Mindhunter Might Be Over, But This Crime K-Drama Is Its Perfect Replacement
This show is for anyone with a Mindhunter itch that needs scratching.
David Fincher's hit series Mindhunter is based on the memoirs of John E. Douglas, an FBI special agent with 25 years of experience. It was Douglas who became the prototype for the character of Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and was the first person in the FBI to seriously study the minds of talkative, calculating, and often very charming psychopaths.
Mindhunter, which was so cruelly cancelled after its second season, became a true cult favorite among fans of the detective genre and true crime. And if you've been looking for the perfect replacement for Fincher's show all these years, you've just found it.
Through the Darkness Is Inspired by the Same Book as Mindhunter
The Korean drama Through the Darkness, released in 2022, demonstrates a skillful symbiosis of the sources on which the series is based. It’s source material is the book of the same name by the first South Korean profiler Kwon Il-yong.
But that's not all: The Behavioral Analysis Unit in South Korea itself was inspired by the same book on which Fincher's show is based.
What is Through the Darkness About?
The series is set in the 90s in Seoul. The residents of the city are paralyzed with fear because of a serial killer. He chooses his victims at random, making it impossible for the police to predict his next move.
The head of the Criminal Behavior Analysis Team recruits retired detective Song Ha-young to his team to use his unique profiling skills. The ability to create a psychological portrait of a criminal by immersing himself in his world may finally allow them to get on the trail of a madman.
Through the Darkness Delves Deep into the Psychology of Criminals
In this series, just like in Mindhunter, you won't see rivers of blood: it is the behavior of maniacs that sends chills down your spine. During interrogations, they will talk with a smile on their faces about what they did to the victims; they will be happy to see newspaper articles about themselves; and they will accuse the dead of simply provoking them.
The criminals will only regret that they killed fewer people than they had planned and that they never managed to become the country's number one killer.
This is an emotionally challenging story that takes the viewer on a journey into the darkest recesses of the souls of real-life serial killers. Exploring the nature of evil, the series will immerse you in a grim world that will stay with you for a long time.
You can stream Through the Darkness on Viki and Prime Video.