Anna Torv and Joe Tuttle sitting with their backs to the camera in a prison in Mindhunter
By
Guy Howie
Published 34 minutes ago
After joining ScreenRant in January 2025, Guy became a Senior Features Writer in March of the same year, and now specializes in features about classic TV shows. With several years' experience writing for and editing TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include a wide range of genres, from comedies, animated series, and crime dramas, to Westerns and political thrillers.
Sign in to your ScreenRant account
Summary
Generate a summary of this story
follow
Follow
followed
Followed
Like
Like
Thread
Log in
Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
Try something different:
Show me the facts
Explain it like I’m 5
Give me a lighthearted recap
Six years on from its second season, Mindhunter fans are still reeling from the cancellation of this Netflix masterpiece, due to apparent budgetary restrictions. The streaming giant attempted to place stricter limits on the cost of the series, but co-director and supervising producer David Fincher wasn’t willing to cut down on what he saw as some of its essential components.
In fact, Mindhunter is just one example of a more general problem plaguing the predominant streaming model in the TV industry. Netflix’s high-profile cancellations are becoming more and more frequent, with some of the platform’s biggest new releases of 2024 and 2025 already axed. It isn’t just Netflix, either – they just happen to be the most visible culprit.
In any case, since 2019 we’ve been waiting for a follow-up to Mindhunter’s season 2 ending, which teased further developments in a subplot about Wichita’s notorious BTK killer. This subplot had been built up gradually from the very first episode of the show, and it felt like a betrayal of fans when it was left hanging without a resolution.
There's Something Wrong With Streaming If Mindhunter Can't Get A Third Season
Still from Mindhunter
With a 97% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside a 95% audience approval rating, Mindhunter is widely regarded as one of the greatest things that Netflix has ever produced. So the idea that this series could be canceled after just two seasons, with its most important storyline left suspended in midair, suggests that there’s something seriously wrong with streaming.
In June 2025, actor Holt McCallany revealed that there are talks around three Mindhunter movies currently ongoing. But even this positive update probably isn’t the one that most fans are looking for. The show should be continued from where it left off, as a brooding psychological thriller series, rather than as three standalone feature films.
The Streaming Model Has Made It Difficult For Experimental Shows To Thrive
Brit Marling as Prairie Johnson / Nina Azarova, and Jason Isaacs as Hap Percy in The OA
However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for any TV show to get renewed for additional seasons by the major streaming networks. Netflix canceled the most shows out of any streamer in 2024, but it was far from alone in increasing its cancellation rate last year.
The speculative investments in high-risk experimentation which defined the early years of streaming have definitively come to an end. Netflix is no longer an up-and-coming young game-changer with money to burn. Now it is the game. The world’s most subscribed-to streaming platform has laid the blueprint for everyone else to follow.
Everyone else means, first and foremost, three of the world’s largest multimedia conglomerates, Amazon, Apple and Disney, who’ve now consolidated their positions in the streaming markets, and pose a major threat to Netflix’s competitive edge. At the same time, those who funded the rise of streaming are now demanding a return on their investment.
These are the fundamental reasons why we’re now seeing the creative experimentation which characterized streaming’s ascent to television’s top table turning into its opposite. A few gigantic corporate monoliths have monopolized the industry, and are primarily concerned with generating profits from their content, rather than art and entertainment.
In this climate, it’s unlikely that we’ll see Mindhunter season 3 on Netflix anytime soon, given that each episode of the show was reportedly costing an eye-watering $20 million to make (via Comic Book Resources). Unfortunately, no streaming behemoth would find this outlay a worthwhile investment, particularly for a show which has never topped any Netflix chart.
Every Dollar Put Into Mindhunter Was Worth It
Wayne Williams looking shocked and holding a camera in Mindhunter
The artistic merits of Mindhunter may not be of concern to those holding the purse strings at Netflix. Yet, they’re the reason why the millions of viewers and hundreds of critics are such ardent and vocal supporters of the show.
If its reported cost per episode is true, that would make it the most expensive original series in Netflix history. But such a massive outlay is apparent in every single aspect of this incomparably innovative police-procedural drama. It was an investment in art genuinely worthy of the word great, which saw a productive return on every dollar.
The return might not be reflected in raw numbers, but history will account for the real impact of Mindhunter, in terms of its wider legacy and influence on the future of screen drama. Like the auteuristic big-screen masterpieces of New Hollywood, it didn’t come cheap, but the world would be worse off without it.
-
Your Rating
close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a ReviewYour comment has not been saved
Like Follow Followed Mindhunter TV-MA Crime Drama Thriller
10/10
132
9.5/10
Release Date
2017 - 2019
Showrunner
Joe Penhall
Cast
See All-
Jonathan Groff
-
Holt McCallany
Expand
Collapse
-
-
Netflix
founded
January 16, 2007
first original series
Lilyhammer
Netflix is a global streaming service offering on-demand access to movies, TV shows, documentaries, and original content. Founded in 1997 as a DVD rental service, it transitioned to streaming in 2007 and now operates in over 190 countries.
Expand Collapse
-
Mindhunter
-
Netflix
We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Which Netflix cancelation upset you the most?
Guy
Guy
Guy
#KW564741
Author
0
Reviews
0
Ratings
Following
0
Topics
0
Users
Follow
Followed
0 Followers
View
34 minutes ago
GLOW was also tough to take.
Reply / Post
Images
Attachment(s)
Please respect our community guidelines. No links, inappropriate language, or spam.
Your comment has not been saved
Send confirmation emailThis thread is open for discussion.
Be the first to post your thoughts.
- Terms
- Privacy
- Feedback
2 days ago
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Breaks A 24-Year-Old Spider-Man Movie Trend
2 days ago
Tulsa King Season 3 Villain Actor Recalls When He Learned Of His Finale Fate: "F--k, What A Way To Go"
2 days ago
Original Harry Potter Stars Describe The Smelly Hogwarts Great Hall Set
2 days ago
1 Change May Have Already Ruined Netflix’s Most Exciting Book Adaptation
More from our brands
Stranger Things Season 5 Being Split In Two Would Be The Wrong Decision
37 Shows on Netflix That Couples Can Binge-Watch Together
The 69 Best TV Shows to Binge Watch Right Now
25 Best R-Rated TV Shows of All Time, Ranked
Why Mindhunter Season 3 Was Canceled by Netflix
The Duffer Brothers Leaving Netflix Could Be TV's Biggest Streaming Plot Twist Yet
Netflix Has Four Years to Change Its "No-Theaters" Strategy or Become a Laughing Stock
Trending Now
2025 Just Broke An MCU Movie Record For The First Time In 14 Years
Quentin Tarantino’s Missing Chapter Of Kill Bill Releases Today
HBO Has Officially Found A Replacement For Entourage After 14 Years
