Maniac
2018
Original language: English
- comedy
- drama
- sci-fi & fantasy
The story
Two strangers are drawn to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial that will, they're assured, with no complications or side-effects whatsoever, solve all of their problems, permanently. Things do not go as planned.
What it’s like
Pastel-bright and deliberately artificial, with saturated retro-futurist sets, candy-coloured interiors, and a flat, glossy digital sheen that makes every corridor and lab look like a shared dream. Camera work moves between tidy symmetrical compositions and sudden dizzy tilts, and the nested episodes shift register from sitcom timing to hushed, uncanny stillness. The score leans on synth pulses and soft retro electronica, dropping into near silence when a character's mind starts to fray. Vibe: surreal, wry, and oddly tender, a sunny-looking puzzle with a bruised interior. It suits a long evening alone or a curious weekend binge, when you want something playful that keeps tipping into the strange. Intensity is moderate: some drug-induced disorientation, mental-health crises handled with discomfort rather than gore, brief bursts of peril, and sexual references that are frank but not explicit. For viewers who enjoy absurd, genre-bending character studies about loneliness, grief and the people we'd rather not be, more than a neat narrative.
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