Russian Doll, Maniac, The Good Place, and how helping others is also helping yourself
TV Features For Our ConsiderationThis post discusses the plots of Russian Doll, Maniac, and The Good Place.
I, like so many others, watched Russian Doll and loved it. Then I watched it again. And again. On the third watch, I wasn’t most surprised by the Easter eggs or inside jokes or hints at time’s relativity. Instead, I was charmed by smaller things, like the exchange in the finale when Alan (Charlie Barnett) asks his friend Farhan (Ritesh Rajan) if he knows where Nadia is. Farhan expresses his surprise that they know each other, to which Alan sheepishly replies, “It’s not like that. Well, just once, but it was casual, you know?” Farhan doesn’t react to this until Alan mentions Nadia’s cat. Then he says, “You really do know Nadia! Wow, this is so out of character for you! You’re like James Bond! Should I call you James Bond?” “What? No,” says Alan, in horror. “I’m not James Bond. I’m Alan.”
It’s a funny, spontaneous exchange that still preserves Alan’s slightly stodgy characterization. The scene sticks out because the viewer rarely sees Alan do anything but wait to see what happens next. He is content with dying over and over without trying to alter his circumstances, until Nadia appears alongside him and tells him she’s repeatedly dying, too. No wonder she changes him—if Alan is order incarnate, Nadia is the epitome of chaos. She barges into his life like she’s Jack Nicholson and he’s Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give. Like Nicholson, Nadia is raspy-voiced and has a knack for terribly unhealthy decisions; like Keaton, Alan’s a shy overthinker who keeps his feelings under a very tight lid. (He’s even got the pristine kitchen to match.)
Similar bonds form between Annie (Emma Stone) and Owen (Jonah Hill) in Maniac, and Chidi (William Jackson Harper) and Eleanor (Kristen Bell) in The Good Place. Like Alan, Owen and Chidi are orderly, in their own ways: Owen does what his family tells him, and Chidi is straitjacketed by his morals. All three male leads across these shows struggle with their mental health: In Maniac, Owen is diagnosed with schizophrenia, while Alan seems to have depression, Chidi anxiety. Annie and Eleanor, like Nadia, indulge in their vices as a way to deal with their respective traumas (survivor’s remorse, narcissistic parenting, and what I’d characterize as complex PTSD).
All the shows reference therapy in some way or another, and characters are forced to deal with exactly the kind of painful patterns one is expected to discuss in session. But just referencing therapy and calling it a day elides the many moving parts that exist around it. Yes, the therapeutic relationship can do wonders to one’s sense of self, but these three shows point out that friendships and romantic relationships, while no replacement for therapy itself, can be just as empowering.
Each member of these pairs is initially isolated in their self-absorption. Alan can’t admit his soon-to-be-former girlfriend, Beatrice (Dascha Polanco), is in pain, even as he leans further and further into her to make up for the hollowness he feels. Nadia doesn’t acknowledge her friends’ frustration with her, or how often she puts herself (and her heart) in danger. Owen thinks that his family and his schizophrenia will keep him from ever being happy, while the only companion Annie lets in is her sister’s memory. Eleanor refuses to see not just the pain and frustration of the people around her but also her own. Chidi does realize, on some level, that everyone hates moral philosophy professors, but his worries are so compulsive that they push away the people around him. Even when he notices this, he can’t stop. It’s only when these characters are forced to rely on someone else for their survival that they pay attention to the world around them.
In Russian Doll, Nadia’s adoptive mother figure, Ruth (Elizabeth Ashley), talks about her work as a therapist as being a useful mirror against a common problem: We’re all unreliable narrators of our own lives. This convinces Alan that maybe, just maybe, therapy is worth it, in direct contrast to an earlier scene with Farhan, who urges Alan go to therapy by saying it worked for him and his girlfriend. Alan dismisses this: “I can do this by myself,” he says stubbornly. “No one can do anything by themselves,” say Farhan. The crux of shows like Russian Doll, Maniac, and The Good Place is that in order to help others, we have to get right with ourselves. In order to get right with ourselves, we have to see outside ourselves—and in order to do that, we need other people. Our survival depends on it.
