David Fincher's serial killer chat 'em up MINDHUNTER

I meant the final BTK image; most of that stuff (except for the survivor you mention above) was partitioned off in the prologues. When they interviewed that survivor, I assumed that was going to be the beginning of a series of BTK episodes. But they veered off (or maybe it had already started, don't remember) into the Atlanta child murders, and that took over. Which was great--but there's still that frustration of leaving the other hanging.

That article points out it was too expensive a show for Netflix. For Netflix, the bottomless bucket of churn em outs.

What on earth about the show made it expensive!? It was standard shots, in standard locations, no cgi, no massive-name actors, no exotic locales?

Am I forgetting something razzy about the show, I havent seen it since it aired.

it had a bunch of cgi to make modern locations look old, much like Fincher did on Zodiac, right?

not across the board and we definitely noticed inconsistencies, BUT!

Oh good point yeah

the zodiac behind the scenes killed me, people think cgi means one thing but it really means “hey we don’t have soundstages and btw half of the background is *waves hands* and also we made the coke can he’s drinking from period accurate”

Yeah, that Zodiac behind the scenes was similarly eye opening as far as invisible CG. Though I’m sure Fincher probably pushes that thing harder than most, I have no doubt that show was expensive.

Bummer though, was some good TV.

Besides the invisible CGI, Fincher does tons of takes, which resulted in almost a year of filming for one season. Almost everything is shot on location and he himself commands a pretty high fee, so there's a lot of things that add up

It wasn’t cancelled for budget reasons, though, was it? Didn’t he just get bored and want to do other things, so eventually the actor contracts lapsed and it got canned?

Not sure whether the reason was his wanting a break or too high a budget back in 2020 but he just said in that interview that Netflix doesn't want to fund another season

I'm with James--the budget excuse just strikes me as a deflection from cast issues, and most of all Fincher turning his attention elsewhere.

(On the other hand, they'd reached a point where I can't see that they needed Fincher; Carl Franklin did a great job on the Atlanta murders and could easily have taken over if available.)

I’m assuming netflix just wouldn’t fund crap and he has a long schedule. What other commitments do the core cast have that? I love this show but….

I skipped a couple words but you get it

Started another re-watch for a future Zoom. Debbie, first episode: "Didn't I see you on Soul Train?"

I'm always kind of astonished at how much gets accomplished narratively in that first episode. It's a really deep and masterfully constructed hour.

Including how they get Tench in there sideways, standing in the wings listening to that one guy lecture.

The BTK story didn't seem so unresolved to me this time. I think somewhere on this thread I misremembered how it finished: BTK burning stuff ended S1, not S2. It's still odd how S2 starts like they're going full tilt on BTK and then (with a couple of quick, high-profile detours) switch over to Atlanta midway. I've never read an account of what exactly happened, but it does feel like Fincher got pulled away by Mank or whatever and handed everything over to Carl Franklin. He does an excellent job on Atlanta (returning the show to some striking musical cues, too), so they caught a break there. Anyway, this time it felt more like bringing BTK to a close would have been too pat; it ends like it probably should, with the unsettling reality that these people will always be out there, somewhere.

The one thing I think they inarguably let slip away is Carr.

My friend and I are down to nine more of these: a Zoomcast on the music in Mindhunter (mostly) and My Friend Dahmer (a little bit).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9H-lQe-8sk

Damn, this is great.

Watching S1E2, and, above all else, I’m just so happy that Holt McCallany got to play a role like this.

Sorry, I meant S1E5

I had no idea he'd been around for so long till I looked at his IMDB page. He's in one of my favourite movies, Casualties of War; must be a small part, not listed on the main cast page.

i got a little bit of my Mindhunter jones from the Apple series Black Bird, which is another true crime serial killer profiling-type story. Similarly not exploitative, the only violence onscreen is during a prison riot when it's visited upon some prisoners and a couple of vv unlucky guards. It's a bit more pulpy but I thought it was very good. It features one of Ray Liotta's final performances and he's tough to watch, knowing what happens IRL soon and how his character's body is also failing him. Taron Egerton is pretty exceptional in the lead role, Paul Walter Hauser even better as real-life killer Larry Hall.

yeah Black Bird was a+
Hauser was so good! i only knew him from comedy roles before that

Greg Kinnear, also good! His early scenes, interrogating Hall and faced with the inept local cops, were vv Mindhuntery.

yeah definitely!