History Series / Mindhunter

* TooDumbToLive: Audiences will be forgiven for screaming at their televisions due to the [[IdiotBall complete lack of common sense]] Holden exercises in his interviews with Edmund Kemper, including having Kemper's handcuffs removed, eating food that he's made, and even ''letting Kemper put his hands on his throat.'' [[spoiler: Holden only survives when Kemper has him [[AloneWithThePsycho at his complete and total mercy]] because Kemper seemingly likes him enough not to kill him.]]

** Immediately after revealing his strained marriage due to the AmbiguousDisorder of his son, Bill rather disturbingly starts talking about how married men experience a life full of pressures that may build up until they snap. Not only does Holden realize this, Officer Ocasek, who has barely met Bill, realizes it too and shoots him a concerned glance.

* AmbiguousDisorder:
** While the theme and tone of the show might lead the audience to suspect a [[EvilOrphan less innocent explanation]], many of Bill's adopted son's behaviors are reminiscent of autism, which wouldn't have yet been well-understood at the time. Alternatively, given that he spent a period in an institution at an early age, it's possible he has reactive attachment disorder instead, which is caused by early neglect.
** The way Holden single-mindedly engrosses himself in his work, his inability to pick up sarcasm, and his occasional need to ask about obvious social behaviors may point to him being on the spectrum as well.

** Kemper's scene with Holden in the season 1 finale is inspired by an incident that happened between Kemper and Ressler in prison, not a hospital. Kemper really attempted suicide with a pen case, but he did it years earlier in 1974 and it wasn't an attempt to lure someone to him.

** Bill can't help but break into a chuckle when Kemper says that he buried the heads of his victims in his mother's garden so they would be looking straight up at her room because "Mom always liked people to look up her."

* SocietyIsToBlame: discussed. Debbie studies sociology and talks often about Emile Durkheim's theories. During the Atlanta Child Murders investigation, the GBI agent that monitors the local Klan chapter doesn't think all the murders are connected, and are more a result of the high risk lifestyles many of the kids lead, saying “If you're looking for a monster, it's poverty”

* StorefrontTelevisionDisplay: Several sequences are shown of the FBI's progress on a group of 70s-style wood-paneled TV sets in a storefront.

* ScaryShinyGlasses: when Ford visits Kemper at the hospital, there is a shot of Kemper staring at the ceiling while Ford monologues, where the glare of the light gives a very sinister effect. Camille Bell on the other hand is a non-villanous example.

* NeverMyFault: a common theme with the interviewed killers. Ranging from Brudos' and Pierce's outright and implausible denial to Kemper's [[FreudianExcuse rationalization]]. In turn, Holden himself doesn't seem to grasp how often his actions cause problems for other people.

* MustStateIfYoureACop: the kids in Baltimore Gregg tries to approach demand he show them his dick to prove he's not a cop.

* HellholePrison: None of the prisons Holden and Bill visit are especially nice, but the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet_Correctional_Center Joliet Correctional Center]] where Richard Speck is held really stands out. The whole place seems like it's on the verge of a riot, with inmates screaming, trash being thrown everywhere and the guards doing little to stop the mayhem.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Real serial killers Edmund Kemper, Dennis Rader, Montie Rissell and Jerry Brudos appear as characters in the first season, as does spree killer Richard Speck and obscure child rapist and killer Darrell Gene Devier. Season 2 ups the ante with appearances from David Berkowitz, Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., William "Junior" Pierce, William Henry Hance, and ''UsefulNotes/CharlesManson'' himself (Manson Family member Tex Watson also appears).

* InnocentlyInsensitive. both Bill and Gregg make some heavily homophobic remarks in the presence of Wendy, and Holden keeps putting his fot in his mouth when talking about Black people.

* FreudianTrio: Bill is the Id, Holden is the Ego and Wendy is the Superego.

* FreeRangeChildren: common sight in Atlanta, where many boys spends most of the time outisde, doing odd jobs for a few dollars. One episode opens with what appears to be the killer picking up a boy from the side of a road, but is revealed to be an Atlanta PD undercover sent by Holden to test his theory. Gregg in turn is sent to try this at a housing project in Baltimore, where the kids [[TooSmartForStrangers tell him to fuck off or take out his dick to prove he's not a cop]]. Serial killer Monte Rissel that the team interviews also grew up with very little supervision and access to alcohol, drugs and weapons.