A crucial moment comes in Russian Doll after Nadia kicks Alan out for touching her things while he tells her they need each other: They both realize there are no mirrors in their worlds anymore. By turning away from each other, they lose their literal mirrors, so they have to turn to their metaphorical mirrors: each other. (This is also a notable moment because Nadia actually apologizes to Alan, which might be the first time she apologizes to anyone in the series.) There’s a similar pivotal moment in Maniac, when Owen searches for Annie in her therapy-like sequences in order to warn her off the possessiveness of the depressed computer GRTA (Sally Field), even turning into a falcon to find her. When they appear in a therapeutic sequence again, it’s Owen’s schizophrenic vision that reminds them of who they really are. And in The Good Place, Eleanor’s sense of self starts to break down in Janet’s void when Chidi attempts to deny his feelings for her, forcing his hand. It’s when he kisses her (and acknowledges the intimacy between them) that they both become themselves again.
Despite the deep connections they later establish, the characters start out as total strangers. As Nadia tells Alan, they only live a few blocks away from each other, yet had never before met, and probably wouldn’t have, had it not been for the strange, surreal circumstances they now find themselves in. That’s what makes the pairings so fascinating: Who are these people to each other? Owen’s family pushes him into Neberdine Pharmaceutical Biotech’s experimental trial family, while Annie sneaks in; a connection is created between them when a vision of Owen’s brother persuades him to help Annie stay in the study. In the Bad Place, Eleanor demands Chidi help her after she makes him promise not to tell on her.
These three pairs act as mirrors to one another. Similar to therapists, they come into one another’s lives with totally different perspectives, the kind they’d never find in their everyday lives. Their unique friendships are not unlike internet friends, or even long-term or long-distance friends who you mostly interact with over the phone or online. These friends are perfectly placed to have an outside perspective of both you and your life. Because Farhan is regularly in the shit with Alan, and Maxine and Lizzy are with Nadia, it makes both Alan and Nadia more likely to ignore their friends’ pleas to take care of themselves.
In Russian Doll, it’s clear romantic relationships get in the characters’ ways. Alan uses Beatrice to give him purpose, using her to prop up his broken sense of self. Nadia has John (Yul Vazquez), whom she runs into at her birthday party six months after breaking up with him. At first, John seems to be a lifeboat in a sea of weirdness for Nadia, but soon it becomes clear how little he sees the real her, or rather how he only sees Nadia in how she reflects his narcissism and fear of being alone. For Annie and Owen, the peculiar fact of their therapeutic dreams being intertwined means that they end up in scenarios where they act as romantic partners, even though the characters seem to have no interest in a romance in reality. Annie is struck by how Owen’s character in her dream is a partner that feels like “someone you have known since you were in 7th grade”—which is to say, someone she can trust. (It’s also the one time she cracks a genuine smile in the series.) Meanwhile, Owen is obsessed with women in his past and present who he can’t seem to have. But his dreams help him realize that life with them would not be super-happy alternatives to his extremely lonely reality.
Then we have the only romantic pair in the bunch, Eleanor and Chidi—who need to fall in love because it’s important for their development. (While Nadia and Alan do sleep together, romance does not need to flourish for these two particular characters to be important to each other.) Chidi has to choose his love of Eleanor, which he does because he knows his not making a choice would hurt her considerably, while Eleanor has to become comfortable with being vulnerable, including trusting in someone who cares for her the way no one in her life ever has. This is also why Chidi forgetting her at the end of the show’s third season is so poignant—she is suffering the consequences of being vulnerable (losing someone), something she tried to avoid her whole existence. Since there are only four humans who have to rely on one another in The Good Place, making Chidi and Eleanor’s relationship romantic distinguishes their intimacy from that of the other humans (and Michael and Janet) in the group.
