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All of the killers on the show that helped to create the amazing narrative for the series.

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If you're watching Mindhunter, the Netflix drama based on the true story of the man who pioneered the science of profiling serial killers, you're probably wondering just how much of it is true. The show's fictional profiler, FBI agent Holden Ford, makes reference to infamous criminals like Charles Manson and David Berkowitz, but what about the other serial killers who appear on the show? Is Ed Kemper a real person? Were the good guys inspired by actual FBI agents? Below, we separate fact from fiction to explain what's real and what isn't in Mindhunter.

While several of the serial killers interviewed by Holden Ford are based on real people - down to actors who look eerily like their counterparts and dialogue that's pulled directly from actual prison interviews - the trio of Mindhunter 's protagonists are more loosely connected to their real-life counterparts. Still, the connections are tough to miss.

Holden Ford
The complex leading man of Mindhunter, played perfectly by Jonathan Groff, is based on John E. Douglas, the author of the book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. Douglas is no stranger to Hollywood: He reportedly served as the main inspiration for Jack Crawford in the novels Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, as well as Bryan Fuller's take on Will Graham in the TV show Hannibal. In Mindhunter, Ford walks a similar path as an agent in the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, traveling the country to interview some of the most notorious criminals in American history. In reality, Douglas redefined murder investigations thanks to information gleaned from interviews with David Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Richard Speck, and, of course, Edmund Kemper.

Bill Tench
The parallels between Holt McCallany's gruff FBI agent and his real-life counterpart are less direct than those between Ford and Douglas, but they're still there. Tench was inspired heavily by Robert K. Ressler, a Chicago-born FBI agent who joined the Bureau in 1970. Ressler was also a part of the Behavioral Sciences Unit in the '70s and is credited with coining the term "serial killer." Ressler also interviewed serial killers in the '80s and developed the nation's first computer database of unsolved crimes, which helped capture those who crossed state lines as they killed. He worked on major serial-killer cases, including the searches for Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. Ressler died in 2013.

Dr. Wendy Carr
Often the voice of reason and logic on Mindhunter, Anna Torv's psychologist has a real-life counterpart in Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess. Again, the real person worked in the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit with agents Douglas and Ressler, and all three people are credited with writing Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives, a breakthrough study of serial killers published in 1988. Burgess pioneered the treatment for trauma and abuse victims, co-founding a counseling program for victims of sexual violence at Boston City Hospital. She still teaches at Boston College.

Dennis Rader
The ADT man from Wichita seen in the opening scenes of severalepisodes is also Mindhunter's most elusive character. He has yet to see interact with any other major characters, but he's instantly familiar to people who have read about serial killers in America: Dennis Rader, the BTK killer. Rader gave himself the name "BTK" in one of his many letters to the media, which stands for "bind, torture, kill," his preferred method of execution. It's interesting that the final scene of Mindhunter 's firstseason is given to Rader, indicating that he will reappear in season two. Rader wasn't caught for his murders until 2005, so he'll likely be a part of the show for some time.

Ed Kemper
The hulking presence of the "co-ed killer" defines the first season of Mindhunter, taking Ford and Tench down the path that leads to their breakthrough profiling research. Mindhunter's version of Ed Kemper, played by Cameron Britton, is very similar to what we know about the real-life serial killer: The show quoted directly from actual interviews conducted with Kemper in prison. Kemper killed his grandparents as a teenager, but was later released from a mental hospital at age 21. From May 1972 to April 1973, he went on to kidnap, murder, and defile eight more people before he finally turned himself over to the police. Kemper is still incarcerated at the California Medical Facility.

Monte Ralph Rissell
When Ford and Tench speak to the fictional version of Rissell, they discover that not every serial killer is as open and forthcoming as Edmund Kemper. Rissell, played by Sam Strike in the show, is nowhere near a household name, but his crimes were undeniably horrific. He stands out for how early he started his rampage, reportedly committing his first rape at the age of 14. Like Kemper, Rissell was sent to an mental institution, and he's known for convincing his counselors that he was getting better while he surreptitiously committed crimes while on short leave. By the time he was arrested at age 19, he had killed five people and raped at least a dozen. He is currently incarcerated for five life sentences.

