There’s a sci-fi series on Netflix starring two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone that hardly anyone is talking about. That’s why we want to recommend this gem to you
Nowadays, Netflix is no longer as experimental as it was a few years ago. Well-known brands such as The Witcher, Bridgerton and Resident Evil are filmed as large-scale series with franchise potential, while established successful concepts return every few months in a new guise. This wasn’t always the case.
For a while, Netflix ventured into niches that the competition rarely entered. Idiosyncratic projects such as The OA and Lady Dynamite turned the streaming service into a place of unpredictability back then. One of the best series from this era is the idiosyncratic sci-fi dramedy Maniac starring Emma Stone.
Genius sci-fi series on Netflix: Maniac with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill will turn your head
The story of Maniac takes us to a minimally dystopian New York. Here, the pharmaceutical company Neberdine Pharmaceutical Biotech (NPB) is causing a stir with a three-day test designed to rid participants of all their psychological problems. For Annie Landsberg, played by Stone, this test comes at just the right time
You can watch the trailer for Maniac here:
Annie drifts aimlessly through her life and looks back on a mountain of broken relationships. Above all, she is not on good terms with her mother and sister. At NPB, she meets Owen Milgrim, played by Jonah Hill, who comes from a wealthy family and is struggling with his own problems.
Two disparate people in a mysterious place: the rooms of NPB could be straight out of a claustrophobic mystery series like Severance and Homecoming. But the series soon sends its characters on exciting fantasy adventures and dark espionage thrillers. In Maniac, nothing is as it seems.