The Madness

There are many elements to this series that are well done. But I just felt it was awkward. There were so many things about the script, the direction and the acting that felt awkward. Embarrassingly so at times.

Some of the dialogue seemed so incomplete and so unpolished that I was left shaking my head. It rendered the relationships in the story incomplete and lacking depth. I feel I should have had warm feelings for many characters, but didn't.

I understand techniques to make the audience uneasy, but this is different. If it was deliberate, it failed in the execution. If this is a new style of film making, I hope it passes.

After watching 4 episodes, the first thought I had was- that could easily have been done in 2! And therein likes the problem. It's not the acting, the actors or the plot. It's just that somebody decided to drag this across 8 episodes.

This means that the plot is needlessly stretched, the story meanders and sometimes you feel like just fast forwarding 10 mins so that they get to the point.

As far the people rating this 3 stars, it's really not that bad. Netflix really needs to start undertaking understanding that people won't get dragged by shows that are stretched just to keep one on the platform. And that's all this is- an effort to keep you on 8 hours!

Coleman Domingo is becoming my favorite actor. He really can make reading the phone book a compelling story. And that's just about as compelling as The Madness right now. The dialogue is almost embarrassingly bad. They try very hard to be punchy and snappy but it comes across as very predictable and corny.

From the beginning, there's much about the story that just defies the most basic commonsense. I constantly find myself asking 'why why why?!' So much so that after episode 2, I skipped episode 7 just to see what happens at the end. I have little doubt that there's little more than lots of overwrought storytelling and superfluous dialogue in the episodes I skipped.

6 Episodes in but still so much of it is cringeworthy, the script is its own worst enemy. Unfortunately the writers have made the characters all seem like total morons where they make decisions that are simply not realistic, From the main characters who make decisions that no sane person would ever do to the police and FBI who all do things that would just never happen in real life as they would all get the sack to all the supporting roles, it really hurts the overall story. It is like watching one of those horror movies where the characters all decide to split up as they don't want to work together even though there is an axe wielding maniac somewhere. I like the premise of the story and the acting while not great is ok but the script is just awful. I am really struggling to finish this.

Boy I wanted to like this. Have liked other things Colman has done, but this is a waste of time. Some really questionable and predictable script choices and, sorry to say, not great acting across the board. And poor Colman is just miscast here. He's not this kinda lead. Reminded me of when Tyler Perry tried to play Alex Cross. Just not believable. As the series dragged on, and scene after scene of two people inexplicably whispering to each other plot points (why not SHOW us?) it was really hard to stay awake.

Watching Colman run was painful. Always funny to me when non-athletic actors get the opportunity to play action-heavy roles. (He wasn't great with the action on Fear the Walking Dead, and he's not here either). It always takes me out and smells like a vanity project. His mouth hangs open every scene when he's "thinking" (a tell that he's not comfortable and preoccupied with playing "straight" in my opinion). Not everyone gets to be an action star.

On to the next. Skip this one.