Jerry Brudos
The man who appears in episodes seven and eight is also a real serial murderer, branded by the press for his crimes as the "lust killer" and "shoe fetish slayer." What Ford and Tench learn from Brudos is essential how to profile criminals, and some of his confessions appear to be pulled from reality. He really was the younger son to a mother who wanted him to be a daughter, and his fetish for women's shoes started at a very young age. Brudos, played by Happy Anderson, was sent to a mental hospital after his first crime, abducting a woman when he was only 17. He appeared to settle down in the years following his release, getting married and having two children, but his murder spree began in 1968. Dressed in women's clothing, Brudos killed at least four young women in Oregon, mutilating and keeping parts of their bodies as trophies. He died in prison in 2006.

Richard Speck
They don't get much more loathsome than the infamous Richard Speck, captured by Jack Erdie on Mindhunter in all his abrasive, disgusting glory. However, Speck's crimes are different than most others on this show. On July 13, 1966, Richard Speck tortured, raped, and murdered eight nurses from the South Chicago Community Hospital. He had previously committed violent acts, but it was the horror of the singular event that made headlines around the world, especially because one woman escaped to describe the nightmare. In Mindhunter, Speck is an aggressive monster, and it's when Ford sinks to his level that he puts his career in jeopardy. Speck died of a heart attack in 1991.

Darrell Gene Devier
The season finale of Mindhunter, directed by David Fincher, hinges on the case of Darrell Gene Devier, and how Holden Ford and Bill Tench solve it using methods gleaned from their conversations with serial killers. The fictional version of Devier, played by Adam Zastrow, is almost directly lifted from history: Devier was a tree-trimmer working in a rural Georgia neighborhood where 12-year-old Mary Frances Stoner was raped and killed. Douglas writes about the case in his book, making clear that it was his first chance to stage an interrogation. The fake folder of papers that makes it look like the cops had a lot on Devier, the gross implication that the victim was asking for it to weaken the suspect's defenses, and the bloody rock placed in front of him: All of these tactics were actually used in Douglas's interrogation of Devier, and they ultimately led to his confession. Even the drama of the passed polygraph test comes from the real story.

Who Is Mindhunter's ADT Man From Kansas?

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The Real FBI Agents and Serial Killers Who Inspired Netflix's Mindhunter

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If you're watching Mindhunter, the Netflix drama based on the true story of the man who pioneered the science of profiling serial killers, you're probably wondering just how much of it is true. The show's fictional profiler, FBI agent Holden Ford, makes reference to infamous criminals like Charles Manson and David Berkowitz, but what about the other serial killers who appear on the show?

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The full interview with killer Ed Kemper. Definitely something to find time to watch in order to feel like Holden and Bill did when listening to Ed in the show.

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Edmund Kemper documentary - In his own words

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This Edmund Kemper documentary is an old collection of two interviews, the one from 1984 and the one from 1991. As a baby, and as a boy, Edmund Kemper III is huge. (He'll eventually grow to a three hundred pound, six-foot-nine-inch 'hulk' of a man).

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Reporter talks about how deep and dark this show truly is and how it affected him personally.

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COURTESY OF NETFLIX

If, like me, you spent your Thanksgiving break binging a show about serial killers instead of spending time with friends and family, Charles Manson's recent death probably struck you as a "crazy" coincidence.

See I've spent the last couple days watching one of Netflix's newest original series, Mindhunter, which follows two late '70s FBI Behavioral Science Unit agents as they attempt to delve into the psyches of the nation's most heinous criminals. Produced by David Fincher and starring Jonathan Groff, whose voice who might recognize from Hamilton (King George) and Frozen (Kristoff), and Holt McCallany, who you'll recognize from something or other, the series' first season explores the depths of human depravity and the ripples it creates in the lives of those around the edge of the pit.

The material this show covers is pretty inherently interesting. The team's interviews with the killers are wonderfully chilling but it was seeing our "good guys" slowly start to change as a result of those interviews that was the icing on the cake for me.

I can't really sit here and tell you Mindhunter is necessarily a "fun" show, but man is it fascinating. As the provisionally accepted psychology minor that I am, I was sold on watching this one the minute I heard the premise. And as a fan of Seven, Fight Club and House of Cards (though perhaps not in light of recent events) I was sold the minute I heard Fincher's name was attached to the project. I came in with high expectations and, for the most part, Mindhunter met them.

