Take a few days off for a mini-vacation and your viewing schedule goes out the window.
While I had started Mindhunter before I headed out, sneaking in the first episode or two, coming back and having an awkward schedule kept me from watching anything else but this. To be fair, my TiVo queue is empty at this point and its weeks before broadcast TV gets underway again with the fall season. So that made it easy over the remaining nights that I had of the week two do two episodes per night for the nine-episode season. While I know there are certainly flaws to be had and liberties taken with telling tales of true crime with fictionalized characters, this series is just excellent. It’s very precise and calculated in each move it makes, the actors that are brought on to play the real-life serial killers inhabit them incredibly well, and the focus on the Atlanta Child Killings is fascinating since it had fallen off the radar for so many years and was full of so many problems that the show leans into. It’s incredibly timely in its own way as well. I know they have a five-season plan and I hope that it does well enough combined with Fincher’s name being involved that they’re able to go the distance. Bill Tench is the breakout character this season for me and Holt McCallany is fantastic in the part.
With nothing else watched this week, I figured I’d talk a bit about what’s coming up that has me excited that was newly announced. Mostly, it’s The Mandalorian. I’ve been waiting like many others a long time for a trailer and it largely delivered. I’ll admit it’s dicey keeping your lead under helmet the entire time and I really wanted to see Pedro Pascal shown here but I think they did this right in creating just enough mystery. Jon Favreau has become one of my favorite journeyman style creatives of the past decade since his work on Iron Man as he’s been a valuable asset for the MCU and he’s been strong in the live-action adaptations of Disney’s animated works – particularly The Jungle Book. Knowing he’s similar to myself in being a Star Wars fan and of that generation, this is the kind of project that looks to lean into what Lucas started with as inspiration, westerns and samurai series along with Flash Gordon and the like. I’m excited to see what expansions he brings with this. And as much as I’d love to binge the hell out of it, I’m extra glad that it’s weekly. That means those who can binge before most people see one episode won’t be spoiling everything.
