The term “serial killer” didn’t exist until the 1970s and didn’t appear in print until 1981. The idea that there is a specific type of a murderer who isn’t motivated by revenge or money, but simply enjoys the act of killing enough to repeat it again and again, was a new concept of the public consciousness when the F.B.I. began to study serial killers in 1977.

That’s where Netflix’s eerie, cinematic series “Mindhunter” comes in. The show’s title comes from the 1995 true crime book, “Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit” by Special Agent John Douglas.

The show follows protagonist, Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), detailing a plethora of interviews, investigations and chilling encounters Douglas had during his time working with the Investigative Support Unit of the F.B.I. The show follows Holden and fellow agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), also based on the man who actually coined the term “serial killer”, Robert Ressler, as they interview convicted serial killers all across America in hopes of gleaning some insight into their behavior for ongoing cases.

Psychologist, Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), inspired by the real life Boston University professor Ann Burgess, rounds out the team and conveniently provides a more scientific, logical perspective on the interviews.

These interviews between Holden, Bill, Wendy and the serial killer, make up the most interesting part of “Mindhunter” and result in some of the show’s most memorable and often decidedly creepy scenes.

One of the first killers the show focuses on, Edmund Kemper (Cameron Britton), had a disconcertingly casual demeanor around Holden and Bill that almost makes the viewer forget the atrocities he’s committed. The rapport between the agents and Kemper isn’t just made for TV; Douglas wrote that he enjoyed being around Kemper and that he “was friendly, open, sensitive and had a good sense of humor.”

Before revealing Kemper’s shockingly pleasant personality,the show unloads every gritty detail of his case file onto the viewer.

On top of killing and dismembering eight people, including his mother, Kemper was a self-identified necrophile and admitted to first fantasizing about killing someone at only eight years of age. This information is revealed well before the audience sees Kemper’s interview, ensuring that when the interview does take place, every move and every line of small talk from Kemper is undeniably disturbing to watch.

Beginning in the first season of “Mindhunter” and continuing into the second, each episode begins with seemingly random clips of a man with a mustache and glasses drawing distributing pictures of women. True crime fanatics were quick to identify that man as Dennis Rader, or “B.T.K.” his self-selected nickname and an acronym for “Bind, Torture, Kill”. The inclusion of those clips, as they grow stranger with each episode, offers an interesting chance to draw parallels between what information Holden and Bill gather from interviews and the actions of an active killer.

B.T.K. was active from 1974 to 1991 and wasn’t convicted until 2005, so if “Mindhunter” continues to portray those events accurately we’re likely to see much more of Rader in upcoming seasons.

The appeal of “Mindhunter” lies in its accuracy, not just in a factual sense, but it’s emotional honesty and refusal to sensationalize events that keep people watching. In some parts it feels like a grittier, retro version of “Law and Order” with better acting and moodier lighting. On the other hand, it also provides all the frightening suspense of a well-made psychological thriller.

“Mindhunter” might be the least gory crime show on Netflix, but it’s also the most terrifying. Without the crutch that splattered blood and dismembered body parts provide in other crime dramas, “Mindhunter” has to rely mostly on dialogue and characters to deliver the chills that the audience expects from a show about serial killers. It ultimately delivers and somehow makes long, often tedious scenes of these incarcerated killers describing their motivations which have more of an emotional impact on the viewer than any amount of gore could.

Molly Hamilton is a Collegian correspondent and can be reached at [email protected].