For me, this show is almost entirely about Agent Holden Ford (Groff) and his descent into the mental realms of monsters. Fellow FBI Agent Bill Tench (McCallany), Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), a psychology professor brought on by the team, and Ford's girlfriend Debbie Mitford (Hannah Gross), as well as all the other tertiary characters are just window dressing, albeit well acted and important window dressing. While they all serve to further the plot in their own ways, they do so in direct service of Ford's character arc.

And what a fascinating arc it is! As you might expect, his proximity the the nation's most prominent violent killers affects him drastically, but first manifests itself as a type of sick fascination, an all-consuming hunger to understand why they did what they did. As the show progresses, Ford develops a strange sympathy for the devils he's speaking with and a penchant for bending the rules of conventional interrogation, even developing an uneasy "friendship" with Ed Kemper, one of the show's recurring killers.

This sounds great right? It's well written and acted and it's intellectually streaming, what's not to like? Two words: the ending.

I think it might be more accurate to view Netflix's full season releases as extended films than actual TV shows. By shifting the blame of time commitment to the eager and committed audience, showrunners can essentially release ten hour movies without any of the backlash I'm sure such a project would accrue. I, as one of Netflix's loyal binge-watching minions, have no problem with this approach as it allows for level of character development that just aren't possible on the silver screen.

Given the cinematic-universe-or-bust nature of recent blockbusters, I've become accustomed to movies ending in an open-ended fashion. I'm not saying I like it, but lately it's been the only thing on the menu. What I won't stomach, however, is a ten hour series ending in a cliffhanger.

I mean what the hell? As soon as episode ten came to a close, the bottom of the screen flashed "Season Two now available." Eager to see what happened next and positive that wouldn't actually be where the show left things, I hastily clicked the button and found myself watching an episode of Stranger Things. It was an advertisement for another show! At this point I was feeling about as incredibly incredulous and upon some angry Googling I found that season two won't even begin filming until next year.

This is such a shame because Sonny Valicenti's ADT Serviceman character was shaping up to be a truly compelling "adversary" for Holden and company just as the season concluded. The heavy-handedness with which the showrunners decided to set up a second season instead of offering the audience any real closure really disappointed me, if only because of how invested in the plot I had become by the final episode.

I still think Mindhunter is a worthwhile watch for it's multidimensional characters and gripping psychology, but I'll remember it with bitterness because of its end. I'm not saying I won't eat up season two when it lands but for now I've got some serious serial killer blue balls. If anything, it's probably fair to chalk up this up to recent trends in film but just because something's trendy doesn't mean it's excusable.

Nick Smith is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at nsmith@cornellsun.com.

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If, like me, you spent your Thanksgiving break binging a show about serial killers instead of spending time with friends and family, Charles Manson's recent death probably struck you as a "crazy" coincidence.See I've spent the last couple days watching one of Netflix's newest original series, Mindhunter, which follows two late '70s FBI Behavioral Science [...]

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Show is #6 on Top 20 shows of 2017. Talks about the true meaning of the show: Holden's relationships with everyone, especially the killers.

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For a show about some of the 20th-century's bloodiest murderers, Mindhunter doesn't have that much blood. Or murder, for that matter.

Instead, Netflix's best drama focuses on the birth of criminal profiling in late-70s America. Produced by Charlize Theron and David Fincher - who directed a handful of episodes (as did Asif Kapadia and Borgen writer Tobias Lindholm) - Mindhunter tells the story of two FBI officers awakening to the idea of using the minds of real-life monsters such as Jerry Brudos and Richard Speck to stop similar crimes happening in the future.

Fincher isn't actually the showrunner of Mindhunter (although squint and you're in Zodiac). That job belongs to British writer Joe Penhall, last seen adapting the Kinks' songs for the stage in jukebox musical Sunny Afternoon. Penhall took agent John E Douglas's 1995 book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit and used it to recount the invention of serial killing. Well, the term at least. What's surprising to a modern viewer is that the notion of a serial killer didn't even exist in 1977. At one point, we see Jonathan Groff's wide-eyed Holden Ford and his colleagues Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) and Anna Torv's psychology professor Wendy Carr suggesting alternative terms to use. Pattern killer, perhaps?

