Second season of Mindhunter may be even better than the first - a rarity!

Season 2 of the Netflix series Mindhunter is that rarity, as good as or even better than the intriguing Season 1. The first season, which aired a few years back, stayed I imagine pretty close to the nonfiction book on which it was based: We watch as a team of agents (Ford and Tench) introduce to the reluctant FBI the concept of building psychological profiles of particular kinds of criminals (in this case, serial killers) to help identify suspects; the agents are in the process of developing methods for predicting the type of person who might be behind a series of crimes - using interviews w/ convicted killers to get insight into the mind of likely suspects. This methodology represented a severe shift in criminology, which till then had been based only on physical evidence and witness accounts. IN the second season we move beyond the establishment of profiling (fewer interviews w/ convicted killers) and we see the application of the principle in relation to a major killing spree, the Atlanta child abductions in the 1980s. The FBI agents, Ford in particular, insist that their data reveals a certain profile of the killer; the forces on the ground will have none of this and seek only physical evidence. The profiling is particularly troublesome to Atlantans because Agent Ford is sure that the perpetrator must be a young black man - which on the surface looks and sounds like racism. Aside from the political battles and the complex, unfolding search for the likely killer, there's a good back story developing, as Agent Tench's young, troubled son is involved in a brutal killing of a child - a plot line that strains credibility a little but leads to some powerful scenes and really builds our sympathies for the ramrod-straight agent Tench. Another secondary plot line involving the love life of Wendy, the academic expert who's an outside consultant to the team, feels peripheral and forced, but that's a minor matter. Overall, the 9-part series will hold interest and attention throughout and promises more developments if there ever is to be a Season 3.