Fortified by these relationships, these characters also grow independently. Alan is honest with Beatrice, and Nadia lets her mother go in order to get free. Owen and Annie separate and achieve their breakthroughs on their own: For Annie, it means letting go of her sister. For Owen, it’s making peace with the schizophrenic vision of his brother, and letting the vision guide him as he saves the other people in the study from GRTA. Maybe love won’t save him, but knowing other people are relying on him might. As anyone who’s told someone they have feelings for them, it’s something Eleanor and Chidi each had to decide to do on their own. It’s about “what we owe to each other,” as Chidi says. What these shows suggest is that we owe each other to take care of ourselves, so we can recognize our ability to help others. That means breaking through one’s knee-jerk self-absorption with the help of someone you trust, and seeing how you can love and care for the people around you in a way that empowers you both.
If Alan learns to be spontaneous over the course of Russian Doll, Nadia learns patience. She stays with Alan all through his night so he doesn’t hurt himself. When they meet on his roof, he asks if she can promise him he’ll be happy if he doesn’t jump. “No, man! No way,” she says. “But I can promise you won’t be alone.” That’s good enough for him—and in some ways, it’s the best thing we’ve got.
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Russian Doll Maniac!
The Maniac Doll Place.
Don’t they have their own valley?
Funny thing. You talk a lot about mirrors and don’t mention that Nadia’s mother’s break down included breaking every mirror in the house and that the first sign that Nadia’s ‘multiverse’ is cracking up/winding down is that the mirror in the bath room disappears.
The first thing I thought of was the covering of mirrors during mourning periods .
I noticed a lot of Judaism in Russian Doll (36th birthday!) but COMPLETELY forgot about this.
I liked Russian Doll.I love The Good Place.I had no desire to see Maniac when it was released, as my inner monologue went something like “Emma Stone and Jonah Hill? Hard Pass!”. However, seeing as this article draws certain parallels, I have to ask those who’ve seen all three shows, how does Maniac hold up when compared to the other two?
It holds up really well. Maniac has an ensemble cast, much bigger than the two leads, but those two play beautiful off one another. Jonah is reserved and makes his comedic timing count at the best times, and Emma scales mountains and valleys of emotion that actually resonated with me. I’ve never seen such a nuanced portrayal of BPD, and Emma should be commended for it. Actors aside, Maniac’s set design, costumes, script, lighting, etc. just absorb you into the narrative. Anyone can enjoy it, but especially those with painful memories that demand attention. The show forces its leads to address what needs processing, and we get to watch. At times, certain memories blend together, not unlike Eternal Sunshine. It’s a fun ride, and I highly recommend.
It holds up really well. Maniac has an ensemble cast, much bigger than the two leads … I’ve never seen such a nuanced portrayal of BPD, and Emma should be commended for it. Actors aside, Maniac’s set design, costumes, script, lighting, etc. just absorb you into the narrative … At times, certain memories blend together, not unlike Eternal Sunshine. It’s a fun ride, and I highly recommend.Thanks so much for your reply reviewing Maniac (and thanks to @brontosaurian and @AlvinTostig too!). Had no idea it had anything to do with BPD – Crazy Ex Girlfriend is the only show I know with that subject matter, and that’s one of my favourite shows on right now. And I loved Eternal Sunshine, so that comparison certainly piques my interest.It’s just that, there are certain almost-universally-loved stars that I can only stand in small doses, and Emma Stone and Jonah Hill happen to be two of them. However, given all what you’ve said I think it’s possible I could end up enjoying the show regardless, so I will check out the first episode!
Maniac was, by far, my favourite TV of last year.
And I also have very little time for Jonah Hill in general.
I thought Jonah Hill was a complete bore except when he was playing that weirdo from Iceland.