Groff's performance is as inspired as it is unusual. We're used to TV murder detectives being as gritty and damaged as their prey - but Ford is such a milk-drinking ingenue that there's a recurring joke in the series that no one can believe he was born in New York. From listening to the actor explain it in interviews, he was as surprised as anyone when Fincher flew him out to LA at the end of his stage-stealing turn as catty George III in Hamilton to offer him the part. Groff's career so far - from Glee to HBO's Looking and Disney's Frozen - doesn't necessarily point towards a show in which a man masturbates into a pair of high heels. But Groff is superb. Weird. Watchable. It's a multicolour performance almost alien to its grim, grey surroundings.

Mindhunter may be sold as a drama about serial killers. But it's as much about Holden Ford's relationships. With those rapists and murderers, sure, but also with Tench, with his cynical FBI colleagues and with his girlfriend, Debbie (Hannah Gross). But the central pairing, and certainly the creepiest, may be the bromance (of sorts) between Ford and Ed Kemper. Kemper, as serial killer enthusiasts may already know, is the intelligent, 6ft 9 Californian necrophiliac who murdered his grandparents, mother, mother's friend and six female students before engaging in acts more despicable than even the darkest mind could conjure. He confessed before the police could catch him.

The "Co-ed Killer" is played terrifyingly by the previously unknown Cameron Britton. We watch Ford and Kemper initially dance around each other before establishing a curious bond. One that proves highly useful for their work, but which takes an increasingly emotional toll on the FBI man as the series goes on.

There is a risk that Mindhunter could turn into a Who's Who of infamous American murderers - which monster is it this week? - but that is quickly offset by a format that leaps and weaves. Some weeks we're in procedural mode, others we're meeting a murderer and in others we're exploring Ford and Tench's screwed-up home lives. The fluidity of streaming allows episode lengths to vary to fit. There's even a largely silent pre-credits storyline centred on a man about to kill, of whom we know nothing beyond the fact that he's in Park City, Kansas (I've been reluctant to Google the real-life details for fear of "spoilers"). That's all to be continued - Netflix has renewed the show for a second series. Thank goodness. You'd kill for more.

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The 50 best TV shows of 2017: No 6 Mindhunter

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For a show about some of the 20th-century's bloodiest murderers, Mindhunter doesn't have that much blood. Or murder, for that matter. Instead, Netflix's best drama focuses on the birth of criminal profiling in late-70s America.

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Discusses the real-life Ed Kemper and how Cameron Britton nailed the part.

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If you've finished watching Netflix's Mindhunter, you've seen one of the year's most chilling and unforgettable TV performances: Edmund "Big Ed" Kemper, as played by actor Cameron Britton. But the infamous "co-ed killer" is no mere writer's concoction. Edmund Kemper is a real serial killer, and the fictional version of him is disturbingly close to the real thing. Mindhunter even lifted some of Kemper's dialogue directly from video interviews conducted in 1984 and 1991, which you can watch below.

Who was Edmund Kemper? The Mindhunter version of the man hews pretty closely to the truth, even down to Britton's unique speaking pattern and immense size. Kemper is six-foot-nine and reportedly has an IQ of 145. When he was 15, he murdered both of his grandparents and was sent to the criminally insane unit of the Atascadero State Hospital, where he was held until his release at age 21. If you've seen Mindhunter, you know what happened next: From May 1972 to April 1973, Kemper kidnapped and killed at least eight more people - including six college students, his abusive mother, and his mother's friend - dismembering and defiling their bodies in ways too horrible to mention here. During his 1973 trial, Kemper requested "death by torture" as punishment for his crimes; he was ultimately convicted for eight counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in the California Medical Facility.

In the world of Mindhunter, Kemper's intelligence and eloquence help FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) to better understand the way serial killers think. This isn't the first time Kemper has been depicted in pop culture - he was reportedly an inspiration for Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs and Edgler Vess in Dean Koontz's Intensity - but he's never been this terrifyingly captivating. In a particularly striking moment in Mindhunter, Ford and Tench laugh with him over pizza, and it's clear they've almost forgotten just how horrifying he is, which is part of what makes Kemper so scary.

