Mindhunteris one of Netflix’s best TV shows, and though it unfairly ended too soon, its best replacement is also on Netflix and has an 85% critics' score onRotten Tomatoes. In 2017, Netflix released the psychological crime thriller TV seriesMindhunter, based on the 1995 true-crime bookMindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.
Mindhunterfollows FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), who, along with psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), operate the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit. The team launches a research project to interview serial killers to understand their psychology. Their purpose is to apply this knowledge to solving ongoing cases.
Mindhunterwas an instant success, thanks to its cinematic visuals, character development, and its exploration of criminal psychology. Unfortunately,Mindhunteronly stayed for two seasons, with season 2 released in 2019 and producer David Fincher announcing its end in 2023. However, Netflix already hasthe bestMindhunterreplacement, and it was also a short series.
Criminal: UK Is Mindhunter’s Best Replacement
A bit over a month after the release ofMindhunterseason 2, Netflix broughtCriminal: UK. Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith,Criminal: UKis a police procedural TV series set within the confines of a police interrogation room and its viewing quarters.
Criminal: UKfollows a specialized interrogative unit of the Metropolitan Police, led by Detective Chief Inspector Natalie Hobbs (Katherine Kelly), Detective Inspector Tony Myerscough (Lee Ingleby), and Detective Constable Hugo Duffy (Mark Stanley). Each episode covers the interrogation of a different suspect, with the team finding the best way to get answers while also dealing with other problems within the group.
The first season ofCriminal: UKhad three episodes, and season 2 had four episodes, so it won’t take long to watch the entire show. By having a contained setting,Criminal: UKis dialogue-driven, intense, and focuses on the psychology of the interrogation and the interactions between the team and the suspect.
BothMindhunterandCriminal: UKgo into the psychology of criminals, but they interview and interrogate very different subjects.Criminal: UKis more contained thanMindhunter, but that is a key element that makes it a perfect replacement, as well as its focus on the psychological conflict between detectives and suspects, and how the interrogations develop.
Criminal: UK Is Part Of An Anthology Series
A key difference betweenMindhunterandCriminal: UKis that the latter is part of a franchise.Criminal: UKis just one part of a four series project, with all parts released on Netflix. AccompanyingCriminal: UKin this franchise areCriminal: France,Criminal: Germany, andCriminal: Spain, though the UK series is the only one to get more than one season.
All the series were released at the same time on Netflix, so it’s not surprising that most of them fell under the radar.Criminal: France,Germany, andSpainfollow the same format and premise as the UK series, and all of them have only three (intense and engaging) episodes. It’s unclear why onlyCriminal: UKgot a second season, but its success surely played a part in that.
In 2020, co-creator Jim Field Smith shared onTwitter(nowX) that, although they didn’t have news on future seasons of the rest of theCriminalseries, they would “love to do more of the others” (viaRadioTimes).Unfortunately, at the time of writing, there have been no updates on more seasons ofCriminal: France,Germany, andSpain.
Still,Criminal: UKbeing part of a franchise gives the audience a chance to explore other characters, scenarios, and stories in a similar setting, especially when watching as a replacement or even complement toMindhunter.
Criminal: UK Is Only Two Seasons Long (But It Wasn’t Canceled)
Criminal: UKgot more attention than its accompanying series, thus leading to its success and to it getting a second season – however, and just likeMindhunter,Criminal: UKstopped at two seasons. WhileCriminal: UKdefinitely had its flaws, none of them were big or bad enough to get the show canceled after just two seasons.
Criminal: UKwasn’t canceled, and, instead, it was intended to end after its second batch of episodes.Criminal: UKwas conceived as a short, self-contained show, as were the rest of the series in the franchise, and if it hadn’t been for the success of the first episodes, the show wouldn’t have gotten a second season.
Netflix didn’t officially cancelCriminal: UKnor any other series in the franchise, but there hasn’t been an official renewal for any of them, either. There are currently no updates on the futures of any of theCriminalshows beyond the desire of the creators and casts of all the series to continue telling more stories from the interrogation rooms.
Unfortunately, ending after just two seasons is another shared characteristic betweenMindhunterandCriminal: UK, though under different circumstances, but the shows complement each other quite well thanks to their other similarities.
Mindhunter
Cast
From executive producers David Fincher and Charlize Theron comes Mindhunter, a series that chronicles the founding of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit used to track and apprehend serial killers. Mindhunter follows Agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) as they work to establish a framework for understanding the minds of some of America’s most dangerous serial killers. Mindhunter adapts a number of true crime stories, including the BTK murders and the notorious Co-Ed Killer, Edmund Kemper.