* FoodInterrogation: Since parole is out of question, the best the team can come up with the subjects is food. Kemper gets a pizza, Rissel gets his TradeMarkFavoriteFood Big Red soda and Pierce all the candy he can eat.

** Racism, sexism, homophobia and [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim gun culture]] all casually pop up as Holden tries to introduce profiling to the Quantico of 1977.

* TheDreaded: Manson, Kemper and Speck.

* ConsultingAConvictedKiller: For the first season, the consulting is purely theoretical, working to build ground work for profiling, but in season 2, Ford and Tench ask Edmund kemper and David Berkowitz for input on the BTK profile.

* ConsultingAConvictedKiller: This trope makes half the series.

* SpiritualSequel:
** There are lots of stylistic similarities to Fincher's previous film ''Film/{{Zodiac|2007}}'', which takes place earlier than this work and shows the challenge of catching a SerialKiller before there is a procedure or even a concept of what a SerialKiller is.
** Owing to the theme and shared origins, the show can also be interpreted as a more cerebral prequel to ''Series/CriminalMinds'', if not a {{deconstruction}} of it.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When the suspect Bill and Holden are tailing clocks them, bringing over some fast food for them to eat, the other officers (and Bill) see the funny side.
-->'''Officer:''' ''[over radio]'' I bet you he got the $2.99 special.
* AscendedFanboy: Holden mentions during Season 1 that he would love to interview Manson, believing him to be both fascinating and a possible gold mine of data. He gets the chance in Season 2, and can barely conceal how excited he is, even bringing a copy of the book about Manson to the interview (which Manson signs). He even gives Charlie his sunglasses simply because he asked.

All ten episodes of the first season were released online at once on October 13, 2017. A second season was greenlit almost immediately, eventually being released on August 16, 2019. In January 2020, Netflix announced that the show had been put on "indefinite hold" due to Fincher being busy with other projects (most prominently his first Netflix-exclusive feature film ''Film/{{Mank}}''), but the company also emphasized in the same announcement that the series had ''not'' been cancelled. However, in February of 2023, it was confirmed that the show has been cancelled.

All ten episodes of the first season were released online at once on October 13, 2017. A second season was greenlit almost immediately, eventually being released on August 16, 2019. In January 2020, Netflix announced that the show had been put on "indefinite hold" due to Fincher being busy with other projects (most prominently his first Netflix-exclusive feature film ''Film/{{Mank}}''), but the company also emphasized in the same announcement that the series has ''not'' been cancelled. However, in February of 2023, it was announced that it had been cancelled.

All ten episodes of the first season were released online at once on October 13, 2017. A second season was greenlit almost immediately, eventually being released on August 16, 2019. In January 2020, Netflix announced that the show had been put on "indefinite hold" due to Fincher being busy with other projects (most prominently his first Netflix-exclusive feature film ''Film/{{Mank}}''), but the company also emphasized in the same announcement that the series has ''not'' been cancelled.

** In his interview, Paul Bateson mentions that the idea of a gay man killing other homosexuals was deeply unsatisfying to and uncomfortable for the LGBTQ+ community, who would feel much better if it had been a homophobe, even though, as Bateson points out in an InUniverse case of FridgeLogic, any gay man at a bar at that time would have been on the look out for a homophobe trying to get them alone, and they would have likely sensed that something was off if a homophobe tried to pretend to be gay in order to lure them away. During the Atlanta investigation, the black community has a similar reaction to the idea of black man Wayne Williams being the one preying on black children, and many try to claim that the KKK or other racists are the true culprits, regardless of how damning the evidence against Williams is. The team comes to the same conclusion as Bateson about how it would be easier for a predator to lull someone that they have at least some commonality with; a black child in a southern state would naturally be more wary and cautious if a strange white man tried to, say, lead them away somewhere or offered them a car ride (and it would have caught the attention of more bystanders), whereas a black man doing the same thing would have an easier time with it and wouldn't stand out to potential witnesses.