Mindhunter (Netflix)

[Steez]

anyone else watching this? One of my very favourite new series to have come out in recent time.

great dialogue driven show.

especially if you're into crime/unsolved.

show is run by David Fincher, nuff said.

[Esoteric]

I watched the first season a while back and enjoyed it. I find it to be a very interesting show and I look forward to another season

[Proletarian]

anyone else watching this? One of my very favourite new series to have come out in recent time.

great dialogue driven show.

especially if you're into crime/unsolved.

show is run by David Fincher, nuff said.

Took me a very long time to watch this after seeing you mention it here years ago. Great TV show.


LIGHT SPOILER ALERT:
In more than one episode Durkheim gets mentioned. Durkheim established sociology as an academic discipline through a study on suicide which showed that suicide has social causes. What I found most interesting about this is, the social conditions that are shown by the show to produce serial killers are shared by those that cause suicide: they all had a lack of control over their own lives, either in their youth or both in their youth and adult lives. Having a lack of control over your life is known to encourage suicide (that's why there is a social gradient in suicide; the more money people have, the less likely they are to kill themselves), but the serial killers gain a sense of control by dominating other people (instead of killing themselves).

Marx's concept of alienation is also very relevant to the show (fyi, studies suggest that alienation also causes suicide). The serial killers tackle their experience of 'alienation' (i.e., the lack of control they have over their labour and its products) by making a job out of killing people (which they have complete control over). One of them even calls it an occupation.


Thanks for the share; it was a very interesting watch, and I learned something.

[Steez]

I thought you might like it. You liked The Wire didn’t you? Or am I thinking of someone else on here?

It’s been awhile since season 2. I haven’t heard anything about a season 3 since. Hop we get more.

Thanks for sharing your insight, that’s quite an interesting overlap

Took me a very long time to watch this after seeing you mention it here years ago. Great TV show.


LIGHT SPOILER ALERT:
In more than one episode Durkheim gets mentioned. Durkheim established sociology as an academic discipline through a study on suicide which showed that suicide has social causes. What I found most interesting about this is, the social conditions that are shown by the show to produce serial killers are shared by those that cause suicide: they all had a lack of control over their own lives, either in their youth or both in their youth and adult lives. Having a lack of control over your life is known to encourage suicide (that's why there is a social gradient in suicide; the more money people have, the less likely they are to kill themselves), but the serial killers gain a sense of control by dominating other people (instead of killing themselves).

Marx's concept of alienation is also very relevant to the show. The serial killers tackle their experience of 'alienation' (i.e., the lack of control they have of their labour) by making a job out of killing people (which they get complete control over). One of them even calls it an occupation.


Thanks for the share; it was a very interesting watch, and I learned something.

[Proletarian]

I thought you might like it. You liked The Wire didn’t you? Or am I thinking of someone else on here?

It’s been awhile since season 2. I haven’t heard anything about a season 3 since. Hop we get more.

Thanks for sharing your insight, that’s quite an interesting overlap

Love The Wire. Top tier TV show.

I think Mindhunter got canceled. Apparently, they had a low number of viewers, it cost a lot to make and it took a considerable amount of work to put it together. It's possible it could come back, but it's also a little unlikely. All we can do is hope.

The overlap blew my mind to be honest. It wouldn't surprise me if the creators of the show were aware of it when they made the show, seeing as Durkheim was mentioned in the first episode while contemplating the idea that crime is a product of the way society is organised: Durkheim is more known for his claim that the faulty organisation our society is responsible for excessive levels of suicide, which he had the science to prove.

[7thdayprofessor]

anyone else watching this? One of my very favourite new series to have come out in recent time.

great dialogue driven show.

especially if you're into crime/unsolved.

show is run by David Fincher, nuff said.

No. I watched the first season finally a year or two back, but i actually have studied the cases they discuss since a prepubescent. Studied it heavily may i add.

[7thdayprofessor]

Love The Wire. Top tier TV show.

I think Mindhunter got canceled. Apparently, they had a low number of viewers, it cost a lot to make and it took a considerable amount of work to put it together. It's possible it could come back, but it's also a little unlikely. All we can do is hope.

The overlap blew my mind to be honest. It wouldn't surprise me if the creators of the show were aware of it when they made the show, seeing as Durkheim was mentioned in the first episode while contemplating the idea that crime is a product of the way society is organised: Durkheim is more known for his claim that the faulty organisation our society is responsible for excessive levels of suicide, which he had the science to prove.

Have you ever studied the actual cases the show was based on though? Or others?

[Proletarian]

Have you ever studied the actual cases the show was based on though? Or others?

I've read about other cases, but hadn't studied any that were documented by the TV show in detail. However, I've read that the show is fairly accurate; it even quotes the actual serial killers at times during the interviews. Also, I highly doubt that the show presented a fictional account of the social conditions the serial killers came from and what drove them: the book that the show is based on is primarily about that. The show wouldn't be based on the book if it didn't present a fairly accurate account of those conditions and their motivations.

The motivations presented by the show make logical sense, as does the overlap. Also, I would argue that there is more overlap between the social conditions that produce suicide and serial killers: none of the serial killers are strongly integrated in modern society (Durkheim proved that an inadequate level of integration predisposes people to suicide). This would explain why capitalism predates the first recorded serial killer: people in pre-capitalist societies were highly/excessively integrated.