I liked parts of Russian Doll.I also liked Maniac.But, I’ve yet to watch The Good Place because I have no time. However, I hate how much The AV Club fucking overhypes The Good Place to the point where if I watch the entirety of the show, I’d be like very underwhelmed because of how overhyped it was by this site.And it doesn’t help that there are tonnes of other good shows like Babylon Berlin, Sex Education and Patriot that deserves a bit more overhype and yet gets ignored by all the pop culture websites like this and Pajiba for some fucking reason. If The AV Club tones down its love for The Good Place a bit and starts giving other shows a bit more attention (especially foreign shows on Prime and Netflix), we could get this site back to its early 2010s heyday.
The two+ Good Place articles a week during the season is definitely exhausting, but I wouldn’t let the overhype stop you from watching it.
I wouldn’t let the overhype stop you from watching it. Seconded. I’ve seen the whole run of GP three times, and keep finding new stuff in it (but each episode has really funny stuff in it if you just want to, you know, watch it).I’m not as chagrined as some about the AVC’s penchant for Good Place articles and mentions, because it’s a hell of a show (heh) and kinda fun to see professional people geeking out over it. I highly recommend just watching, say, the first three eps (they’re about 23 minutes each). If you’re not hooked by then I can’t help you – but give it a shot.
But, I’ve yet to watch The Good Place because I have no time. Actually it doesn’t take up that much time, relatively speaking. I watched the entirety of season 1 on a Sunday morning once it came on to Netflix UK (just as season 2 was starting in the US). Episodes are just over 20 minutes each, so it felt like I’d just watched a really long movie, with a fantastic ending.However, I hate how much The AV Club fucking overhypes The Good Place to the point where if I watch the entirety of the show, I’d be like very underwhelmed because of how overhyped it was by this site.But, how do you know it doesn’t live up to the overhyping if you haven’t seen it? How do you know you’d be underwhelmed?I actually have the AV Club to thank, otherwise The Good Place wouldn’t have been on my radar at all. I was sick of commenters dropping “mother forker!” and “Chidi-this/Eleanor-that” into unrelated comment sections, so I too was tired of the hype. But guess what, after binge-watching that first season that morning, I totally get why it elicits such fervent praise.And it doesn’t help that there are tonnes of other good shows like Babylon Berlin, Sex Education and Patriot that deserves a bit more overhype …Ah, now see I did see Sex Education too. And Elite. So I share your frustration, and I have commented on here that it’s a shame those Netflix shows didn’t get the coverage they deserve. But, that being said, that really doesn’t detract from the fact that The Good Place is a fantastic show and deserves all the coverage it gets on here.
But, how do you know it doesn’t live up to the overhyping if you haven;t seen it? How do you know you’d be underwhelmed?I actually have the AV Club to thank otherwise The Good Place wouldn’t have been on my radar at all. I was sick of commenters dropping “mother forker!” and “Chidi-this/Eleanor-that”into unrelated comment sections, so I too was tired of the hype. But guess what, after binge-watching that first season that morning, I totally get why it gets such fervent praise.It’s been done many many times.I’ve been told how fantastic stuff like Game of Thrones, The Americans and Undertale were, and I checked them out and I was like “eh”. That’s why I err at caution whenever something gets super massive praise.I will check out The Good Place if it’s really as good as AVC made it out to be when I have nothing for the entire week and I feel like eating ice cream while binging. It’s in my Netflix watchlist after all.
I admit that I’m guilty of overhyping TGP probably. That being said, if you’re taking votes…I’m voting you watch The Good Place. I watch maybe one or two new shows a year, and this year that was mine, and I couldn’t be more glad. I also just showed Seasons 1-2 to my teenaged kids, and even after hearing me overhype it, they were still pretty taken with the show. It’s not perfect, but it’s just a lot of fun. It’s like Always Sunny meets Michel Gondry, if that intrigues you.
It would be impossible to over hype The Good Place. It is the smartest show currently on network television.
The Good Place is a great show. I’m not as attune to what AV Club writes about it. The show works best knowing minimal spoilers to it though.Ted Danson is a scene stealer throughout. If you have some time I would recommend watching it.
