Mindhunter’s Last 60 Seconds Proved Netflix’s Cancellation Was A Mistake

Mindhunter‘s cancellation still stings for true-crime fans, as it was unlike every other show in the genre. Mindhunter was Netflix’s best crime drama, despite showing few of the victories we are used to when watching modern police procedurals. This is because the series was about developing the criminal profiling science that most modern crime shows now feature as standard.

Mindhunter was about the partnership between Holden Ford and Bill Tench, who discovered they can learn about active serial killers by interviewing the ones already in prison. The show featured glimpses of one such killer, and Mindhunter‘s Season 2 ending set up season 3 perfectly, while being some of the most disturbing 60 seconds in any TV show.

Mindhunter’s Last 60 Seconds Proved The Show Had A Clear Plan With Great Foreshadowing

Dennis Rader aka BTK wearing a mask of a white face wearing red lipstick in the Mindhunter finale

While Mindhunter was mostly shown through the eyes of Holden, Bill, and Wendy, the show occasionally featured a mysterious man who seemed unrelated to any of the characters. The man, played by Sonny Valicenti, is only credited as “ADT Serviceman” due to his uniform and job as an ADT (American District Telegraph) Security salesman. However, true-crime fans knew who he was.

This was the killer known as BTK, which stands for Bind, Torture, Kill. This was a name he had given himself, and while he was eventually caught, he left a trail of dead women in his wake. BTK, whose real name was Dennis Rader, was into autoerotic asphyxiation, and the final 60 seconds of Mindhunter showed him engaging in this while looking at photographs of his kills.

Many things could have happened in Mindhunter season 3, but season 2’s ending made it clear that the writers had a plan. They had been teasing BTK throughout the show, and he was the opposite of everything that Holden and his team thought they knew about killers. This implied that the team was about to make a mistake when trying to identify him.

Mindhunter was one of the most frustrating TV cancellations of the past 10 years because it ended just as it was about to deliver on the BTK story. BTK tormented police and hid in plain sight, which would have made him the most formidable antagonist the team had faced so far. The fact that Netflix ended the story at a crucial moment is heartbreaking.

Mindhunter’s Season 3 Setup Laid The Groundwork For Bigger Stakes & Discussions

Holden sitting on a couch talking to Wendy in Mindhunter — Holden (Jonathan Groff) and Wendy (Anna Torv) in Mindhunter

Mindhunter season 2 focused on the Atlanta child murders and ended as Wayne Williams was caught. However, while this should have been a high point for Holden, he had to break his promise to the parents of the murdered children. Meanwhile, as he and the team were being highly commended for their work, they could have been set up for a terrible fall.

Holden and the team were still working with the assumption that most serial killers had bad home lives and could not deal with relationships. This implied that they would be looking in the wrong places when trying to find out the identity of BTK. With a new level of prestige and responsibility granted by the FBI, this could have had dire consequences in season 3.

Mindhunter is great, but it’s not for the faint of heart, and considering the fact that it was already an extremely tense show, the stakes looked set to rise. It has been confirmed that season 3 would have been partly set in Hollywood. This could have led to a level of fame that neither Bill nor Holden was prepared for.

Mindhunter was also opening discussions about the sociological impact of crime in that time period. While most of the killers featured on the show were white, the Atlanta Child Murders highlighted systemic racism in the U.S. In the 1970s, this would likely have been ignored or scapegoated, but Mindhunter looked set to address the issue head-on.

Netflix Made A Mistake Throwing Away One Of Its Most Carefully Crafted Crime Shows

The BTK Killer burning his drawings in Mindhunter

Most modern crime dramas have plenty of explosive or gory moments in every episode, and some are more action-oriented than procedural. On the other hand, Mindhunter was a dark and disturbing slow burn of a series, with very few moments of graphic violence. This made it a very different show from all the other offerings at the time.

Fans of the more action-packed crime shows may not have been drawn to Mindhunter, but the series picked up a cult following in the true-crime community for its accuracy, coverage of the science behind criminal profiling, and the range of cases covered. Mindhunter featured several interesting serial killers who were not depicted in other crime dramas.

With a growing following, a 97% positive critics’ score, and a 95% positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it was surprising that Mindhunter was canceled at all. However, executive producer David Fincher explained that Mindhunter‘s cancellation was due to budgetary issues. This controversial decision took away one of the best crime shows that Netflix had ever seen.

Canceling Mindhunter, just as it was about to take the story in a new direction with one of the most disturbing serial killers it had established, was one of Netflix’s biggest mistakes. Police procedural shows, no matter how good, are often formulaic, but Mindhunter was never predictable, even for people who knew the cases. This made it a masterclass in writing.

Mindhunter Could Have Gone On To Become The Best Crime Show Of All Time

Holden Ford and Bill Tentch holding up a picture in a prison, while interviewing someone who is off-screen, in Mindhunter. — Holden Ford and Bill Tentch holding up a picture in a prison in Mindhunter

Mindhunter had several factors that other police procedurals and crime dramas lacked. The constant state of suspense was one of the best features of the show, especially one that almost never involved real moments of on-screen violence. That said, it was graphic in a way that other shows aren’t, with chilling performances from actors like Cameron Britton and Happy Anderson.

The show approached well-known tropes and genres in a very different way. Mindhunter‘s take on the buddy cop genre was slowly developing, with all the hallmarks of the typical buddy-cop dynamic present but hidden. The storyline involving Bill’s son and his role in a crime was approached similarly to a horror movie, yet it never overshadowed the main story.

While the slower, more philosophical approach is not for everyone, new viewers who gave Mindhunter a chance would likely be pleasantly surprised by Season 3. The show could have broadened its horizons while staying committed to its dark period-drama aesthetic, which might have eaten up the budget, but it gave the show a visually striking style.

With its focus on developing criminal psychology while setting up Holden’s terrifying opponent little by little, Mindhunter was unique. The BTK storyline alone showed that the character development and writing in the show were of an incredibly high standard. Many episodes of Mindhunter were masterpieces, showing its potential to be the best crime TV show of all time.