With the election a mere eight days away, you may be either looking for a complete distraction or to engage with storytelling that takes on the pressing issues of our time in a smart and thoughtful manner, unlike some of the things we see on the news every day. If you’re in the latter camp, Netflix’s new series The Madness might be for you.
Led by Oscar-nominee Colman Domingo, The Madness is a thriller that could only have been born in our current political climate. The show’s synopsis reads as follows: “Muncie Daniels (Domingo) is a political consultant-turned-TV pundit who may have lost his way in life. While on a work sabbatical in the Poconos to write the great American novel, Muncie finds himself the only witness to the murder of a well-known white supremacist, and now he’s being framed for the crime. Muncie is forced to go on the run in a desperate fight to clear his name and unravel a global conspiracy before time runs out. Along the way he’ll reconnect with his family, find unlikely allies, and fight against disinformation in a post-truth age.”
“Do you see what they’re doing to me? I feel like I can’t breathe,” Muncie says in the short teaser, before a few images from the murder flash on the screen. “They are gonna pin all this on you,” a different voice says as the character proceeds to go on the run (right into the center of a pretty cool title design).
“Everything about this conspiracy thriller excited me,” Domingo told Tudum of the series. “It was a unique protagonist, one that I had never seen or experienced. Someone who has very centrist beliefs, and now they’re being thrust into the world to really hard-core believe in something and to reexamine the people that they believed were possible enemies. You realize you have more in common with them than you thought you had in the beginning. I think it says a lot about who we are now and what we’re willing to do, and also to look at who’s really pulling the strings and for whose benefit.”
The Madness also stars Marsha Stephanie Blake, Gabrielle Graham, John Ortiz, Tamsin Topolski, and TJ Mixson. The eight episode series premieres November 28 on Netflix.
English (US) ·