Not all hero(ines) wear capes. While its title might suggest just another true-crime docuseries, the new Hulu miniseries “Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer” is a refreshing departure. It celebrates psychiatric nurse and professor Dr. Ann Burgess, an unassuming woman who pretty much invented the science of profiling killers, rapists and serial predators.
Far from the stylized sadism of CBS’s “Criminal Minds” or “The Silence of the Lambs,” it introduces Burgess as an unassuming mid-20th century woman. She may have been an exception as a working mother and professional, but her children, interviewed here, had no idea that behind her homemaker persona and ever-clattering typewriter was a woman consumed by hundreds of hours of interviews with killers and rapists, from the most sordid and mundane to notorious monsters including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.
Graduating from high school in 1957, Dr. Burgess was told that women could work as teachers, telephone operators or nurses. She chose nursing because she wanted to listen to people explain their symptoms. At first, she was professionally chastised for not pursuing scientific medical evidence.
The theme that emerges in the early going of this series, and her career, is that men don’t know how to listen, and they tend to belittle and distrust those who do.
After becoming a professor of nursing at Boston College, Burgess wrote several books profiling the many rapists she had interviewed. This stood in contrast to law enforcement attitudes at the time, which pretty much boiled down to the “she asked for it” school of thought.
The FBI came calling when a serial predator dubbed the “Ski Mask Rapist” arrived in the late 1970s, evading capture and spreading fear as he went on a multi-state spree. Even then, she was consigned to a subbasement of the agency and deeply distrusted by a professional culture dominated by gun-obsessed alpha males. What could be learned, they reasoned, from listening to perverts and psychos?
Directed by Abby Fuller, “Mastermind” offers a remarkably feminist variation on a genre essentially designed to instill fear in a female audience. Dr. Burgess emerges as a calm, assuming “mom” type who looks like she should be serving up casseroles, but instead leads the secret life of a superhero.
Over the course of three episodes, we learn how her academic background prepared her to create the questionnaires and methodology that armed agents with the tools to profile predators and detect patterns and clues hidden in the vilest behavior.
In short, she taught men to listen. No mean feat.
Fuller makes the most of minimal visual elements. There are interviews with Dr. Burgess and her children, some experts and authors and a smattering of yellowing period footage. But much of the film consists of shots of tape recorders and other instruments as we hear the grim testimony and voices of damaged and abused individuals who express their powerlessness in domination and violence.
“Mastermind” has been executive produced by Dakota (“Ripley”) and Elle Fanning (“The Great”).
— Anthropomorphic food products demonstrate a one-track mind in “Sausage Party: Foodtopia,” a limited series adaptation of the 2016 animated comedy, streaming on Prime Video.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A comic vanishes after a subway incident on “Law & Order” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
— The 2024 ESPYS (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) celebrate the year in sports.
— Killer apps can be fatal on “Elsbeth” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— A trial puts many on edge on “Law & Order: SVU” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
— The remodeling series “Christina on the Coast” (9 p.m., HGTV, TV-G) enters its fifth season.
— Locals grow hostile on “Fire Country” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Bonner’s past resurfaces on “Law & Order: Organized Crime” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
TCM celebrates the films of actress Eva Marie Saint, who turned 100 years old on July 4. The 1962 drama “All Fall Down” (8 p.m., TV-PG) co-stars Brandon de Wilde and Warren Beatty. She co-stars with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1957 costume drama “Raintree Manor” (10 p.m., TV-PG).
SERIES NOTES
Mary’s new pew on “Young Sheldon” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … A new hire comes with a catch on “Ghosts” (8:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jake Tapper and Jessica Pratt are booked on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Kevin Jonas and Phish on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Kumail Nanjiani and Mon Laferte appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts Richie Moriarty, Betsy Sodaro and Punam Patel on “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
