Anyone watch Maniac on Netflix (spoilers welcome)

Just wrapped it up with my wife. We took some birthday PTO and watched the front half while the kids were at school and snuck in a bit here and there throughout the weekend.

I really enjoyed it, though dialog made me cringe exactly twice. It’s reminiscent of Twin Peaks Season 3, though with FAR less auteurship and it being MUCH more digestible.

Anyhow, I dug it quite a bit. If you’re watching it, there is a post-credit scene that I think is worth watching. Though I won’t go into details, yet.

Also, the show was 10 episodes. Some approached an hour, and I want to say some were as short as 26 minutes. That’s exactly what I wanted from shows free of the influence of commercials and timeslots. Like a book, a chapter might be a page, or it might be dozens of pages. I hope to see more of this going forward, though I think it leaves a lot of trust in the hands of the folks producing the show. I’m happy to see Netflix embrace such a model, even if it’s just this once.

I have yet to see it. I have been hearing a lot of buzz and know very little about it. Visually it looks like something I would at enjoy watching and the music is right up my alley.

A few episodes in so far. That sex scene is...something, alright.

I'm fairly engaged with what's going on, but I think most of what's drawn me in so far is the setting. Don't know what to think about the plot so far, to be honest.

I'm really loving it so far. The show is hitting all the right notes with me - a cool near future world with absurd yet plausible inventions like the Ad Buddy. Weird retro-tech which is a guilty pleasure of mine - click clackety old computers are a joy. The acting can be dramatic but also goofy at the same time. The story is mysterious and makes me want to keep watching. The casting is great and man Jonah Hill lost a ton of weight for this movie. The doctor Azumi is a real treat as well. I feel like Emma Stone is kind of playing herself a little, but I can deal with it.

Really having a great time and I think it's the first Netflix show since Stranger Things season 1 that really hit it off with me and doesn't feel cheap or drawn out. Recently I watched all of The OA and while that show was really intriguing (and I'm excited to see where they go with it in Season 2) it did tend to drag at times. I'm 4 episodes in but Maniac is keeping a good balance of keeping me guessing but not to the point where I start to bounce off.

Also, Fucktlantis.

Have seen it all and loved most of it. I feel like the last couple of episodes got slightly cringy and we had to do a little bit of suspension of disbelief because things had to get fixed in some way, but otherwise I think it was great!

The type of future with the whole retro-tech and plausible new inventions are exactly the type of things I'm into. I really appreciated the amount of detail they put into it, specially on the design aspects where they made logos, text, etc with the same styles as some design used to be in the 80s/90s, just like the type of tech they're using. Everything just feels believable and could totally exist, even though it feels absurd at the same time. I wish they spent more time on that era, the first couple of episodes were my favorites because of that setting and the whole vibe they got for it, even inside the lab.

Just like I'm a sucker for that type of retro-tech, I'm also a sucker for good cinematography. Specially when it has that anamorphic look, which was what they went with. I feel like it was shot way better than the vast majority of tv shows out there and even better than some movies. I also appreciated how they slightly changed the cinematography to fit each story they were portraying.

I was also a big fan of the humor. It was a nice balance between dark humor and some quirky humor but it never felt forced, distracting, or breaking the tone.

Acting was great for the most part as well. Jonah Hill impressed me the most without a doubt, and the actors portraying doctors Azumi, Muramoto, and James also did a really good job. Emma Stone was pretty much playing as Emma Stone like she usually does, but I think it worked fine in this situation. I liked her during the whole Elf scenes and apparently she hates elves just as much as her character, so maybe that's why it was so believable. Doctor Azumi was definitely my favorite character though, she was great.

Netflix is doing a good job of having one great show per year that I completely get addicted to. 2016 was Stranger Things, 2017 was DARK, and this year was Maniac.

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@humanity: Unfortunately the director isn't interested in making a second season. It might happen if this first one is successful, but it will be without him. Hopefully it will be as good without him, but apparently he was part of the reason the tone, story, and visuals worked so well.

