TV Tuesday: MINDHUNTER [2017]

Netflix debuted all ten episodes of Mindhunter Season One on October 13, 2017. I had the opportunity to binge the series this past Saturday after other plans fell through and despite this warning from Stephen King

MINDHUNTER, on Netflix: Strongly recommended. Other than a jaw-dropping moment in the first episode, very little gore.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 17, 2017

I was still caught off-guard and jumped a bit in my recliner. You know what else caught me off-guard? The music heard in the background of certain scenes, some of which moved to the foreground as each episode's ending credits rolled. Not that I listened long or watched the closing credits. Netflix makes it insanely easy to skip to the next episode in a series and then adds the sweet little Skip Intro feature that lets viewers skip opening credits and title sequences completely, jumping us right into the show.

The show is not for everybody - I mean Stephen King "strongly recommended" it - but if you've ever watched a police procedural drama, the ID Channel, or David Fincher's The Zodiac, you might enjoy it. It is rated MA for language, violence and adult behavior. As the first episode opens, the year is 1977 but by the tenth episode, the Season Finale, it is 1978. (And yes, there are musical anachronisms. Hope that's not a deal-breaker.) In an interview with Billboard, executive producer David Fincher explains why he trusted Jason Hill for a score and musical cues throughout the series yet declined to hire a music supervisor, instead relying on his own musical taste and that of the show's creative team explaining that "The songs had to have a rigorous and unbendable connection to time." Fincher, already filming the second season of Mindhunter, promises that there will be more "African-American music" next time around due to next storyline. After watching each episode once through, I came up with a list of thirty-four songs I recognized; though the SoundHound app assisted in the identification of three tracks. I opted not to include the song the band is playing in the club in the first episode nor the two loungey songs heard when one of the characters is dining out with his with wife but like my friend Mark said, all the usual suspects are here. Please let me know if I have missed any others.