As for his current whereabouts, Edmund Kemper was denied parole four consecutive times from 1979 to 1982, and then gave up on even trying, reportedly telling people that he wasn't fit to return to society. He is still imprisoned at the California Medical Facility, a prison in Vacaville that also held Charles Manson in the late '70s and early '80s.

How Mindhunter Makes Serial Killers Feel Quaint

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Watch the Real-life Interviews With Serial Killer Ed Kemper

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If you've finished watching Netflix's Mindhunter , you've seen one of the year's most chilling and unforgettable TV performances: Edmund "Big Ed" Kemper, as played by actor Cameron Britton. But the infamous "co-ed killer" is no mere writer's concoction. Edmund Kemper is a real serial killer, and the fictional version of him is disturbingly close to the real thing.

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News of Season 2 just recently came out and the contents of the show are described here.

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Even before the release of David Fincher's Netflix thriller Mindhunter, it had been renewed for a second season. Continuing the story of the fictional '70s FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) - a duo interviewing serial killers to try and suss out how they think - season two is well underway. Here's what we know so far.

What's the release date for Mindhunter season 2?

In a recent interview, Fincher said work on the show would happening "next year" - implying a late 2018 release date at the earliest. This has not been officially confirmed by Netflix.

How many episodes will there be?

There's no word yet, but judging by Netflix's normal practices it'll have the same number of episodes as season 1 - that's 10.

Is there a trailer?

Just an announcement trailer so far - see it below:

We need to talk to more subjects. pic.twitter.com/7pTnxAhM0G

- MINDHUNTER (@MINDHUNTER_) November 30, 2017

Has filming started?

Not yet - but we'll update this page when news comes in.

What's going to happen in season 2?

David Fincher recently revealed to : "Next year we're looking at the Atlanta child murders." The interview was about the show's soundtrack, so he says this will have an impact on the music ("we'll have a lot more African-American music") but it also tells us a lot about when and where season 2 is going to be set. The Atlanta child murders took place between 1979 and 1981, and resulted in the deaths of 28 children, teens and adults, all of whom were African-American. The man eventually charged with two of the adults' murders was the 23-year-old Wayne Williams, but the remainder became cold cases and were never solved.

Fans are speculating that another plotline of season 2 will include the BTK Killer, whom season 1 hinted at in various unexplained scenes: between 1974 and 1991 he killed 10 people in Sedgwick County, Kansas.

Any new cast members?

There haven't been any announcements yet, but the show is expected to cast someone to play the 23-year-old Wayne Williams, the serial killer charged with 1979's Atlanta Murders.

How many seasons will Mindhunter run for?

As long as everything goes to plan, there'll be five. In a recent Mindhunter interview, Holt McCallany (Bill Tench) told NME that Joe Penhall has written a 70-page document with "five seasons' worth of scripts", which he says "gives an overview of what the journey of the central characters will be."

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Mindhunter season 2: release date, trailer, cast, news and more

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Even before the release of David Fincher's Netflix thriller Mindhunter, it had been renewed for a second season. Continuing the story of the fictional '70s FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) - a duo interviewing serial killers to try and suss out how they think - season two is well underway.

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Reviews for the hit series can be found here with a rating of 96%!

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Where all the info for this episode can be found, including cast, producers, and filming locations.

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"Mindhunter" Episode #1.2 (TV Episode 2017)

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Directed by David Fincher. With Sonny Valicenti, Gary Warden, Holt McCallany, Jonathan Groff. Holden interviews the eerily articulate murderer Ed Kemper, but his research provokes negative feedback at the Bureau.

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This article talks about how similar Britton's version of Kemper is to the real life killer.

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One such murderer is "Co-Ed Killer" Edmund Kemper, who first appears in the second episode of the show's first season and is portrayed to creepy perfection by Stitchers actor Cameron Britton.

"Cameron had come in with research like crazy, and had a very specific idea of what he wanted to do with Kemper," Groff told Rolling Stone of working with the actor who portrayed the Co-Ed Killer. "I got to read with him once, and he just walked in, and started saying his lines in character, and...he had the voice, and everything...To be sitting in this room with him in Los Angeles, all by myself, was terrifying."

