There are a lot of names in Hollywood that perk up our ears for different reason. When we hear “Emma Stone” we get interested and excited to see what she’ll try out next. When we hear “Jonah Hill” we wonder which outlandish character he will portray next and how much weight he will have inevitably gained or lost for the role. When we hear “Cary Joji Fukunaga” we drop everything we’re doing and sprint to see whatever he’s putting down. For all of them to be working on a project for Netflix called MANIAC about alternate realities in a “multi-reality brain magic shit” wrapper made us feel things in our movie parts!

Then we saw the TrailerTown…

Holy crap, there’s so much to dive into with this, but first, you have to watch it, only then can you read our Top 5 thoughts about it below:

Top 5 Things About the MANIAC (Netflix) Trailer

  1. Plot Nondescript(ion) – First off, the plot summary released for this TrailerTown is amazing, especially in direct juxtaposition with the visuals. Here’s the description: “MANIAC tells the stories of Annie Landsberg (Emma Stone) and Owen Milgrim (Jonah Hill), two strangers drawn to the late stages of a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. Things do not go as planned.” Watching this TrailerTown feels like we’re taking that premise out for such a walk we may never come back. Not sure we’d want to.
  2. Upstream Colors – This TrailerTown is beautiful. The use of color and light during the scenes at the “drug trial facility” is hypnotic, and then with each new reality, our heroes go through, the entire palette of the show changes. Color was really big for Fukunaga in True Detective (season 1), so we know it will be important here too.
  3. Confusion by the Numbers – There are a shit ton of numbers throughout this TrailerTown and the other marketing for MANIAC. We don’t know what they all mean, but here are the ones we saw: 9, 1, 0.9, 0.1, 11:17, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 11. What clues did you see?
  4. Koala Non-Grata  – Wait, was that a purple koala that seemed to move by itself?
    Maniac koala
    Yep!
  5. Just In the Field – We mentioned the main three players in this show, but let’s not forget, we also get Sally Field, Justin Theroux, and Billy Magnussen. If that cast and crew can’t get you to watch this. Nothing will.

So, it’s time to start guessing at the bigger mystery behind this series! What clues did you see that we can all make wild assumptions based on before the show airs on September 21?