Maniac

In Maniac, a paranoid schizophrenic and a depressed woman join a very weird experimental program designed to cure mental illness for good using drugs and computers. This cure involves living through various fantasy scenarios, which reminded me a little of Dollhouse, although it's actually based - incredibly loosely (Vulture has an article on how loosely if you're curious) - on a mediocre Norwegian comedy.

The story is intriguing. The acting is excellent, particularly Emma Stone, who is as brilliant as always, and Sally Field, who seems to be really enjoying her turn as, among others, a celebrity shrink.

Besides the crazy drugs and the multiple lives, Maniac is notable for its strange alternate reality. The series takes place in a world with incredible technology but also computers that seem to be from the 90s. It's as though the filmmakers wanted to make a futuristic series as it would have been made in 1992. The world of Maniac is similar to ours yet different, with oddities like rental friends.

Strange, funny, imaginative, and affecting, this is brilliant, must-watch television.

Soo good! It had kind of a "inception"/"eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" vibe going on...

Something out of the ordinary!

I started watching this series without having any clue what it was going to be about. I didn't read any reviews, just saw the high ratings, and gave it a shot. The first episodes were a bit confusing and I was wondering where it would go. Once I got further into the story the more I liked it. It's just the weirdness that makes it attractive. And weird is the least you could say to describe this show. The cast is good as well, with Emma Stone and Justin Theroux as the two best actors in this series. If you like strange stories this might be for you. I wouldn't call it amazing and the best thing ever like some other reviewers wrote but it's worth watching.

Wow. It is difficult to do justice to this genre bending, absurd sci-fi/comedy/thriller/drama in a review. So much happens in multiple character arcs that each episode is like opening a new Christmas present. Unlike most Hollywood/Netflix efforts, no short cut is taken for dramatic effect. Every character, even when partially developed, are welcome respites from dreary reality.

Jonah Hill and Emma Stone reprise so many roles, that it is difficult to keep them straight sometimes. Best to just roll with the punches and enjoy each little adventure on their own. 80's nostalgia is sprinkled throughout an alternate universe, with homages to Japanese cinema, the Muppets, and 2001.

Binged it in three nights, and will re-watch it again next week. I can comfortably say this rests in the pantheon of classics like Shawshank and Napoleon Dynamite.

I'm in the camp that considers this a criminally underrated series. I don't know how this one slipped by me, as I've seen most of the internet at this point but I never heard a thing about it when it was released.

My wife, on the other hand, found this show very dull and uninteresting until the last few episodes. I was hooked from the very beginning.

The universe that's been imagined here is pretty quirky. Imagine if the allies lost the war and there was never a splurge in technological growth aimed for the consumer market. Computers are still using green screens and dot matrix printers, although advances in programming are still ahead of where we are today.

Owen (Jonah Hill) is a schizophrenic who's been abused and taken advantage of by his family. He tries to keep his distance from his family but lacks the stability to support himself without their help.

Annie (Emma Stone, who puts in an incredible performance) is dealing with her own childhood trauma, where she had to play the emotional role of mother to her little sister, but remains and emotionally stunted adult. After more trauma in her adult life, she no longer knows how to be a functional human being.

Justin Theroux as Dr. James K Mantleray takes a smaller part, mostly appearing in the second half of the series, but creates a character so off kilter that every line he delivers is hysterical.

Sally Field as Dr. Mantleray's estranged mother (and as the artificial intelligence GRTA which serves as the operating system for these dream like experiences) delivers a lot of heart and more hilarity.

This is mostly a drama. There's a good amount of comedy. There are sci-fi elements. But at the end this is a story about people moving on and learning to leave their pain behind. For those who get emotionally invested in stories like these, the last few episodes hit pretty hard. The writing through some of the "confrontational" scenes is pretty spectacular.

The entire cast delivers but Emma Stone really takes it to another level in this series. The sets feel cohesive and keep you immersed in this alternative universe. I enjoyed the soundtrack so much that I've started listening to it on my downtime.

I'll remember this one for a long time. I plan to watch it again. Highly recommended.