-line of the new season.

“You could probably do three seasons on the Atlanta child murders,” Fincher said. “It’s a huge and sweeping and tragic story. We couldn’t do it justice in the background of our nine hours. We had to choose to dramatize.

“[The FBI] are the last guys in, they’re trying to help out something that has its own momentum and politics. It’s a divided battlefield. They’re coming in to throw this federal umbrella over everything to make everyone feel OK about sharing information.”

Sounds like pure Mindhunter to me.

Oh, and if that’s not exciting enough for you, Fincher also revealed that Aussie Andrew Dominik is taking the reins for some of the episodes. Dominik, director of Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and Killing Them Softly is one of our finest cultural exports — so his involvement is cause for serious excitement.