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View Full Version : Maniac (Cary Fukunaga)



Ezee E
09-23-2018, 04:34 PM
Watched the first episode, and not quite sure what happened. But I'm curious.

Ezee E
09-29-2018, 05:20 AM
Four episodes in, and it's such a weird world that even though I don't care for it, I keep on wanting to see where it's going. When it wants to get emotional, it does it very well.

Henry Gale
10-08-2018, 06:09 AM
Also 4 episodes in, but I've been in deep awe of it from basically the very start.

I mean, I just need to say that it's pretty clear that despite taking on drastically different sorts of projects and creatively exhibiting wholly unique visual realms and even stylistic approaches to exploring them, at this point I'm pretty sure everything Fukunaga wants to do (and is seemingly endlessly able to do) and my tastes are basically like *this*.. And as much as my rational/engaged brain is there accounting for all of the narrative elements, dialogue, seemingly tossed-off things that I know will only come to mean more later, and even finding things I may be critical of, there's so much more of myself that's just completely basking in the [I]sensation of it all from episode to episode, buzzing from how perfectly realized it all feels. I mean, just the production design alone could let a lesser concept sail, but then there's its maelstrom of science fiction, esoteric futurism communicated as the mundane, its own sort of grounded surrealism, various emotional and social themes, all sorts of philosophical musings (some played for laughs, and even some of those same ones not necessarily being laughed at in its greater context), and off-kilter comedy tucked in amongst it all that just makes it sing for me.

Not to mention this has to be one of the greatest television scores I've ever heard. Such a gorgeously eclectic but cohesive blend of elements changing as often as its characters psyches and locations. I feel like it's the sort of music that will become a staple for other projects' temp tracks and re-purposed for other trailers and whatever other media, eventually imitated to the point that it may no longer seem as special down the line. But for now, Dan Romer's work here, just feels so phenomenal.

But anyway, after all of that over the top praise, I will now move onto merely its halfway point with Episode 5!

Peng
10-20-2018, 12:01 PM
The catharsis in last two episodes barely makes it enough for the worth-it finish line, because mostly this feels pretty thin, half-baked, and stretched throughout; I feel like only the first story ("Furs by Sebastian") works completely as a self-contained, entertaining side-story by itself. Biggest liability is Jonah Hill, who is given a thankless role and also doesn't have enough interiority for his character to feel uninterestingly dead-eyed and catatonic most of the time. Partly why the penultimate episode is the best for me, apart from Stone's powerhouse moment of catharsis, is that Hill is finally given something to do (and in his wheelhouse of over-the-top energetic comedy too), so his half of the story works too. Second favorite is the sixth one ("Larger Structural Issues"), where Justin Theroux and Sally Field have a gloriously twisted time as one dysfunctional mother-son duo. Production design proves far livelier than the competent direction, but Emma Stone is the reason to watch this, always magnetic, lighting up even the dull spots, and adapting completely to every different note she is given.

Skitch
10-20-2018, 12:34 PM
Biggest liability is Jonah Hill

Always.

Ezee E
10-20-2018, 05:16 PM
The catharsis in last two episodes barely makes it enough for the worth-it finish line, because mostly this feels pretty thin, half-baked, and stretched throughout; I feel like only the first story ("Furs by Sebastian") works completely as a self-contained, entertaining side-story by itself. Biggest liability is Jonah Hill, who is given a thankless role and also doesn't have enough interiority for his character to feel uninterestingly dead-eyed and catatonic most of the time. Partly why the penultimate episode is the best for me, apart from Stone's powerhouse moment of catharsis, is that Hill is finally given something to do (and in his wheelhouse of over-the-top energetic comedy too), so his half of the story works too. Second favorite is the sixth one ("Larger Structural Issues"), where Justin Theroux and Sally Field have a gloriously twisted time as one dysfunctional mother-son duo. Production design proves far livelier than the competent direction, but Emma Stone is the reason to watch this, always magnetic, lighting up even the dull spots, and adapting completely to every different note she is given.

Haven't finished, but this is pretty dead on. I also really like Mizuno's approach to Dr. Azumi, who elevates her mostly barebones role. I mostly just don't feel interested enough in these characters to continue on since most of their time is spent in a dreamworld. The real world they're in is far more interesting. It's almost like Inception but without the consequences in their dreamworlds.