Netflix's new show 'Maniac' is flawed, but beautifully so
(Warning: Several potential spoilers ahead)
There was quite a bit of anticipation surrounding Netflix's 'Maniac.' The psychological dark comedy-drama television saw the reunion of Jonah Hill and Emma Stone on the small screen, with the pair previously having acted together more than a decade ago in 'Superbad.' One an Oscar nominee, the other an Oscar winner, would take a journey into the inner depths of their mind in a woozy, psychedelic retro-future setting, and who better to depict this than Cary Joji Fukunaga, who has, in the past, worked on the likes of 'The Alienist,' 'True Detective,' and 'It.'
It's taken humanity millennia to accept that depression is a disease that afflicts someone and not just a phase that comes and goes as it pleases. One can't just magically ask the patient to be happy and expect it to impact a way of thinking that has become ingrained to the point where little else makes sense. There isn't a panacea for it either, as much as all the ads on the television and the internet will have you believe. Except, that's exactly what Neberdine Pharmaceutical and Biotech, and Dr. James K. Mantleray (Justin Theroux) insist, that "the mind can be solved" and that all pain can be eradicated.