The Mindhunter Character Some Fans Absolutely Cannot Stand
The Netflix series "Mindhunter" takes a look at agents working at the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit during the 1970s and '80s. During the show's two seasons, Special Agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) and Special Agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) interact with several serial killers. For instance, throughout Season 1, Holden repeatedly visits Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), known as the Co-ed Killer, for intel. Kemper even shares a terrifying display of affection toward the FBI agent, which causes him to have a panic attack in the Season 1 finale. The show also has appearances from fictionalized versions of Charles Manson (Damon Herriman), Dennis Rader (Sonny Valicenti), David Berkowitz (Oliver Cooper), and Jerry Brudos (Happy Anderson).
With so many famously awful figures in the series, some may find it surprising that quite a few fans had a particular issue with a character who was not a killer. Here is the "Mindhunter" character some viewers thoroughly did not enjoy.
Some fans were unhappy with Holden's ex-girlfriend
As evidenced by a 2017 thread on the r/MindHunter subreddit, some viewers of the Netflix series really do not appreciate the character Debbie Mitford (Hannah Gross). As fans are aware, Debbie was briefly Holden's love interest during Season 1 of "Mindhunter". Arguably, the college student's most defining feature is her deadpan sense of humor. She also notably took issue with Holden for his lack of interest in her studies and his fixation on profiling serial killers.
"Debbie is awful ... Just cringeworthy acting and she is a boring tacky character," reads the opening post of the thread. Several other fans took to the comments section to share their own feelings about Debbie. They include u/IUsed2BHot, who wrote, "This is an amazing show and I loved every bit of it...except for Debbie. I hate to say that, don't mean to s*** on the actress, but the character was very wooden. Every scene she was in took me out of the moment."
Some Reddit users clarified that they did not entirely fault Gross for how her character was presented in the series. "I put some of that on the writing. It's stilted and forced. And some of it on the actress. She doesn't seem to connect to Holden's character. They aren't listening to each other. They are talking at each other," asserted u/DrCaligari1615.
"I think it was the writing that was bad, not the actress," chimed in a different "Mindhunter" viewer, u/Alexj88c. The commenter went on to say that scenes involving Debbie and Holden were not integral to the rest of the show's storyline.