In the Netflix series Maniac, reality cracks at the seams, as if the characters are in a dream where familiar faces try on other people’s masks and logic gives way to absurdity. Owen (Jonah Hill), a guy with a mental disorder, and Annie (Emma Stone), a young woman trying to drown out the pain of loss, participate in an experiment to “cure” their trauma with pills. These pills plunge them into a world of shared hallucinations, where the characters live different lives connected by a single thread—their search for each other.
The series offers the viewer a kaleidoscope of genres and situations—from a parody of The Lord of the Rings to neo-noir in the spirit of the Coen brothers. The characters become elves, gangsters, and participants in spy games. By the way, the title, Maniac, is not about a serial killer. It is an abbreviation of a computer that generates artificial realities. But, as in any good dream, there is meaning hidden behind the chaos.
The characters find themselves in altered states of consciousness, not of their own free will, but rather under the influence of experimental drugs. However, within the shared hallucinations, they begin to gain some control, but not always complete control. They learn to interact with this crazy world, changing it and adapting to it. But, as in a lucid nightmare, the main question is how to wake up and return to reality without losing oneself in the intricacies of the subconscious.
Have you watched the show? Does it seem like a series of lucid dreams?
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