Crime suspense themes are the favorite of many people. Friends who love such themes will find that in recent years, more and more such dramas have mentioned a profession - "criminal profiler" .
People who assist in criminal investigation are called profilers, which started in the 1970s and are a special profession that requires professional training.
Profilers use the modus operandi, crime scene, crime characteristics, etc. to outline the criminal psychology of criminals. Combined with data analysis, the characteristics of the perpetrators are summarized to give the police a suggested direction for handling cases and narrow the scope of investigation.
In particular, viewers who have watched the American TV series "Criminal Minds" must be familiar with the term "profiler". In its fifteen seasons since it aired in 2005 (ending on February 20), "Criminal Minds" has been nominated for multiple Emmys and People's Choice Awards.
"Criminal Minds" describes the story of a group of criminal behavior (psychological) profilers (BAU) whose daily job is to assist the police in solving cases. They always face the brutality, distortion and darkness of human nature, and they bring criminals into the picture . From the perspective of analyzing the psychological process of criminals, while playing against the dark, if you are a little careless, you will lose yourself.
The high-scoring series "Mindhunter" directed by David Fincher also describes the story of profilers, who use this technique to help police hunt down serial killers. It's fun to watch!
Slightly different from "Criminal Minds", "Mind Hunter" is more about before the creation of BAU, when people were still using criminal motives, means and opportunities to support the criminal logic of the entire case.
But after 1977, the motives of many cases became difficult to explain, so the term criminal psychology appeared.
When it comes to criminal minds, one person has to be mentioned, former mind-reading detective John E. Douglas of the FBI's behavioral science team.
Crawford in "Silence of the Lambs", Graham in "Hannibal", and Holden Ford, a young FBI agent in "Mindhunter", are all based on him.
The producers remake his memoir of the same name into various film and television works, restore the murders that shocked the world in history, and lead the audience to explore the criminal psychology of the perverted killers step by step.
But those who stare at the abyss have the possibility of being backlashed by the dark humanity at any time! Profilers and criminals are like the opposition of black and white, but what if black and white blend together and have an inseparable blood relationship ?
The drama I want to recommend to you today tells the story of such an alternative "criminal profiler".
"The Prodigal Son"
Prodigal Son
The show is directed by directors Lee Tolan Krieger (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Rob Bailey (Gotham), Rob Bailey (Killers) .
With Mike Sheen , who returned to the screen in the hit TV series "Masters of Sex" and "Good Omens ," he co-starred with Tom Payne who played "Jesus" in "The Walking Dead."
("good sign")
The male protagonist Malcolm (Tom Payne) is an FBI profiler . On this day, he and the police came to the slaughterhouse in the suburbs to investigate a murder case. Through reasoning, he thought that this was the hiding place of the murderer. place.
Perhaps the male protagonist was too conceited to hunt down alone. As a result, he was knocked down by the murderer and was stunned.
When he woke up, he found himself in the warehouse.
Next to the hostages, there are many large and small glass jars on the warehouse shelves, and various organs of the human body are soaked in formalin. The murderer is holding a gun to his head.
The murderer asked him, "How did you find me?"
Drawing on years of profiling experience and reasoning, he told the murderer:
"It's your victims! They're all shaved, smooth, and untouched. So I guess you've chosen by butcher's standards, and you were sent here when you were about 11 years old, State ward? You became like this there."
Immediately afterwards, the male protagonist wants to persuade the murderer that no one is born broken, it is all because of the influence of others . Persuade him to put down the gun and we can have a good chat.
Just as the murderer was about to put down his gun, a police officer suddenly appeared and shot the murderer. Everything Malcolm had done before was all for nothing, and he was so anxious and angry that he even hit the police.
After returning, the FBI fired Malcolm for that. But that wasn't the real reason for his dismissal, in fact, the FBI suspects that Malcolm may be, like his father, neurotic.
· We are the same kind
In 1998, the NYPD arrested surgeon Martin Whateley on charges of attempted murder . No one would have imagined that this life-saving surgeon was actually a sociopath who committed multiple murders .
