Review Roundup: Jonathan Groff Stars in Netflix Drama MINDHUNTER

How do we get ahead of crazy if we don't know how crazy thinks? Two FBI agents (Broadway's Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany) set out on a sinister investigative odyssey to discover the brutal answers. MINDHUNTER launches on Netflix October 13, 2017.

MINDHUNTER is directed by David Fincher (Gone Girl, Zodiac), Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna), Tobias Lindholm (A War, A Hijacking) and Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror, U Want Me 2 Kill Him?). Fincher, Joshua Donen (Gone Girl, The Quick and the Dead), Charlize Theron (Girlboss, Hatfields & McCoys) and Cean Chaffin (Gone Girl, Fight Club) are Executive Producers.

Jonathan Groff most recently appeared on Broadway in HAMILTON, receiving a Tony nomination for his role as King George III. His other Broadway credits include SPRING AWAKENING and IN MY LIFE. He also lent his voice to 'Kristoff' in the hit animated Disney feature FROZEN.

Take a look at what the critics thought of MINDHUNTER below and make sure to check out the trailer for the show below!

James Poniewozik, The New York Times: "Mr. Groff plays Ford as room-temperature placid yet intense. There's something compellingly off about him; he's a milk-drinking straight ARROW with a monomaniac streak that runs him afoul of department politics. As astute as he is with the criminal mind, basic social cues seem to elude him...I say all this with what has become the usual caveat for a Netflix show. Streaming dramas nowadays take so long to establish their premises that I don't know if the two episodes I've seen are representative or just setup. It's possible "Mindhunter" may settle into a more predictable monster chase. Let's hope not; the chase after ideas here is more interesting."

Daniel D'Addario, TIME: "Netflix's superior new drama MINDHUNTER...based on the fascinating memoir of FBI profiler John Douglas, carries you through one naïf's journey into darkness. Ford, like any ambitious young thing, is bolder than he is wise. That mix of traits serves him well as he travels across the U.S. researching criminal minds. Groff, who played a lovelorn game designer lost in the sprawling San Francisco gay scene on HBO's LOOKING, brings to this show the same questing spirit. He's aided by the direction of David Fincher, whose ornately nasty visual style gave the early seasons of House of Cards their poisoned-truffle savor."

Ben Travers, IndieWire: "MINDHUNTER wants to eradicate the concept of "other" using a figure everyone instinctually wants to distance themselves from: a murderer. This isn't your typical good vs. evil, cops vs. robbers procedural. If anything, it's trying to eliminate those conceptions. Sometimes it's funny. Often it's chilling. But however you take it, at least "Mindhunter" is working a fresh angle. Grade: B+"

Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe: "Groff plays Holden as an innocent, and at times he goes a bit too far with it. Holden is in the FBI, but he nonetheless comes off like an undergrad taking Criminology 101. He is in one of the small screen's most awkward bar flirtation scenes. At the same time, Groff nails Holden's growing intuition about interviewing serial killers, as he begins to see how fruitful those conversations can be. You can see him beginning to shed his innocence as he learns to tease out the evil in his interviewees' minds. McCallany also relies on stock traits early on - he's the gruff, more impatient partner - until he comes round to Holden's way of thinking and begins to take their work more seriously. There's not a lot of action in "Mindhunter," whose first season of 10 episodes is available on Friday. "Our goal is to be preemptive," Holden says. But the carefully established atmosphere, THE TALK of murder, and the glimpses of deep derangement are all certainly gripping enough."

Sonia Saraiya, Variety: "...While MINDHUNTER is yet another serial killer drama, it's one with an intriguing angle. The emphasis isn't on finding a killer; it's on institutional reform...Groff has a winning, earnest quality that is entirely at odds with Fincher's merciless lens, making for an effect that is sometimes intriguing and sometimes merely incongruous. The show struggles to make Holden make sense - which makes for a slow, rocky start through his career woes and love life. Though the pilot's tone is an intriguing combination of wry humor and '70s noir, it's otherwise a slog of exposition and painfully on-the-nose scene-setting."

Drew Taylor, Moviefone: "The project is led by Jonathan Groff, who plays a special agent based on Douglas, and Holt McCallany, a terrific character actor and Fincher favorite, plays his partner, a man based on Robert K. Ressler. (Ressler is widely considered to be the person who coined the phrase "serial killer.") Most people will remember Groff from FROZEN, but he's an incredible Broadway talent and previously essayed roles on GLEE and LOOKING. And joining them is Anna Torv, who made FRINGE such a compelling freak out, as a psychologist who assists the agents...Netflix has already commissioned a second batch of MINDHUNTER episodes, so you might as well get in on the ground floor. Remember how STRANGER THINGS became such a huge part of the cultural conversation? Well if MINDHUNTER follows suit, you don't want to be left out in the cold."

Image courtesy of Netflix

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