Mastermind: Thinking like a killer is a three-part docuseries, directed by Abby Fuller and produced by Dani Sloane, Dakota Fanning, and Elle Fanning, about Ann Burgess, a psychiatric nurse and college professor who pioneered the way law enforcement pursues serial killers. Not only does Fuller give viewers a biographical look at Burgess and her career, but Dr. Burgess offers a firsthand account of the cases she worked on.
MASTERMIND: THINKING LIKE A KILLER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening shot: We see the feet of a woman who leans back in a chair and sits down. We then see her loading paper into a typewriter and typing.
The essence: Through interviews with Dr. Burgess, her four sons, authors, and law enforcement experts, as well as reenactments and archival footage, Fuller tells the story of how Dr. Burgess began changing the minds of the male law enforcement establishment, starting with the FBI, when it came to rape, where she interviewed the victims and then got into the minds of serial killers by talking to them directly.
Burgess talks about how she became a psychiatric nurse; nursing was a profession where women regularly got jobs in the early 1960s, but she was one of the few nurses who asked patients how they felt rather than just worrying about their symptoms. She then co-wrote a book about how rape victims are often blamed for the sexual assaults they suffer, a revolutionary notion at the time. That caught the attention of the FBI, who asked her to go to Quantico and give a talk to recalcitrant male agents about how women aren’t “asking for it” when they’re raped, showing them slides of the actual injuries that rape victims suffer.
She began working with the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, specifically Agents John Douglas and Rob Ressler. They were interviewing and pursuing serial killers, and Dr. Burgess was interested in interviewing them to see how they had been raised, as well as getting them to open up about what fuels their murderous impulses and how they feel after killing someone. We hear audio tapes of interviews with several famous serial killers, and learn about how she helped with the case of the ski-mask rapist who terrorized women in Louisiana in the early 1980s.
What shows will it remind you of? Given the data Dr. Burgess collected on various serial killers, we are reminded of the recent series Sasha Reid and the midnight orderBecause Reid took the kind of information Burgess collected 45 years ago and put it into a database for more granular analysis.
Our opinion: The key to Brain Dr. Burgess herself is interviewed for the docuseries. It’s not often that the subject of a biographical docuseries gets to speak to the person being examined, and her perspective is invaluable. Her descriptions of how skeptical FBI agents were of her initial presentation of rape victims could only come from her. But it was also refreshing to hear her determination to make a career for herself, despite the tough uphill road women had to navigate when she was coming into her own.
Interviews with her adult children also illustrate how Burgess’s determination rubbed off on them. This isn’t a story about her being so wrapped up in her work that she neglected her family. No, this is about a woman who set a great example for her children, who have gone on to have distinguished careers of their own. If that lack of conflict makes for boring television, so be it. It may not be the most interesting story, but it’s a refreshing perspective.
However, the show really comes to life when Burgess is involved in raising awareness about the Behavioral Science Unit within the FBI and among the general public. His analysis of interviews with serial killers like Monte Rissell, who was a serial rapist before he started killing people, was fascinating; Burgess thought his case could serve as a basis for the ski mask case, since the perpetrator in that case changed what he did to his victims after doing it a certain way for a while. That led us to the topic of adrenaline, which led us to listening to tapes of Ted Bundy and Ed Kemper, two infamous serial killers that Burgess analyzed.
The first episode falls short in that it doesn’t do enough to discern what Dr. Burgess’ contribution to the ski-mask rapist case was. Not only did she identify possible patterns the rapist might follow through interviews with serial killers, but she then interviewed the victims to gather more information. It’s a little confusing that she actually did both and doesn’t get to the heart of how interviews with Ted Bundy and Ed Kemper would inform the ski-mask rapist case.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting shot: As we hear reports of the ski-masked rapist committing his assaults in several states, we see Burgess looking out of an office window. The frame slowly tilts.
Sleeping Star: As we said, Burgess’ adult children are all great examples of how she set a standard for her children, despite a busy career that gave her minimal national fame due to her media appearances.
Pilot’s most typical phrase: When Dr. Burgess talks about her early lectures on rape before the FBI, we cut between a video of her giving a lecture and a series of old films of men in ties from the 1960s and 1970s. It’s obvious that the audience shots are archival footage, but the trick was used for an infuriatingly long time.
Our calling: PASS IT ON. Mastermind: Thinking like a killer It’s an interesting look at the fascinating career of Dr. Ann Burgess, highlighting how she changed the way law enforcement viewed rape victims and serial killers.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV addict. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and elsewhere.
