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‘Fincher wouldn’t go woke’: So someone thinks ‘Mindhunter’ isn’t “woke”….

Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford and Holt McCallany as Bill Tench in Mindhunter season 2

There are creatives who I think that are labeled as “woke” unjustly. Then there are the ones whose work I would think is the definition of the baffling “woke” idea opposers have. All this to say I find it weird people think David Fincher isn’t “woke”.

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The director who brought us movies like Gone Girl, Zodiac, and The Social Network has a unique style and vibe to his work. But the underlying themes of his movies and television shows, to me, are what those who hate any kind of diversity and growth would label as “woke media.”

But maybe they watched Amy Dunne enact her revenge and thought she was an evil woman? Anyway, now those “woke” truthers think Mindhunter isn’t coming back because Fincher wouldn’t go woke. You cannot make this stuff up!

The Netflix series focused on the people who helped to create the FBI’s profiling system to catch serial killers. It included infamous men like Ed Gein and was one of the more fascinating shows that the streaming platform put out. It was also, as Fincher himself said, expensive.

For whatever reason, the “woke brigade” took that as the director not bending to Netflix’s agenda. What that agenda is I do not know but if they think Mindhunter doesn’t fall under their definition of “woke,” that’s on them. A user on X who goes by “BlackApple” wrote the following about Fincher and Mindhunter. “In other words, Fincher wouldn’t go woke, so they pulled it.”

You might be wondering how a show that was too expensive to make turned into Fincher being “un-woke” and I’d also like an explanation of that. But as someone else explained in the replies “You understand Fight Club is a ‘woke movie’ right?”

No one knows what woke means

Woke began as a terminology for those who oppose any kind of diversity and growth in media. If they labeled something as “woke,” it usually meant that someone non white, a woman, or not straight was in the piece. By that definition, Mindhunter already checked off two of their superficial “woke” boxes. But in this sense, it seems like “woke” is being conflated to mean anything not bending to a streaming platform’s will.

Those are, decidedly, not the same thing. But also I have never understood the “woke” argument anyway. Fincher as a filmmaker though has always been pushing back at societal norms. His movies, at face value, feel like one thing but when you take a deeper look, you can see his feelings on a situation. It is why I love the movie Zodiac as much as I do.

All this to say that if you think that Mindhunter did not come back for another season because the Netflix gods thought it wasn’t “woke” enough, I fear you do not have the brain cells to be watching Mindhunter in the first place.

Anyway, the show was too expensive for the platform so I suggest we all make a GoFundMe and help Fincher out because I miss my show.

(featured image: Netflix)

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Rachel Leishman
Assistant Editor
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

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