This. It’s mindboggling that AV Club has all but ignored Babylon Berlin, Berlin Station, Sex Education, Patriot, etc, etc, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since mining internet outrage for clicks seems to be a more lucrative business instead.
The Good Place really is that good though
It’s a really good show, just go watch it. Unlike with Dawes, the AV Club’s over-endorsement actually holds up this time.
Maniac is fantastical, kind of cool and pretty in the retro sci-fi campy type way. It’s much more odd, but I didn’t care about the characters as much as The Good Place or Russian Doll. I just didn’t like Jonah Hill in it as much as I probably should have liked that character, but Emma Stone was fun. I loved both Russian Doll and The Good Place, but consider them very different things from each other despite obvious parallels. Maniac I enjoyed watching and I liked it visually, but I didn’t love it and it hasn’t really stayed with me. It’s very Brazil ish, but not that dark.
Haven’t seen Maniac, bur I agree about ‘Russian Doll’ and ‘The Good Place’ being very different. Aside from different tones and aesthetics, I feel like ‘The Good Place’ is very much about considering other people and what you owe to them, whereas ‘Russian Doll’ is very much about what you owe to yourself. Both of which are very important things to think about.
I really liked Maniac a lot. It’s goofy and fun and not meant to be taken as seriously as a lot of television these days, while still earning its emotional beats.It also has the benefit of being exactly 10 episodes, so it won’t have the chance to devolve into the Flanderized fan-servicy mess of instantly dated jokes that The Good Place has become.
I enjoyed Maniac. If I was gonna compare it to anything though it would probably be Legion Season 1 with a mix of the Good Place. The first episode or two are slower existing to set everything up, after that the miniseries tends to switch settings which adds to the entertainment value. You go from a spy thriller to 50’s couple antics, a fantasy setting, a doomsday one, etc.Like Legion though it can sometimes gravitate towards style over substance. The plot is somewhat basic when you scrape off the layers of setting changes and the like. The ending however is well deserved and works well.
Maniac is okay. It’s entertaining, good-looking, and completely gonzo, but it lacks any deep meaning and substance like Russian Doll and Good Place. The show could but doesn’t seem to make a point and message about tech, mental illness, and human behavior. In fact, the show doesn’t really seem to say anything other than the future is just extreme clinical depression in a cheery, weird way. There’s no takeaway from it that the tech or the people is either good or bad.
how does Maniac hold up when compared to the other two? I liked Maniac a lot. Stone and Hill play off of each other really well, and the overall s-f feel of the show is fun, allowing a different take each episode pretty much. Russian Doll is good (owes a lot to the Ken Grimwood novel Replay, which I recommend to everyone). It took me a couple of episodes to start to like Nadia, but I think that was intentional. The Good Place? best of the three in my opinion, partly because it wears its philosophy on its sleeve…And this was a really insightful article. Nice job!
Russian Doll is the most solid plot/storyManiac is great but could use some editing. Emma is great and Jonah is ok. You will cryGood Place is like all the good writers from 30 Rock went there and the crappy ones went to Kimmy Schmidt.
I’d say Maniac and Russian Doll are pretty good comparisons. Similar tones, as I’d characterize them both as character dramas with sci-fi elements and a similar style of humor thrown in. The acting, directing, writing, and sets are all on par with each other. So if you liked Russian Doll, I think there’s a good chance you’d like Maniac.I really don’t see a lot of similarities between The Good Place and the other two shows, though. The Good Place is just very much a network sitcom, and the only real similarity it has to Maniac or Russian Doll is a willingness to focus on philosophical and psychological questions. I’m not saying The Good Place is better or worse than the other two, just that it’s so different I don’t think liking or disliking The Good Place is a good indicator or whether you’d like Maniac or Russian Doll. They’re just too different things.
Maniac was okay, but I was never emotionally invested in it in the way I was with The Good Place and Russian Doll. I was never emotionally invested in it at all.
