TV Show review
September 21, 2018 · TV-MA · Ended
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Maniac.
Woke representation / casting
Supporting cast includes natural diversity such as Sonoya Mizuno in a doctor role that fits the setting and story logic; casting director Avy Kaufman has a diverse track record, but choices show no audience-visible signaling, quotas, or mismatches with the New York world.
Woke political dialogue
Occasional satirical lines about corporate pharma and consumer habits appear, but they stay light and absurd with no activist slogans, identity lectures, or ideological speeches.
Identity-driven story themes
The narrative centers on universal issues of trauma, mental illness, family pain, and loneliness; these themes play out through personal arcs without race, gender, sexuality, or group-identity framing as drivers.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The show pokes fun at overpromising pharma companies and lonely modern life with ad-buddies and paid friends, but the tone is comedic and existential rather than activist-style attacks on patriarchy, capitalism as systemic evil, or traditional norms.
Review
Maniac is a 2018 Netflix limited series starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill as two strangers who join a shady pharmaceutical trial that promises to fix all mental problems with three special pills. The story follows their drug-induced hallucinations, shared visions, family traumas, and search for real connection in a retro-futuristic New York full of walking ads and odd tech. The show explores mental illness, loneliness, and human bonds through dark comedy and surreal set pieces, with no visible push toward identity politics, representation messaging, or social-justice lectures.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No notable public complaints accused the series of pushing woke, DEI, or identity politics content.
Creator track record context
Key creators like director Cary Joji Fukunaga have explored social themes in humanist films and made some liberal public comments; one writer has feminist background work; the overall team leans literary and dramatic with no strong recurring identity or activist pattern across the project.
Production
