Plot Synopsis

Based on the 2014 Norwegian TV series of the same name, MANIAC is a dark-comedy series that tells the story of two strangers who find themselves caught up in a mind-bending pharmaceutical trial gone awry. Set in a world somewhat like our world, in a time quite similar to our time, Annie Landsberg and Owen Milgrim are two strangers drawn to the late stages of a mysterious pharmaceutical trial -- each for their own reasons. Annie's disaffected and aimless, fixated on broken relationships with her mother and her sister; Owen, the fifth son of wealthy New York industrialists, has struggled his whole life with a disputed diagnosis of schizophrenia. Neither of their lives have turned out quite right, and the promise of a new, radical kind of pharmaceutical treatment -- a sequence of pills its inventor, Dr. James K. Mantleray, claims can repair anything about the mind, be it mental illness or heartbreak -- draws them and 10 other strangers to the facilities of Neberdine Pharmaceutical and Biotech for a three-day drug trial that will, they're assured, with no complications or side-effects whatsoever, solve all of their problems, permanently. Things do not go as planned. On Friday, September 21, 2018 at 3:01am ET/12:01am PT, Netflix released all 10 episodes of this limited series, directed by Cary Fukunaga. The series opens with Owen, the black sheep of the wealthy Milgrim clan, being diagnosed with schizophrenia. After losing his job, he enrolls in an experimental drug trial. When her pilfered stash of pills runs out, troubled Annie tries to quit -- but ends up blackmailing her way into the Neberdine study. Muramoto notices irregularities in Annie and Owen's data. He questions Owen, who recalls the worst night of his life: his brother's engagement party. After taking the B pill, Annie and Owen find themselves on 1980s Long Island entangled in a strange caper involving a lemur.