Chaotic Ana: ‘Maniac’ Review
Watching Netflix’s “Maniac”, I quickly learned that it’s possible to be entirely gripped by a show, while simultaneously not having a clue what’s going on. In its first episode, “Maniac” introduced us to an alternate reality with analog technologies, where you can pay for other products and services by listening to advertisements. The New York City skyline features a Statue of Extra Liberty instead of the Statue of Liberty. I like a quote from one review — its author called the bizarre world of this show an “eight-bit futurism.”
“Maniac” is about mental trauma, guilt, distress, and coping with depression. Loneliness is one of the main themes of the show. FriendProxy, a fictional company that lets you hire random strangers to pretend to be your close friends, is very successful. As Dr. Patricia Lugo, notes, “I have real friends, this is just more convenient.” The main characters, Owen Milgrim and Annie Landsberg are unhappy and lonely.
Owen was diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia. He also has a very difficult relationship with his father and sociopathic brother Jed. He experiences hallucinations of another brother, who looks like Jed but has a mustache, glasses, and a different haircut. This brother tells Owen that he is the “Chosen One,” and that he will save the world.
Like Owen, Annie’s full of emotional baggage. She spends her days crushing up mysterious pills and disappearing deep into the couch of her crowded apartment. Annie is running away from something in her past, and the only family she has left is her father, who spends his time shut away in a sensory deprivation chamber in the backyard.
Annie and Owen are both participants in a paid drug trial meant to cure all pain, suffering, and mental health issues through a series of three little pills and an emotionally complex computer. How does it actually work? It’s not about the medication — it’s about the long journey to your true identity, the relativity of things, the line between reality and fiction. When patient #7 tells Annie he eats laundry sheets, she says: “What’s normal anyway?”
In their visions, Owen and Annie come face to face with the most traumatic events of their lives, relive them, and learn to move on with their lives. Annie and Owen’s hallucinations are intertwined, which isn’t supposed to happen, and this hints that there is an inextricable mystical connection between the two of them.
The ULP drug therapy goes well until it turns out that the GRTA computer is also depressed. Throughout the drug trial, Dr. Azumi Fujita talks about the “old problems.” “McMurphy” is the codename for patients who emerge from the Pill C process in a vegetative state, their minds having been captured by GRTA. This is when things get truly creepy, but chaos gives way to forgiveness and acceptance. The scene from the 9th episode, where Annie meets her dead sister’s avatar, is heartbreaking.
“Maniac” has plenty of flaws, but I can call it a well-made series with a clear message about a simple solution: it’s easier with friends.
