- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Nov 28, 2024
Critic Reviews
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Domingo is joined by a phenomenal ensemble that includes one of the best turns from the timeless John Ortiz, a great Deon Cole, a captivating Alison Wright, a sharp Bradley Whitford, and excellent character actors abound. .... A thriller like "The Madness" only works if we believe the journey of its protagonist, and Domingo completely closes the sale. We don't just root for him to succeed, we're on this ride with him, strapped into the rollercoaster, as startled as he is by each subsequent twist and turn.
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While the show is imperfect in how it trojan horses those ideas into its conspiracy thriller packaging, “The Madness” is still one of the most purely entertaining series that I’ve seen this year and a testament to Domingo’s star power.
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Colman Domingo brings a veracity and intensity to his character in The Madness that elevates what is potentially a run-of-the-mill thriller. But so far, the show isn’t giving us any reason to think it’s getting ridiculous, which is a good thing.
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Yet if the issues are familiar, The Madness is still dangerously habit-forming. Domingo is a powerhouse in the lead, his permanently worried eyes just right for a series predicated on misgivings, and the whole eight hours is exceedingly well put together – clever camerawork and editing means that Muncie’s descent into trust-no-one paranoia reflects the viewer’s.
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The show sometimes gets goofy in depicting the personalities and peccadilloes of each faction. Still, it mostly succeeds, on the strength of Domingo’s performance, Muncie’s complexity, and, above all, the visceral sense of contemporary chaos and futility it channels.
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Ultimately, Netflix's The Madness is another welcome dose of realism in a genre that can sometimes rely too heavily on fictional agencies and unbelievable plot devices instead of leaning into our existing political and economic malaise. Every one of its pieces comes together to successfully create a poignant, thrilling, highly watchable series.
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As well as being smartly plotted and expertly paced, The Madness has a subtle but great line in showing how Muncie must navigate the traditional tropes as a Black man (police scepticism, approaching strangers for information, or simply being out and about in certain neighbourhoods).
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Alfred Hitchcock kept these stories down to a couple of hours, and I do believe that given the opportunity to stretch out over several episodes, he’d have stuck to two. “The Madness” does its work over eight, which strictly speaking is more than it needs. But there’s a lot to like about it.
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Domingo finally gets his first solo on-screen starring vehicle with this thriller. But despite the usual gravitas and magnetism that Colman displays here, The Madness can’t quite match the nuance and natural grace of its lead performer.
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While the material sometimes flounders, "Madness" offers him the kind of star vehicle he deserves, in which the camera almost never leaves his deeply expressive face. When the plot or other actors falter, Domingo is there to save the day, even if Muncie can't save himself.
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Making it to the end episode is something that you sort of do out of obligation here, and while that finale does throw up some great moments, you can't help but feel that The Madness would've been the perfect thriller had it been condensed to five or six episodes.
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It’s easy to imagine the limited series working quite well as a feature film. At nearly eight hours, though, it’s another maddeningly bloated modern streaming venture.
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The ultimate unraveling of conspiratorial revelations is a big fizzle. What keeps The Madness from ever becoming something wholly disposable is, as you may have guessed, Colman Domingo.
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He [Colman Domingo] and The Americans alum Alison “Poor Martha” Wright, playing a fixer for the bad guys, keep things fun for a while. But ultimately, there’s not quite enough madness to go around.
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The show was written and filmed before the 2024 election, but the cultural fractures examined here were no less present a few months ago (or years, or even decades). But it never really commits to unpacking these power structures outside of the show’s universe, where things spiral and stray too far from the pilot’s inciting incidents.
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Much like the protagonist in a psychological thriller, though, The Madness slowly loses its own sense of reality as it gets deeper into the mystery. Things become notably more far-fetched in the second half of the show’s eight episodes.
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While Domingo acquits himself just fine as an increasingly frenzied man on the lam, “The Madness” itself is a schlocky mess, its pulpy appeal dimmed by a drawn-out runtime and attempts at social commentary that fail to find their mark.
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What first-rate actors always say about the movies they do is that good writing is paramount; without it, nothing works. Or, as in “The Madness,” very little. Created by Stephen Belber (“What We Do Now”), “The Madness” is the kind of story that is thoroughly cooked up.
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Its commentary is fatally muddled. There are so many logical holes, so much unclear, that “The Madness” can frustrate. Conspiracy thrillers are like boats: Too many holes, and they sink.