Maniac sucked me in to the point I watched it twice in quick succession. The whole premise is really good. Especially if you like Good Place and Russian Doll you will like how they interweave everything and the people together. I’m being vague because the things I want to discuss would give away key points. I really liked Maniac. Jonah Hill and Emma Stone both surprised me and they are just two of a great cast. The others are outstanding. Justin Theroux added depth to his character that could have been a throw away cliche and instead was wrenching. Definitely worth a viewing.
I think Maniac is more inconsistent than Russian Doll and The Good Place and thus, much more hit-or-miss. Some of that is by design, but some of it isn’t (that show is an acquired taste, for sure). But the savior themes that the article uses to tie these series together is pretty strong.
I tried The Good Life, but I didn’t like it, too much slapstick and corny nineties sitcom jokes. Then Russian Doll was what I had hoped The Good Life to be based on the descriptions I read.
Maniac is a bit different; less philosophical, a bit darker and more weird for the sake of being weird. This turned off some people, but I like how they throw in some stuff because it’s just fun or cool. It has a bit of a Terry Gilliam or Yorgos Lanthimos vibe.
The crux of shows like Russian Doll, Maniac, and The Good Place is that in order to help others, we have to get right with ourselves. In order to get right with ourselves, we have to see outside ourselves—and in order to do that, we need other people. Our survival depends on it.Beautiful article. I mentioned in another article that I liked Nadia and Russian Doll during those initial episodes. I thought it was a neat take on Groundhog Day, the aesthetics were great, and Natasha Lyonne was killing it. I really, really liked it. I didn’t know how they’d Then they introduced Alan, and they had Nadia go out of her way to help him, a relative stranger—even though she had her own shit going on, helping the people she was already close to—which led to the two pushing and pulling away from each other and then ultimately choosing to help each other. That plot made me straight up fall in love with the show and Nadia. The last shot of the season finale was beautiful.And, of course, The Good Place exists, and I love it. What more can I say about it that hasn’t been said? I absolutely felt so sad about Chidi and Eleanor losing each other again. (Though, gah, I can’t deal with any more mindwipes. Please, let this be the last.)Haven’t watched Maniac, but I probably should.So many shows dealing with death, the after-life, and new lives.
Though Alan and Nadia did hook up that one time, them choosing to help each other (and themselves) maybe to me seems more like Eleanor and Tahani being friends (who may or may not be “legit into” each other) but probably not (ugh) “soulmates.” Though I like The Good Place more, and it has more well-rounded characters with better developed relationships, Russian Doll did a great job building the unlikely connection between Alan and Nadia—who actually in some ways remind me of a less romantic version of Janet and Jason’s relationship maybe? But that isn’t quite right either
re: Russian Doll, that was my favourite last shot of a season in a long long time
‘Russian Doll’ is genuinely horrible crap.
What a hot take. Congrats on being in the minority.
And you might say the real star of the show is New York City itself.
I don’t know if the good place fits into those other two shows as much since we still don’t know the full scope of the supernaturally elements within it. I love the show though. I also loved Maniac. It’s a solid mental health drama up front with a farcical black comedy in the background. I didn’t like Russian doll as much but that’s just because it’s mystery didn’t hook me at all.
This analysis also holds true for the K-drama ‘Feel Good To Die’, too. Another 2019 time loop comedy-drama. The back half of that series was a straight-up redemption story for the nasty boss who dies whenever his put-upon coworker mentally wishes he would just die.
Amelie and Groundhog Day are two of my favorites in this genre of helping others.
