Maniac

Tension: Will Annie and Owen heal and survive this trial? Theme: Imperfect friends help each other overcome grief. We have to forgive ourselves to move forward.  Writing: Such a unique premise I really enjoyed this limited series! Don’t know why nobody know about it. I guess the poster does make it look like a psychological thriller when it’s really more of a Dramedy. Each episode was so different you never knew what to expect, and the little details all mattered and made sense the more you watched. I’m sure going back and seeing the whole thing would make a second watch a lot of fun. They started out with two very memorable characters—a schizophrenic and an addict for a specific drug. Both were interesting and imperfect in great ways that really pushed each other. Although I did feel like there needed to be more time with their actual main characters interacting instead of all the different versions of them as good as they were. Also felt like Owen didn’t get as much attention as he should have after the pilot but it improved later on. The doctor subplots were a little strange and quirky but funny still. I did feel like there were a few things in the show that weren’t making sense to me like the court date and why it all rested on Owen, the weird number that went up during the interviews (although great for adding tension), Olivia, Annie’s dad in that weird thing, and the death one third in that felt random but I suspected wasn’t but the internet still tries to claim was random sheeeesh. Mixed feelings about Gertie, it made sense to the storyline and upping the stakes but I didn’t get her purpose. Lowkey was all about the blackmail moment, I loved the ending scene of the series, it was just so heartwarming. This looked like it could have been depressing but it really had a lot of hope in it!  Acting: Emma Stone and Jonah Hill really got to shine in this with so many different roles, both the funny and the drama. And it must have been so fun but difficult with the accents.  Cinematography: I noticed this changed depending on the type of trope that was being played off of. Like the fantasy having all those wide shots or the action sci-fi having those epic one shots with all the action (two episodes had a surprising amount of violence even if it wasn’t real in their world).  Production Design: Another place this one really shined from the lab to the myriad of worlds it was a lot of fun. And I loved the actual real world with the ad-buddy things that seems like something that could actually happen. It’s like they had a test of “can you tell what genre this is just by looking at these character’s outfits?” And it worked pretty well.  Sound: I don’t remember because so much happened. Editing: also don’t remember super well.