Mind Hunter
This really is a gem. Produced by Charlize Theron(!) and David Fincher, who also directed the first two and last two episodes AFAIK. As it has been mentioned the story is about the formation and rise of the FBI Behavioral Science department, basically the group responsible for criminal profiling. Most of the first season covers their initial steps - interviewing convicted serial killers (a term they actually came up with).
There are some good things that we kinda expected - it is amazing looking, the costumes, cars, settings, camera work and all are exceptional and really serve to help establish a certain mood.
Oh and someone called the Nerdwriter has also given us this really cool video:
Another really good thing is how the casting relies on relatively unknown actors (although look for a familiar face from Fight Club!), so the viewer has practically no associations about them and they can simply disappear into their characters. The guy playing Ed Kemper, the co-ed killer, is particularly outstanding - he not only looks the part, but his speech patterns are almost indistinguishable from the real person (although I suggest not googling him before watching the show).
But the most impressive is how a TV series about serial killers and profiling manages to be so completely fresh, interesting and incredibly intense. Oh, and without showing but just a few photos of the actual crime scenes and bodies and such. Most of the show is literally about 2 or 3 people sitting in a room or car or airplane, having a conversation - and yet there's a lot of tension, excitement, and a gripping sense of horror, so you can't help but binge watch it.
There are a few things that did bother us though; some of the secondary plots and conversations are not as well written, and - as the second season was ordered well before the premiere - the story just stops seemingly half the way. But it's definitely something really outstanding.
The Good Place
This is something unusual as well
So it's a sitcom (with Ted Danson and Kristen Bell), at least on the surface. The premise starts simple: Bell's character Eleanor has died and wakes up in the afterlife, in what is called "The Good Place", because she was an exceptionally good individual on Earth. The place is actually a subset of that, a "neighborhood" for about 300 people, with a supreme being called Michael (Danson) as their host, complete with nice homes tailored to their tastes, endless supplies of frozen yogurt, flying lessons, and even each person's soul mate.
The only problem is that there's apparently been a "mistake" and Eleanor is a different person, who was actually very nasty in her life - like a real selfish bitch who should have gone to the Bad Place. And because she keeps acting like one even in the afterlife, things start to get a bit messy.
So, what follows is actually quite a lot more than a regular sitcom, with some nice elements of satire and philosophy (thankfully not that much though
); then some quite clever plot twists - and at the first season's finale, an even more clever reveal. Which you should definitely not know about if you plan to watch the show
6 episodes into the second season, it keeps being clever and entertaining, so we're definitely going to keep watching it.
But this weekend, it's Stranger Things 2!!!! Yaaaaay