Regarding the part where you mentioned Netflix shows that grabbed you, I would suggest you to check DARK. It's in German (with the option for English dub) so that could be a turn-off for some, but I thought it was really good. It's about the mysterious disappearance of children in a German town with a nuclear power plant, bringing to light the fractured relationships and dark past of four families living there, and revealing a mystery that spans three generations. Imagine if Stranger Things was way darker and had more twists. If you're into that idea, you might like this one (the show isn't actually just like Stranger Things, but it's a simple way to explain it). I would recommend just checking the trailer and watching the show with as little previous knowledge as possible, it works better that way.

@johnymyko: I actually have seen Dark and watched it in original German for that extra oompf. I enjoyed it quite a lot right up until the very end which I thought dropped the ball entirely. There was a lot of intrigue and mystery that I was super into, and it delved in time-travel in just the way I like. Following all the families throughout the years was really fascinating because it was almost like you got to know them, and see how life broke some of these well meaning individuals despite their best intentions. That said, the ending felt like it was written by a different person.

@relkin: It took me several episodes to form an opinion. The weird state of tech and social/commercial vibe reminded me of 70s and 80s dystopian movies and helped keep me interested while sussing out if I liked it or not.

@mrgreenman: I heard good things and went in with very few expectations. I’d recommend going that route, though that’s how I like going into films and shows whenever possible.

@humanity: Yeah I felt the same way as you with the ending on Dark. To me it almost seemed like they had an unique story to tell with a well defined path and a proper way to finish it but then they decided to scrap the ending and write something completely different so they could continue on a second season.

I haven't looked at any of the comments for fear of spoilers. Did y'all like it? I like the director but not the biggest Emma Stone fan.

@liquiddragon: You can read the comments above you, there's no spoilers so far. Overall people seem to enjoy it, specially because of the visuals and the setting.

The only Fukunaga thing i've seen prior to this was the first season of True Detective which I loved so I think I raised my expectations a bit too high.

I did enjoy it but I was more interested in the sci-fi elements / universe than the romantic comedy stuff.

Cannonballed through the rest of the show last night, and I still don't really know what to make of it. I enjoyed it, for sure. The acting was pretty good across the board, and Jonah Hill really surprised me with his performance. It's probably going to take me a while to form a detailed opinion on the show in general, but I will say that I thought that some of the humor felt a bit out of place; the Snorri bit specifically. There was definitely some goofy stuff up to and past that point, but that sequence felt like something out of a different show altogether.

@relkin: The only things that really were swing-and-a-miss for me were “All the feels” and “I’m a hawk!”

The first line I had to ask my wife if I heard right, so there was a delayed cringe. The second line felt like a focus group didn’t understand a pretty straightforward scene, so they dubbed it.

The only other thing I didn’t really like was the post-credits scene...

I've only seen the norwegian original show that this is based on, wich I thought was... a bit here and there, I guess. Will see this too, or at least give it a chance.

@nutter: Did you mean the last shot on the road, with the hawk, the sanitation bot, and the dog? I figured it was just supposed to be cute, especially with the way it transitions to black. I suppose it could also be there to provide some sort of ambiguity, like you suggest.

@relkin: Yep. My wife erred on the side of cute. But given the subject matter, it could be there to infer that things aren’t quite as they seem.

I’m not sure I like either interpretation, frankly, which is why it’s something I really didn’t much dig.

The original is an 80's horror "classic" with a memorable scene where splatter effects master Tom Savini gets his head blown off at close range with a shotgun. The remake starring Elijah Woods is a legit good movie with a neat gimmick of almost entirely being from the first person perspective of the titular maniac.

I guess the unrelated limited series was okay but seemed a bit derivative of the Adult Swin show Dream Corp LLC and one of my favorite movies Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind. That said I thought it had its moments of brilliance, mainly the idea of Ad Buddies, and was otherwise watchable.

I really liked it overall, but I definitely agree @not_a_bumblebee that it had a lot of moments that felt VERY similar to Eternal Sunshine for me. Still, I love anything willing to be weird, and this show also felt like it was channeling Twin Peaks for me, and I was very much on board with its sense of humor early on, but especially so the first time they go into their subconscious together and have to go on (their first) "heist".

I basically binged the first five episodes, then watched two more the following day, or maybe it was three...then a week or so later remembered that I never finished it. I did really like those first few episodes, then steadily became less interested and currently I don’t really have any interest to finish it.