Date of Publication :15th May 2024

Abstract:This paper deals with how the character of the FBI agent, Holden Ford, in the Netflix series Mindhunter (2017) skews the representation of the serial killers whom the show explores, as his personal obsessive fascination with the criminals’ deviant behaviors makes him a heavily prejudiced chronicler. Holden’s preponderance over the narrative unfolding makes him the character most revealed to the audience, and he emerges almost as an unreliable narrator as his attraction towards deviancy dictates the perspective of the portrayal of the criminals. Moving beyond Booth’s classic definition of the unreliable narrator, Holden’s character colors, and at the same time, aggravates the popular culture obsession with the crime genre. Holden’s sympathy seems to lie with the serial killers whose psyches are deeply delved into in this show, as the FBI agent himself teeters towards psychopathic behavior in his dangerously intimate relationships with the serial killers. Hence, this paper seeks to explore how criminology is represented in popular media through such representations of behaviors which are deviant but simultaneously border on the sensational.

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