User Reviews

"Ceci N'est Pas Une Drill" is a very interesting episode of Maniac. It sets up the effects of the C-Pill as it takes our characters into different directions; Owen into the mafia world and Annie into the land of fantasy. The episode is very short (a brisk 22 minutes) but it sets up everything well. Upon further watch, this episode is deep and more thematic. I had to watch once more but I got the message how stability within a genre works well as coping mechanisms, which is why Fukunaga decided to use these two genres to get the point across. I think the fantasy world works better for me. No offense to Gabriel Byrne and his "hippocampus" drill method, but Annie and Ellie elven story is a sweeter, more relatable part. Plus, Jonah Hill looks like he is trying to impersonate Post Malone with those tattoos and hair. Annie and Owen are now taking the final C pill. In Owen's story, his dad wants him to the take the fall for the drill murders because of his mental health issues (draws a strikingly similar parallel to Owen's real-life situation). As for Annie, she plays a half-elf ranger escorting the elven princess to a lake with mystical properties. The Queen Gertrude sent invisible assassins after them. Annie doesn't care whether the princess lives or dies, but once she sees her reflection, that might change. Overall, the episode is brisk, paced well, and an enjoyable watch. It was nice to see some of the actors we saw earlier in the series come back such as Gabriel Byrne and Jemima Kirke as one of the police officers. The mafia story is okay if not a bit violent (really came out of nowhere) but the fantasy story works well. Julia Garner shines as the elven princess. Some of her dialogue is priceless. We did not get much in the way of Mantleray except for the end, which leaves you wondering what will come next. My Grade: B+

Vary deep episode it's takes some understanding I had to Watch it 3 times to fully understand it

I've begun to get tired of the little mini-lives we've been delving into in each of the recent episodes. Each mini-life isn't really connecting with the last and is not really developing our two main characters all that much. So it feels like things are happening less for a purpose and more for quirkiness sake. And when that happens, that means there is no true motivation for the actions of the characters and the events in these mini-lives other than the writer trying to come up with something interesting. In this episode, that is becoming more clearly the case. They are in a fantasy realm because Annie's sister loved this fantasy movie (and apparently fantasy in general). But that is the only reason that this mini-life is a Game of Thrones knock off. Why is this fantasy film so important to her sister that it actually becomes a mini-life to trudge through? It's never explained or explored, it's simply something chosen to make the series more quirky - a forced situation. Is that all these mini-lives are? This time around, however, this story-inside-a-story isn't compelling or even complete. The episode simply ends after 26 mins (almost half the time of other episodes). It feels arbitrary and like possibly they are keeping the rest of this episode for the next one (because this mini-life will run too long if kept as a single episode).

In this episode, there is a drill pushed through someone's head. You see it coming. It is very graphic and disturbing. I didn't feel as though this episode added that much to the story line either.