Russian Doll, Maniac, The Good Place, and how helping others is also helping yourself
This post discusses the plots of Russian Doll, Maniac, and The Good Place.
Maniac’s best and bleakest joke is its gig-economy dystopia
Maniac has proven to be a contentious show—just see the disparity between our pre-air rave and our more muted episode…
B
In the end, the real Maniac was the mostly conventional friends we made along the way
Like Annie and Owen’s trip to Salt Lake City, the actual destination of Maniac feels less important than the fact that…
Stephen Colbert interviews Emma Stone, only wants to talk about elves
In the new reality-hopping Netflix series, Maniac, Emma Stone ends up wearing an elf costume. She wears her hair blond…
B-
Maniac's picture of the human mind becomes a bit too alien for comfort
“Utangatta” follows in a long TV tradition of having the climactic action of a season happen in the penultimate…
A-
Maniac puts everything in place for its endgame in the best episode of the season
It wouldn’t surprise me if “Ceci N’est Pas Une Drill” and “The Lake Of The Clouds” really were written as a two-parter;…
B+
A taut episode of Maniac starts to turn on the literal magic
“Ceci N’est Pas Une Drill” starts to get at a topic that could be a really fascinating, compelling kernel for Maniac:…
B+
Maniac has a Field day as Dr. Mantleray finally confronts his mother
Goofy Maniac is back, and it’s got some momentum. “Larger Structural Issues” starts to set up the likely endgame of the…
B
Maniac heads to the 1940s for some more song and dance
At one point during their attempted heist, Ollie—Owen’s incarnation in the 1940s setting of “Exactly Like You”—turns to…
B
B+
Maniac should maybe just be about Justin Theroux jerking off
This is the first episode of Maniac where I really feel like I have a firm handle on the tone: This is a dark comedy,…
B
A sisterly subplot shines on Maniac’s second episode
The second episode of Maniac picks up parallel to the first, tracking the events that led Annie to the drug trial where…
B-
Maniac’s first episode suffers from the Netflix condition
Not everything is as it seems, but some things are.
B+
Fusing 2001, True Detective, and Eternal Sunshine, Maniac defies reason
You’re going to be tempted to “figure out” Maniac. Deny the temptation.
The newest Maniac teaser questions Emma Stone and Jonah Hill's curious bond
We’re roughly a week from the premiere of Netflix’s Maniac, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s anticipated Netflix series, and today…
Mayans, Maniac, Murphy Brown and all the new shows to watch in September
Television comes back with a vengeance this month, as the start of the traditional broadcast season syncs up with the…
Cary Fukunaga offers a new reason for why he left the It remake
All the way back in 2015, a year that just seems so long ago, we reported that True Detective and Beasts Of No Nation di…
Emma Stone and Jonah Hill get into some "multi-reality brain magic shit" in the Maniac trailer
A week after releasing a vague teaser that was basically just Emma Stone and Jonah Hill starting at each other in a…
Netflix announces premiere dates for Maniac and The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina
It’s Netflix day at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, which the streamer kicked off with a choir…
Netflix releases first images from Maniac, starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill
We still don’t know a ton about the show, but Netflix has now released some teaser images from Maniac, a new black…