After Martin captures the "prey", he will not kill it directly, but likes to satisfy his desires through abnormal killing methods. He likes to use tools to dissect the organs of the "prey" when they are conscious.
The perverted surgeon is Malcolm's father (Mike Sheen).
Before his father was taken away by the police, he did not forget to say to the young male protagonist: "We are the same kind" .
Young Malcolm still didn't understand what his father meant by "kinder", but he didn't want to be "kinder".
He visited his father who was detained in a mental hospital many times and chatted with him about "killing".
He knows that only by understanding criminals can he see through their true thoughts, but the deeper he goes, the more he is pulled by the darkness.
He told his father that he planned to apply to the FBI as a criminal profiler, taking a completely opposite path.
But the father thought, how could the son of a serial killer become a profiler for the FBI?
Father's words were like a dark seed buried in Malcolm's body.
He changed his name and couldn't sleep all night. Even after taking sleeping pills, he would have nightmares. In order to avoid hurting himself, he had to wear braces while sleeping, and tied his hands and feet firmly with chains.
In the field of crime profiling, Malcolm does have extremely high attainments, and his "talents" are actually quite related to his acceptance of his father's "inflection" and consistent way of thinking since he was a child;
While trying to get rid of the shadow of his native family, he also gained criminal investigation experience from his father.
Like this poster, maybe good and evil are one.
But no matter how many bizarre murder cases he has solved, he still can't get rid of the identity of the murderer's son, and is regarded as a ticking time bomb.
· Rebirth
Shortly after losing his job, an NYPD detective approached Malcolm and wanted Malcolm to be his partner in criminal profiling.
And Malcolm is facing his biggest challenge. In this major murder case, the murderer's method of committing the crime is exactly the same as that of his father. This is a murderer who imitated his father's murder .
By investigating the bank transactions of several of the victims, police quickly identified a man named Nick . But the cunning imitator, of course not caught so easily, played cat-and-mouse with the police.
Nick was a fake identity he used to mislead the police. It was only when the police came to arrest him that he learned that the kidnapped Nick was not the real murderer.
He was just the person who contacted the client for the murderer. He was caught by the murderer and tied a bomb to stage a "suicide in fear of crime" drama and died instead of the real murderer.
At this time, Malcolm realized that his profile was wrong!
Time passed by every second, and the innocent victim could only be rescued by undoing the shackles on his hand. Malcolm had no time to think about it. He picked up the axe and chopped off the victim's hand.
Later, they found four manuscripts in Nick's apartment, which corresponded to the methods of killing the first three victims. And this is Malcolm 's father's manuscript , where did the imitator get it?
It seems that only meeting the father can solve the puzzle...
· See you again
Although the detective tried to dissuade him, in order to avoid a fourth victim, the male protagonist went to see his father. But this time, he was no longer afraid of his father, but threatened him that he would never come again if he didn't help him.
Through the investigation of his father's patient, Malcolm targeted a suspect and successfully solved the case.
Afterwards, he thought about it carefully, is this for him to come back, his father carefully arranged all this?
In the end, will Malcolm agree to his father's proposal to work with the devil to solve the case? The editor will not spoil the spoiler, everyone hurry up and catch up!
· · ·
"The Prodigal Son" has been controversial and has mixed reviews since its broadcast, but Fox decided to renew it for a second season (Mike Sheen mentioned it in an interview) .
From the setting point of view, this drama is a bit similar to the combined version of "Hanbani" + "Criminal Minds". It has a suspenseful plot with heavy reasoning, and the psychological game scene in the play is very exciting;
There are also bloody scenes with heavy taste, and some scenes are indeed reminiscent of "Hannibal" doing "human flesh dinner".
Although the setting of the episode is a little old-fashioned, the confrontation and communication between father and son are still attractive enough, and you will never know what the ending will be until the end.
For friends who like high-IQ crime themes, this drama is definitely a "big meal" that cannot be missed ; if you are interested, you may wish to "taste" it yourself !
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