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Netflix’s The Madness Delves Into The Age Of Disinformation

1 week ago

Who sows the insidious seeds?

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Debuting at the end of last week and shooting right to the top of the Top 10 charts, The Madness is a brand new original thriller led by none other than Colman Domingo. If you’ve already raced through season 1, we’ve got the answer to your next question…

Colman Domingo as Muncie Daniels in Episode 101 of The Madness

Will There Be The Madness Season 2?

No official news just yet on whether The Madness will return for season 2, but it’s worth noting it was originally intended to be a limited series, meaning the first batch of episodes would be the only insight into the characters and their universe. But a comment from Domingo has left fans hopeful. Speaking to Deadline, the series star said: ‘Listen, I don’t really say this a lot about any show, because I like going from moment to moment and having great moments in a show, and moving on with my life and doing something else. [But] this show, I think there’s more from Muncie. I would really love to engage with a season 2.’

Hedging his bets before the fans had a chance to tune in, Domingo added: ‘We’ll see if people think he’s got more story in him as well. I hope people watch.’

Speaking to Netflix, Domingo expanded on the juicy character of Muncie. ‘It was a unique protagonist, one that I had never seen or experienced,’ he shares. ‘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 realise 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.’

What Is The Madness About?

‘The Madness is about a CNN analyst who gets wrongly accused of a crime,’ Domingo shares in a video for Netflix. This is Domingo’s character, Muncie, who now must fight to prove his innocence after stumbling across a dead man (coincidentally a white supremacist) deep in the woods of the Poconos mountains.

‘[Muncie] is modelled after these pundits who are respected but at times challenged, even by their own communities. Sometimes looked at as being not Black enough, and then to some folks, too Black. He is someone who was definitely an activist when he was younger. Then he moved into a different echelon and then became a bit of a superstar. And he’s a little bit removed from the communities that he was advocating for.’ So when he is accused of murdering a white supremacist, he has so much further to fall.

‘We find him at the height of his career,’ adds co-showrunner and executive producer VJ Boyd. ‘He’s a commentator, a pundit, on CNN. He writes for Harper’s and the Atlantic. He teaches at UPenn.’ So it’s all the more devastating when everything comes crashing down. As Muncie inches closer to the truth, he ‘discovers a conspiracy,’ Boyd says, ‘and realises it’s much bigger than he ever thought.’

‘He’s at a crossroads,’ explains co-showrunner and series creator, Stephen Belber. ‘He’s trying to solve a crime, but at the same time he’s trying to solve something inside himself.’

Get a taste of the action in the trailer below.

The Cast

Colman Domingo as Muncie Daniels
Marsha Stephanie Blake as Elena Daniels
Gabrielle Graham as Kallie
John Ortiz as Franco Quinones
Tamsin Topolski as Lucie Simon
Thaddeus J. Mixson as Demetrius Daniels
Deon Cole as Kwesi
Alison Wright as Julia Jayne
Stephen McKinley Henderson as Isiah

How Many Episodes?

The Madness season 1 is made up of eight episodes, which were all released simultaneously on Netflix.

John Ortiz as Franco Quiñones, Tamsin Topolski as Lucie Snipes and Colman Domingo as Muncie Daniels

The Madness Season 1 Ending Explained

Warning: spoilers ahead… At the end of The Madness, Muncie is able to unravel the conspiracy he has been entangled in and clear his name. White supremacist Mark Simon was found dead, and Muncie was accused of his murder. The real culprit? Tech company Revitalize – specifically billionaire data analyst Rodney Kraintz, the company’s silent majority shareholder. At first, however, Julia Jayne is the prime suspect, after a nerve agent is found in her belongings and evidence on her laptop. Muncie is exonerated and the police begin to drop the case – but the journalist is dissatisfied, warning the cops he has recordings of Julia saying that she is not working alone, but acted under the guidance of orders from Kraintz.

After visiting his ex-wife Elena in hospital, Muncie is approached by a stranger, who reveals himself to be one of Kraintz’s lawyers, offering Muncie $5 million to stay quiet about what he thinks he knows. But, after seeing stories framing Julia as the perpetrator of multiple murders on the news, it doesn’t sit right for Muncie. He wants Kraintz in prison or dead – only then will Muncie feel safe.

In the hopes that it will get Mark’s white supremacist cult, The Forge, off her back, Muncie tells Mark’s estranged wife Lucie that Kraintz and Revitalize killed Mark as a warning to The Forge, whose far right discourse was proving difficult to control. Muncie returns to TV, where he plays the recording of Julia confirming she is working with Kraintz, and uncovering their conspiracy to open an unregulated cobalt mine – and dispose of anyone standing in the way of that, including Mark.

Lucie pins down Kraintz’s private office and slips Muncie a note – but Demetrious sees it first, and is out for revenge. Muncie tails his friend, locating Demetrious just as he’s about to jump over the gate with a gun and shoot Kraintz. Muncie talks him down – but then heads inside to confront Kraintz himself, who goads Muncie into killing him. The journalist walks away.

Lucie, meanwhile, has also been successful in getting the police to raid the home where The Forge holds its meetings; a SWAT team manages to arrest all but one member, who manages to escape. On TV, Kraintz delivers a statement: he has been cleared of all charges relating to Simon’s death, and Julia was the culprit. Of course, we know otherwise. As he turns to get into his car with his security guards, however, the straggler from The Forge reveals himself – and kills each and every one of them.

In the aftermath, Muncie does not return to his life on TV. Instead, he works as a high school teacher and works on his familial relationships. However, as a car with dark tinted windows rolls by as Muncie grills burgers in the park, it’s clear his fears for Kraintz and Revitalize are far from over…

Tamsin Topolski as Lucie Snipes in Episode 102 of The Madness

Is The Madness Based On A True Story?

No, The Madness is not based on a true story – but it does try to encapsulate the feeling of our times. As executive producer and director Clement Virgo says, ‘The Madness is a kind of metaphor for the world that we’re in now. The social media world.’

‘You wake up every day and you read various headlines, and we’re in a world where the notion of objectivity is really hard to come by as we navigate our way through all the information that’s coming at us 24/7,’ adds The Madness’ creator, Stephen Belber. The Madness riffs on the relentless news cycle that guides – and inflames – opinions and debates in society today. ‘What’s important is the notion of how to declutter in order to find out what you care about amidst it all,’ Belber says.

‘The Madness is really examining the climate that we’re in right now, and is trying to tell us to think about that,’ Domingo shares. ‘Who sows those seeds of disinformation? Who is puppeteering all of this? That’s why Munci is going through the different sections of society to find out what’s going on.’