Netflix's 10/10 Crime Thriller Only Needed 19 Episodes To Become A Masterpiece

While one of Netflix’s best crime thrillers ever only had 19 episodes to tell its story, that was all the show needed to become an influential masterpiece of the genre. Cop shows and mystery thrillers have evolved with the TV industry over the decades, from early efforts like Dragnet and Alfred Hitchcock Presents to ‘80s camp classics like Magnum P.I. and Murder She Wrote, to self-referential ‘00s cult hits like Psych and Veronica Mars.

In 2014, the outsized critical and commercial success of HBO’s True Detective season 1 ushered in a new era of detective dramas on TV and streaming, and the shows that followed in its wake all borrowed from its successful formula. From Mare of Eastown to Under the Banner of Heaven, to Sharp Objects and Long Bright River, a string of successful cop dramas in the years that followed utilized A-list stars, grim, heavy plots, and a paranoid, pitch black tone.

One of the best shows to come from this era was Netflix’s Mindhunter, a 2017 hit based on the non-fiction book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. Although the series took its inspiration from the FBI's real-life Behavioral Science Unit, its main characters, Holden Ford, Bill Tench, and Wendy Carr, were all fictional characters modeled on pivotal figures in the early years of criminal profiling. Jonathan Groff’s Ford was a rookie agent working with Holt McCallany’s comparatively experienced Bill Tench on outlining a profile of potential serial killers.

Mindhunter Flipped The Premise of Earlier Hits Like Criminal Minds and Hannibal

In practical terms, the pair’s attempts to create a psychological profile of serial killers saw them interview notorious killers in an attempt to see what made them tick. The pair were aided in these efforts by Anna Torv’s Carr, a psychology professor at Boston University, who helped their investigations while also challenging their understanding of the emerging science of criminal psychology.

While the interplay between Carr, Ford, and Tench was compelling, the central duo’s conversations with killers were where Mindhunter really shone. Although later starry psychological thrillers like Scarpetta might have featured more dramatic onscreen gore, Mindhunter managed to truly unnerve viewers by allowing the likes of Sam Strike, BTK, Charles Manson, and Edmund Kemper speak for themselves. Like so much of executive producer David Fincher’s best work, the show relied more on subtle psychological suspense and rising dread than explicit moments of gruesome horror.

Mindhunter’s Early Cancellation Feels Strangely Fitting For Netflix’s Iconic Psychological Thriller

Sadly, despite the near-universal critical acclaim that met Mindhunter, the show didn’t last as long as its more mainstream network TV competitor Criminal Minds, or even the similarly ambitious earlier re-imagining of The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal. With a big budget and a small niche audience, Mindhunter was met with an ultimatum instead of a season 3 renewal.

The show’s creators were told to massively reduce its budget or broaden its mainstream appeal and instead decided to end the show after only two seasons and 19 episodes, preserving its acclaimed run instead of watering down its execution. Although plenty of fans wanted to see more of the central trio’s research, this choice was also a strangely fitting one in thematic terms, as Mindhunter refused to tack a happy ending onto a distinctly unhappy story.

The characters of Mindhunter never come to a comforting conclusion that proves their criminal profiling is successful or even helpful, and the show ends on an ambiguous note, with none of them sure of their contributions to crime prevention and the legacy of their efforts. The result made Mindhunter a uniquely uncomfortable and thoughtful Netflix cult classic that, like Fincher’s earlier Se7en and the underrated ‘90s psychological thriller 8MM, felt like a rare crime thriller that genuinely got inside the minds of monsters.