Ask any longtime Netflix subscriber to name some of the cancelled shows that they miss the most and would resurrect if they could, and I guarantee you one of the answers you’ll get over and over is a little show called Mindhunter.
Created by David Fincher, Netflix’s Mindhunter TV series is based on the 1996 book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, written by former special agent John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. During his career, Douglas pursued some of the most notorious serial killers and rapists, developing various profiling techniques to catch them. The Netflix series became something of a cult favorite, partly because the show is as much about probing the darkest corners of the human psyche as it is a crime drama.
Fincher confirmed to a French publication last year that there probably won’t ever be a third season of the show. “I’m very proud of the first two seasons,” he said in the interview with the French weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. “But it is a particularly expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we did not attract a large enough audience to justify such an investment.”
Hulu, meanwhile, is stepping up with a new docuseries that I’d argue is a consolation prize of sorts if you’re still missing Mindhunter.
The new show has a similar name (Mastermind) and is basically about the same sort of thing. From producers Dakota and Elle Fanning, as well as showrunner Dani Sloane, the focus here is on Dr. Ann Burgess — the woman who revolutionized the profiling of serial killers.
Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer is a three-part docuseries that debuts on Hulu on July 11. According to Boston College, Burgess in the 1970s was a pioneer in assessing and treating trauma victims. She collaborated with then-FBI special investigator John E. Douglas to develop a new type of criminal profiling of notorious serial killers, and the two collaborated for close to 10 years. In fact, the character of Dr. Wendy Carr in Mindhunter was loosely based on Burgess.
“To stop serial killers, psychiatric nurse and professor Dr. Ann Burgess must first learn to think like one,” Hulu explains. “With unprecedented access to the mastermind behind the development of modern serial killer profiling, the series tells Burgess’ tenacious story and her compassion for victims which puts her at the center of solving America’s most infamous true-crime cases.”
Burgess has been a largely unsung heroine until now, but the Hulu docuseries reveals that she not only championed the plight of women in the US but also made a big impact on the evolution of the FBI.