Mindhunters

Recently for a class activity, we played a clip of Mindhunters, with only the audio, to evaluate it for subtleties that we recognize and relate to things that we have seen previously. As I watched the entirety of the first episode of this series, I began to relate it to series I have watched previously. Most notably, I was able to relate it to both Barney Miller and NCIS. Barney Miller is a show based on detectives that ran from 1974-1982. The subjects that Mindhunters brings up, along with the fashion and lighting techniques used are very reminiscent of Barney Miller and create what feels like a valid atmosphere where you believe it is taking place in that time period. NCIS is a series that is based on naval crime, where they focus on minute details, and it always relates back to motive. For these fictional cases, it is always the least likely scenario, tied to some tiny overlooked detail, as that is what makes for good television.

Addressing motive, that is entirely what the introductory episode to this series focuses on. We are introduced to the main character, Holden Ford, and learn that his motive is to understand the psychology of criminals. A quote from a lecturer at the very beginning of the episode is as follows, “Where do we go when motive becomes elusive?”. In kind of a roundabout way, this describes the way that Holden’s life is going. Holden struggles to implement newer psychology knowledge in his first real life attempt, when confronted with a hostage situation. After this “failure”, he takes this discouragement, and follows it to accept an offer to accompany another FBI guy, Tench, on his journey to different communities and their police departments. We learn from a very aggressive, seasoned cop from one department that Holden is book smart, but has little real life experience. As this fact gets presented to the crowd, they automatically disregard him. When he tries to present information on thinking and psychology, he is shut down hard, because the room of officers think that he is trying to get them to empathize with the killers. This is not what he is trying to present at all. I think Holden’s presentation of his information is encouraging society to understand and explore the human mind. However, he does not know his audience, the resistant police officers that spend their days in the field, not in a book, and it is not accepted whatsoever. Conversely, it may be accepted for the viewer of the show.

Just like anything else, initial ideas are rejected almost automatically if they do not conform to the way that things have been previously. Watching this show in 2017, most people can understand what Holden is trying to do and say, to help them understand that not everything is black and white. For people that grew up in this time period, I think that this message hits home harder. They are able to see both sides of the equation. Watching this show, I can see the blending of elements of both Barney Miller and NCIS. The old set ways of white male cops, and the analyzing of details. As far as lighting, the dusky and hazy scenes when Holden, Tench and the aggressive cop are in the restaurant are exceptionally relatable to older television. The one quality that Mindhunters is lacking, where I would hope it would improve in subsequent episodes, is a little bit of comedy, in some fashion. Only a slight bit of comedy could add to this, without it being taken in a completely different direction. I hope that a few lines of dry humor are added after this episode to increase the ability to continue watching, if the dense content itself does not already draw you in.