Mindhunter's BTK Storyline: Netflix's Best Unresolved True Crime Plot

Netflix’s Best True Crime Story Will Never Be Resolved Michael Cerveris as Ted Gunn in Mindhunter By  Guy Howie Published 4 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

When it comes to true crime dramas, Netflix’s Mindhunter is still the definitive work of this TV subgenre. The streaming platform might have tried to fill the void left by its highest profile cancellation, but the Monster anthology series comes across as cheap, gratuitous, and exploitative by comparison.

Unfortunately, with David Fincher and his production team unable to convince Netflix that they needed to keep investing in their work, Mindhunter season 2 ended the series. Its best true crime story was left suspended in midair, and it looks set to remain that way indefinitely.

Netflix’s true crime shows have brought the streaming giant renown and notoriety in equal measure. Most of them are slick but insubstantial documentaries designed to draw viewers in with their focus on macabre and salacious subject matters. Mindhunter is worlds away from this approach. It certainly plays on our morbid curiosity, but it does so in more subtle and skillful terms.

Mindhunter’s BTK Subplot Is Netflix’s Best True Crime Storyline

Dennis Rader aka BTK wearing a mask of a white face wearing red lipstick in the Mindhunter finale

While Mindhunter covers various horrifying real-life crimes, from the true story of the Atlanta child murders to the case of Edmund Kemper, its best true crime storyline builds in the background throughout the show’s two seasons. The storyline concerns a man in the Wichita area of Kansas who calls himself the BTK killer.

The acronym he uses to describe himself in letters to a local newspaper stands for “bind, torture, kill”, his preferred method of murder for his own sexual gratification. This Mindhunter subplot is a dramatization of Dennis Rader’s true story, which is arguably the most disturbing of all the serial killer stories the show focuses on.

What makes it so disturbing is how prolific Rader was taking human lives while hiding in plain sight, as an upstanding member of his community, as well as the sadistic and sexually depraved nature of the killings. Mindhunter doesn’t shy away from these elements of BTK’s story, but gradually builds suspense by giving us a snippet of subplot each episode.

It was already shaping up to be the best true crime storyline anywhere on Netflix, precisely because of how carefully it was being crafted, alongside the development of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in the show. Yet, with Mindhunter poised to make BTK its main focus in a prospective third season, the story was cut agonizingly short.

The BTK Storyline Will Never Be Resolved Due To Mindhunter’s Cancellation

Dennis Rader aka BTK sitting at a desk and looking at papers

The way that this BTK subplot was left hanging just as it was gaining momentum is the main reason Mindhunter’s cancellation by Netflix still hurts for thousands of viewers. It felt as though the showrunners and series writers had a climactic ending in mind when they were developing this storyline, which won’t ever see the light of day.

Of course, in real life, the BTK murder cases were resolved, and those with an interest in the crimes will know the story well. That doesn’t change the fact that Mindhunter would have given us completely different insights into BTK from any true crime documentary, just as it managed to do with the stories of various other serial killers.

Netflix Has Multiple True Crime Documentaries About BTK’s Capture

Dennis Rader in a photo with daughter in Netflix's My Father the BTK killer

Nevertheless, even if nothing can serve as a direct replacement for Mindhunter, there is other content about BTK on Netflix that fans of the show will want to check out. In addition to an episode of the anthology docuseries Catching Killers about Dennis Rader, a feature-length documentary called My Father, the BTK Killer recently landed on the streaming platform.

There are some viewers who still hold out hope that Mindhunter can be revived at a later date. Indeed there are potential full-length movie sequels in the works, although things are still very tentative at this stage. For now, the most likely scenario is that the best true-story plotline in any Netflix crime drama will never be completed.

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Mindhunter

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Crime Drama Thriller Release Date 2017 - 2019 Showrunner Joe Penhall Directors David Fincher Writers Joe Penhall

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• Jonathan Groff
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• Mindhunter
• Netflix

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