a thread for the show "Maniac"

there are a lot of strange opinions on that thread. and again I'm only one episode in, maybe it all goes to shit but idk.

full disclosure re: some of the comments on that thread
- I don't have a problem with Jonah Hill, in fact he's p consistently great in a wide range of stuff imo
- I think Brain Candy is great altho afaict the only real similarity is that both have pharmaceuticals as a plot device
- Hill's sadsack protagonist does have a bit of Charlie Kaufman's writing about him, but that doesn't bother me either. Kaufman is rarely this funny, for one thing.

the protagonist having a vaguely threatening invisible mentor from another dimension giving him inscrutable instructions about how he has to save the universe is the plot of half a dozen Malzberg novels, is a comic setup that I admit I find inherently amusing

Someone cast Jonah Hill as a Nashville Skyline-era Bob Dylan, stat! I loved the blending of Seventies sci-fi tech with modern gig economy concepts like Ad Buddy. I wouldn't have minded if the entire series focused on Emma Stone, as I wasn't as interested in Hill--his mumbling was distracting. I'll probably rewatch just to get a better look at the design. A friend of mine is already cursing that a Dr Fujita costume would probably be too obscure for a Halloween party...

"Ad Buddy" was straight outta Jonathan Lethem!

or at least that's what it reminded me of, the people in "Access Fantasy" who hire themselves out to uncontrollably inject advertisements into their daily conversation

idg what people's objections about this show are. Watched through ep 4 and I guess it could all go off the rails but I'm finding it all v engaging and generally lol-packed. I mean, Justin Theroux's cybersex setup alone...

Have to say this is not what I would have expected Fukunaga to do next after True Detective but this makes it p clear he was the best thing about that show

also for some reason this doesn't come up in ilx search results for "Maniac"? wtf

don’t put quotes in thread titles

show is p good but the ending was cheezemcgee

ah. did not know that about quotes

lol @ study coordinator's coffee mug ("I can read your mind and you should be ashamed of yourself")

Justin Theroux's cybersex setup alone...

this was legit incredible, from inside and out. as i said on the netflix thread though the ep 4 dream sequence killed all momentum and interest for me, and a little light wikipediaing did not encourage me to stick with it any further.

agree w flop, liked the show generally but the ending is not good really

hard agree

I dunno, how did you expect it to end? Maybe the breaking-out-of-psychiatric ward bit was too much, but I liked how they didn't get us any kind of overt closure. The miracle cure didn't quite work as intended; Annie was able to confront her trauma but it's obvious she still needs a lot of help to get back on track, as she told her dad. And Owen was able to tell his family to screw themselves, but he's still a schizophrenic and has to live with that for the rest of his life. What he realised was that that doesn't mean necessarily mean he has to isolate himself from everyone else.

So basically they gave a tentatively positive ending with the two starting form a connection, but it didn't feel sugar-coated. It seemed pretty apt for a series which, despite all the black humour and dystopian tropes, had a pretty humane and warm approach to people with mental issues trying to cope in the world.

I... agree with Tuomas?!

I did feel like some of the dramatic tension kind of petered out of the last couple episodes, but the ending was not the schlmaltzfest I was anticipating, they even made it clear that this was not some overtly romantic conclusion (with Annie rejecting the paid-friend's pseudo marriage proposal with a "it's not like that"), it was just two damaged people trying to help each other.

nah the ending was a total schmalzfest, like 30% of it was romantic strings swelling in anticipation of people kissing

there was def schmaltzy strings but I don't recall Annie and Owen kissing...? maybe I blocked that part out idk

There was no kissing, and it was left ambiguous whether it was even a romance, or rather a deep friendship forged by the mindmeld.

my interpretation was obviously the latter

loved it, loved the ending

4 stars out of 4

"a triumph"

it was good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5wEhXxva2w

finished ep 6 last night and it's really growing on me. the "furs by sebastian" episode was the first clue that this was gonna be anything more than an enjoyable oddity, but now i'm totally along for the ride and excited for more of the dynamic between justin theroux and sally field.

Loved this. Wanted to spend more time in their 'real' world too.

Did anyone else attempt to watch the original Norwegian show?

I watched the Norwegian show. It is unrecognisable as source material.

There were flashes of real brilliance in this, especially in terms of the acting, even if it didn’t totally cohere. I plan to rewatch.

I went through this whole show and have thought about it a fair amount since and not once did it occur to me that both Hill and Stone had previously appeared together (albeit as a different kind of "couple") in "Superbad" until my wife pointed it out yesterday