TV SERIES · 2017–2019 · USA
MINDHUNTER
- Created by
- Joe Penhall
- Network
- Netflix
- Seasons
- 2
- Episodes
- 19
- Studio
- Denver & Delilah Productions
30 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
An agent in the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit develops profiling techniques as he pursues notorious serial killers and rapists.
30 Interesting Facts About MINDHUNTER
Interesting Facts (5)
- #001
At the end of Season 1 Episode 6, Episode #1.6 (2017), the show closes with The Boomtown Rats' song, "I Don't Like Mondays" which was written by Bob Geldof after the 1979 mass shooting by 16-year-old Brenda Spencer at Grover Cleveland Elementary in San Diego, CA. The song's title is attributed to Spencer's quoted reason for the shooting: "I don't like Mondays."
- #002
- #003
In one of the final scenes of the first season, Ford meets Kemper in a hospital room, and Kemper leans over him and says, 'I could kill you right now, just like that.' In reality, a similar incident took place between Kemper and agent Robert K. Ressler, who inspired the character Bill Tench. Left alone in a cell with Kemper for an in-depth interview, Ressler was met with the killer's words: 'If I went crazy in here, you'd be in trouble, wouldn't you? I'd rip your head off and put it on the table, and that's how I'd greet the guard.' Using the hostage negotiation techniques he had developed for the FBI, Ressler managed to keep the killer talking until the guard arrived, and after this incident the interview protocols were changed so that they would never again be conducted alone.
- #004
- #005
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Ed Kemper is telling the story of the night he murdered his mother, his words are nearly exactly the same as an interview filmed and used in the 1984 documentary "Murder: No Apparent Motive", a documentary exploring the still virgin field of criminal/forensic psychology.
Production Story (10)
- #006
- #007
- #008
- #009
- #010
In 2020, David Fincher confirmed that a third season would not be produced due to high costs: "Listen, for the viewership that it had, it was a very expensive show... I honestly don't think we're going to be able to do [season three] for less than I did season two. And on some level, you have to be realistic - dollars have to equal eyeballs." Meanwhile, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos attributed the cancellation to Fincher's busy schedule: "We always anticipated there would be a third season, and he got very busy making a film. And David is an unbelievably meticulous creator, so he couldn't do two things at the same time, and he certainly didn't want to short-change either one. So it just got pushed off and pushed off. I would have loved to have seen a third season of Mindhunter."
- #011
At the end of Season 1 Episode 6, Episode #1.6 (2017), the show closes with The Boomtown Rats' song "I Don't Like Mondays", which was written by Bob Geldof after the 1979 mass shooting by 16-year-old Brenda Spencer at Grover Cleveland Elementary in San Diego, CA. The song's title is attributed to Spencer's quoted reason for the shooting: "I don't like Mondays."
- #012
- #013
- #014
Contains a major spoiler — show
The "crucifixion murder" that Bill's son Brian witnessed in season 2 was inspired by a real-life incident that occurred in San Francisco in 1971. Two brothers, aged 10 and 7, killed a toddler and tied his body to a cross, believing it would resurrect him. Due to their young ages, the boys were sent to counseling rather than prison. However, the boys weren't related to Robert K. Ressler, the real-life inspiration for Bill Tench.
- #015
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Ed Kemper is telling the story of the night he murdered his mother, his words are nearly exactly the same as an interview filmed and used in the 1984 documentary "Murder: No Apparent Motive," a documentary exploring the still virgin field of criminal/forensic psychology.
Behind the Scenes (4)
- #016
Kazu Hiro and his prosthetics makeup team spent six hours working on actors Oliver Cooper and Damon Herriman for their respective roles as David Berkowitz and Charles Manson, so that when they walked onto the set they were the very embodiment of their real-life characters. Hiro had earlier won the Oscar for his transformation of Sir Gary Oldman into Sir Winston Churchill in the biopic Darkest Hour (2017).
- #017
- #018
The prison scenes at Vacaville, CA, where Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton) is interviewed were filmed at the former Pennsylvania State Prison at Greensburg, including the exterior. The scenes with Jerome Brudos (Happy Anderson) were filmed in the same facility, in a cage specially built in the gymnasium. At the time of the series release, Kemper (68) was still serving 8 life sentences at Vacaville's California Medical Facility, where Charles Manson had also served time.
- #019
Characters & Cast (6)
- #020
Anna Torv's Dr. Wendy Carr is based on Ann Burgess, a certified psychiatric clinical nurse and specialist in assessing and treating trauma in rape victims. She was later associated with FBI agents John Douglas and Robert K. Ressler in the Behavioral Science Unit, which was devoted to developing psychological profiling for serial killers.
- #021
In October 2017, Slate reported that Twitter was full of people who mistakenly believed that the actress playing Wendy Carr was Carrie Coon, when in fact Carr is played by Anna Torv. This happened so often that Coon started directly replying to and correcting followers on Twitter who complimented her on her Mindhunter performance, and she also changed her official Twitter bio to read, "That's not me on Mindhunter."
- #022
- #023
- #024
- #025
Contains a major spoiler — show
Michael Cerveris (Assistant Director Ted Gunn) plays a "signature killer", also known as a serial killer, in the episode titled "Strip Strangler" of the TV show CSI. In Mindhunter, his character is a major champion of the budding BAU and its goals to interview, hunt and capture serial killers.
Easter Eggs & References (4)
- #026
Jonathan Goff's character is based on John Douglas, also the inspiration for the character Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs, who had two scenes opposite his own superior, Hayden Burke, played by Roger Corman. Goff also appeared on stage in Little Shop of Horrors, which was based on the film directed by Corman.
- #027
- #028
Contains a major spoiler — show
In one of the later episodes, Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) can be heard asking: "What's in the box?"... possibly a reference to David Fincher's film Seven (1995) where Brad Pitt's character asks the same question in the famous scene. David Fincher also directed four episodes of the first season of this series.
- #029
Contains a major spoiler — show
While listing off infamous killers they could interview, one of the detectives mentions the killer Herbert Mullin, who was murdering people at the time in Santa Cruz, as was Ed Kemper, one of the main characters in this series. The two of them reigned terror on Santa Cruz for years, and police believed at the time that it was only one person committing all the murders. When police arrested Mullin, after he shot an old man in the middle of the street in front of multiple witnesses, the police thought they had caught the one and only killer. Three months later, Edmund Kemper came forward and confessed his murders.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #030
Contains a major spoiler — show
A disorder matching the symptoms that Bill Tench's son allegedly displays is called "selective mutism". Selective mutism is classified as an anxiety disorder that affects up to 0.8% of all people at some point in their lives, most commonly in school and/or social settings.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work