However, to truly appreciate Britton's work on the series, one might want to look at the real Kemper. Several interviews with Kemper - who, according to Biography, killed six women in the Santa Cruz, California area as well as both his grandparents and mother - are available to watch on YouTube.

Naturally, they are all highly disturbing in content. However, perhaps the most unsettling part of the interviews is how calm, collected, and open Kemper seems while talking about his heinous crimes.

"I lived as an ordinary person for most of my life," said Kemper in one 1984 interview. "[But] I was leading a parallel, and increasingly sick life. Other life."

You can watch the videos below. Please be advised that the videos contain disturbing content.

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The Real-Life Edmund Kemper Interviews Prove How Scary Accurate "Mindhunter" Is

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One such murderer is "Co-Ed Killer" Edmund Kemper, who first appears in the second episode of the show's first season and is portrayed to creepy perfection by Stitchers actor Cameron Britton. "Cameron had come in with research like crazy, and had a very specific idea of what he wanted to do with Kemper," Groff told Rolling Stone of working with the actor who portrayed the Co-Ed Killer.

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This article talks about how Charlize and David came up with the idea for the show. Charlize wanted the show to be as dark as possible.

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To meet Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, stars of the Netflix series "Mindhunter," you'd never suspect they recently spent 10 long months consumed with the darkest reaches of the human psyche.

Groff, a charmer known for playing the lead in HBO's "Looking" and King George in the original Broadway version of "Hamilton," laughs generously as McCallany, a seasoned character actor and gabby raconteur with a booming voice, shares a story about training to throw out the first pitch at a Mets game.

Yet given their obvious rapport, it's easy to see why they were cast as the leads in "Mindhunter," which debuts Friday. The psychological drama, executive produced by David Fincher and Charlize Theron, follows a pair of trailblazing FBI agents as they interrogate notorious real-life murderers in an effort to understand - and maybe prevent - the senseless urge to kill.

Groff stars as Holden Ford, a clean-cut but open-minded young agent intent on shaking up the hidebound agency, while McCallany plays Bill Tench, a cynical veteran who asks what might be the series' central question: "How do we get ahead of crazy if we don't know how crazy thinks?"

In 2017, when criminal profiling has long since become standard practice - and spawned an entire pop culture subgenre in the process - the need to understand the origins of violent behavior seems obvious.

But "Mindhunter" is set in the 1970s, an era when the starchy culture of the FBI still reflected the narrow worldview of longtime director J. Edgar Hoover, says McCallany.

"The FBI was one of the most conservative law enforcement agencies in the world, so empathizing with killers to try to understand the traumas they experienced in their childhoods and how that gives us insight into their behavior was not something Hoover was interested in."

Yet the nature of crime itself seemed to be changing radically at the time. The social turmoil of the '60s and '70s also brought with it what appeared to be a terrifying new breed of criminal - brutal murderers like David Berkowitz (a.k.a. "Son of Sam"), Ted Bundy and Richard Speck who killed repeatedly and without apparent motive other than bloodlust. Establishing"means, motive and opportunity," as law enforcement officers had been trained to do, was no longer enough.

The series is based on the book "Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit," a nonfiction account written by John E. Douglas, a pioneering FBI profiler who interviewed and studied some of the country's most notorious violent offenders over the course of a 25-year career. (Groff plays a fictionalized version of Douglas, who's also said to have inspired characters in "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Criminal Minds." McCallany is a fictionalized version of FBI agent Robert Ressler, believed to have coined the term "serial killer." )

Theron became familiar with Douglas' writing when she was researching serial killer Aileen Wuornos for her Oscar-winning role in Patty Jenkins' 2003 film "Monster."

A few years later, she optioned "Mind Hunter," envisioning it from the beginning as a five-season television series, one that would take a more unsettling view of criminality and human nature than your standard catch-the-bad-guy-in-an-hour procedural.

Douglas and his colleagues were "really climbing an uphill battle with the FBI at that time, which just really did not function on any kind of empathy or understanding of these people," Theron says by telephone. "I think a huge part of where we are in understanding aberrant behavior is because of his work."

The "Mad Max: Fury Road" star, who says she's fascinated by "any kind of severe behavior," was drawn to the material despite its disturbing nature.