I’m not sure if I just wasn’t paying close enough attention or I’m just not a good enough neighbor or what, because I thought Russian Doll tried a little too hard to provide a reason for the looping. They happened to see each other in the bodega the night they both died, and Nadia decided not to help a stranger (after asking Farhan if Alan was okay, and Farhan said Alan would be fine); Alan kills himself, and Nadia doesn’t look out for traffic and gets hit by a car. So now they’re stuck looping together until they both help each other fix their personal damage? Why? It’s not like Nadia *knew* what would happen to Alan and decided not to do anything; and Alan was too fucked up to even notice Nadia, so his karmic conscience should be spotless. The moral is…reach out to strangers, even when they seem like they have their shit together because who knows, maybe they don’t, and they’re just waiting for you to talk to them? And because these two individuals didn’t do that, and they both died in the East Village that night, their punishment/reward is a reincarnation time loop?
Genuinely looking for insight here.
I think you might be applying too much Good Place to Russian Doll. The good place pulls from more ‘modern’ philosophies whereas russian doll is much more oldschool with some greek/roman influences. For example the homeless dude who cuts hair is almost certainly either outright some demi-god or the representation of a demi-god or satyr. Their linking was as much ‘these people might help each other or it will at least be funny watching them try’ as it was for a karmic reason.
I didn’t think that they got looped because they didn’t help each other. The way I read it was that the loop was a glitch in Nadia’s life, caused by her not being able to get past her trauma to do with her mother, brought about by reaching the age her mother was when she died. Alan got mixed up because he happened to kill himself at the same time, so he kind of got dragged into it. It wasn’t ignoring each other that led to the loops, but being there for each other now is a way to get out of them. But I could be wrong.
I can see that, especially as Nadia’s birthday party is her return point, and it’s a day more laden with psychic/emotional energy for her because of her unresolved trauma, whereas Alan happened to also die on this day, but for him the date wasn’t significant.But in this case, why does it matter what Alan does within the loops? If it’s Nadia who is inadvertently the cause for the loop, then all it should take is for her to reach out to Alan and stop him from killing himself; not also Alan saving her from getting hit by a car/convincing her not to hook up with the sleazy guy. Because the Nadia who has learned from all of the loops is the one who makes the conscious decision to help, who realizes that having pain doesn’t mean you have to be alone, etc. The Nadia that Alan saves is more of a passive Nadia, being acted upon.
Tried to hard too hard to provide a reason for the looping is a weird thought since they literally never explain the looping at all.
Eh Russian Doll just wasnt all that to me and even thoigh I watched it all in one sitting I left it feeling a hollow experience. Dont get me wrong there were some funny moments to it all but something about it just seemed off.
Perhaps the Hipster co-stars out of central casting, and their trite and silly dialogue, had a little something to do with it? Plus, Lyonne always plays the same cranky old man.
A very Catholic thesis!
You guys don’t think you’re helping others by hurting others based on their Race?
This article is great. More like this please.
Seconded. Compared to some knee jerk reactions, the in depth and *gasp* emotionally adult look is just so refreshing and a breeze to read. I don’t need to agree, I just need to be engaged. More!
Seconded. Compared to some knee jerk reactions, the in depth and *gasp* emotionally adult look is just so refreshing and a breeze to read. I don’t need to agree, I just need to be engaged. More!
Wonderful article. Like other commenters here I haven’t seen Maniac but it’s going on my queue now.I drew parallels between the other two series based on the morality weirdness going around but I neglected to think about the principal pairs as well. As fun and quirky as those shows are, they wouldn’t work if they lacked the theme of doing good – and being better – for others and for oneself. I sure hope this sentiment is present in Maniac, too.
Owen was a dull character, and I got the impression that the people behind the show didn’t really care about him. At the end his schizophrenia is treated as something of an afterthought he doesn’t really need to do anything about. The original Norwegian series is a bunch of silly parodies, but it’s also centered around the protagonist’s choice between self-gratifying delusions or an unsatisfying reality, which can’t be resolved with the mere power of friendship.
I mean, I loved Russian Doll and The Good Place (at least the first 2 seasons), and this article might actually get me to watch Maniac, especially with my newfound appreciation of Emma Stone after The Favourite.
“Helping others is also helping yourself.” Buddhists have known this for over 2000 years.
Gotta get up, gotta get out, gotta get home before the morning comes