"I always want to know why. Why is it that somebody has the need to control in the ultimate way like Berkowitz did or [so-called 'Co-ed Killer'] Ed Kemper did? A lot of people think it's really strange, my mother included, but I think it's healthy to want to turn the light on and want to understand something that's scary."

She immediately brought the project to Fincher, a storyteller known for delving into the homicidal mind in such films as "Se7en" and "Zodiac."

"I just thought he must be somewhat obsessed with serial killers the way that I am, and I was happy to find out that he was," she says with a note of self-deprecation.

Theron and Fincher spent several years developing the project with writers Joe Penhall and Jennifer Haley, putting together 10 scripts and a series bible and formulating an approach that blends fact and fiction. The decision was made to take creative license with Groff and McCallany's characters, while adhering scrupulously to the real-life biographies of the killers portrayed in the series, such as Kemper.

Eventually they brought the project to Netflix, which had successfully partnered with Fincher on "House of Cards." Fincher directed four episodes of "Mindhunter" and is, by all accounts, very much its creative leader.

"One of the amazing things about this experience is that finally a TV show that is director-friendly," says McCallany, who was eager to work with Fincher again after small parts in "Fight Club" and "Alien 3." "When a director is empowered on a television set the same way he would be on a film set, it's an incredible thing."

Groff, a Fincher newbie, says the director has "no blind spots." "Some directors are good with writers, and some directors are good with cameras, and some are good with actors. The sort of chilling thing about David is he can do everybody's job better than they can do it, so there's this immediate level of respect and hard work."

Unlike some of his collaborators, Groff says he was "not a serial killer person. When I first picked up the book, it took me a long time to get through it because I found it so disturbing."

Groff recalls that, from the outset, Fincher "wanted to blow up the comic-book villain idea of a serial killer" - the notion of an urbane evil genius à la Hannibal Lecter who drinks fine wine and listens to classical music.

"One of the things that is so chilling about 'Mindhunter' is that it humanizes the serial killlers, these sad, [messed-up] guys with damaged pasts and mental problems. It's so much scarier to look at them as human beings," he adds.

For a show about serial killers, "Mindhunter" is a psychological deep-dive that features a lot more talking than gore - as Theron puts it, "there is nothing about this that is fast-burning." One of its most riveting early scenes features two men conversing over egg-salad sandwiches in a prison cafeteria.

"We'll be the only two FBI agents in TV history to go multiple seasons without pulling out our guns and going 'Stop!'" jokes McCallany. "People looking for gunfights and car chases gotta look elsewhere."

But for anyone interested in psychology rather than splatter, "Mindhunter" may prove to be highly binge-able.

"Selfishly, I just really forced David to make me my own TV show that I, as a viewer, would want to watch," says Theron, who is nevertheless confident there are many out there like her. "I can't be the only freak."
'MINDHUNTER'
Where: Netflix

When: Anytime, starting Friday

Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17)
meredith.blake@latimes.com Follow me @MeredithBlake

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From Charlize Theron and David Fincher, 'Mindhunter' delves into the darker corners of the criminal mind

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To meet Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, stars of the Netflix series "Mindhunter," you'd never suspect they recently spent 10 long months consumed with the darkest reaches of the human psyche.

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Britton nailed the part of Ed by doing research and utilizing similar qualities to the real Ed Kemper

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Mindhunter vs Real Life Ed Kemper - Side By Side Comparison

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The juxtaposition of real interviews with Ed Kemper with the dramatized versions in Mindhunter reveals striking similarities and subtle differences in the adaptation. https://www.patreon.com/thomasflight Read the book the series is based on: http://amzn.to/2yL6knJ // Follow Me on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thomasflight // WEBSITE: http://www.thomasflight.com //Additional Music licensed from Artlist: https://artlist.io/Thomas-25435

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Ed knew just how to intimidate Holden in order to get him to listen.

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He is self-aware and knew the actions he would take against the people he killed.

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Similarity between Britton and Ed Kemper

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Similarity between Britton and Ed Kemper

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Many similarities lie between the real Ed Kemper and Cameron Britton who played him.

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Bill looks more authoritative while Holden looks intrigued

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This project looks at how the show Mindhunter utilizes symbolism and postmodernism in the deep and dark content of their narrative.