The Madness Review – Colman Domingo’s smart, clever conspiracy thriller keeps getting better and better | Television and radio

Jjust because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Words I’ve lived by since I first saw them on a badge at a market stall in Camden when I was 14. And here I am still alive to tell you about it. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

That’s the guiding principle behind all successful conspiracy thrillers, and The Madness has embraced it. Our hero is CNN-esque TV host and media pundit Muncie Daniels (Colman Domingo), who is on the verge of being offered his own show and everything is going right with his world, at least professionally, and so takes a little break in the Poconos Mountains to try to start his novel before fame gets in the way. Don’t ever do this, kids. You can write your book in the safety of your own home just as well as in a quaint but isolated cabin, and there’s less chance of coming across a murder scene in a sauna if you do. Alas, poor Muncie and his discovery of pieces of his neighbor strewn across the polythene sheet floor in just such a convenience.

Soon, two balaclava-wearing men chase him through the woods. Soon after, he has stabbed one of them with his fountain pen in self-defense, leaving him writhing in a rotten swamp as he escapes. Muncie passes out in the woods and the next day finds his tires slashed. He must go to the nearest town to report the dismembered corpse—if not the sump-n’-stinger—to the police. When they all get up there, of course, there’s no sign of anything amiss, except for a bit of the supposed victim’s watch strap left outside the sauna.

Setup complete, you can sit back and relax knowing you’re in the hands of an expert team about to deliver a smart conspiracy thriller that’s a cut above the rest. Precision engineered plot machinery can be heard purring into life. Traces and red herring are patted into place by discreet hands. Muncie gets a trademark coat and a random stranger comments on it, reminding everyone that this is a bit better than all the shows that would simply give him the coat to look good.

With it clear that someone is out to frame him for the murder, and even more clear that the police have no interest in finding out the truth, Muncie must of course start investigating on his own. And when this puts his family in danger, he must find ways to protect them as well. Although not before he enlists his almost-ex-wife, Elena (Marsha Stephanie Blake), to help him follow up on a lead involving a swinger’s club. Hope springs forever in the chest of the almost ex-husband.

(That said, at least The Madness makes Elena a more fully-fledged character than the ex-wife of the wrongly accused usually ends up being. Typically, she’s an afterthought. Here you feel that they once had a relationship, that it worked, and that it’s rightly missed. There’s also a wonderful performance by Gabrielle Graham as Muncie’s daughter from another relationship in a role that’s as tenderly written as it is played.)

An FBI agent, Franco Quinones (John Ortiz), drops the bombshell that the dead man was a key member of the racist far-right group The Forge, and the dive into online horror begins. The Madness builds as it becomes a portrait of a world where the truth is whatever you want it to be, and a great imagination will always beat reality when it comes to gaining followers and traction. The show itself also doesn’t always make it clear who the bad guys and the good guys are. Antifa activists have their own agendas and can be just as dangerous as their fascist counterparts if they are equally convinced of their group’s righteousness.

In addition to being cleverly plotted and expertly paced, The Madness takes a subtle but nice line in showing how Muncie must navigate the traditional tropes of being a black man (police skepticism, turning to strangers for information or simply be out in certain neighborhoods) . All the constraints an Everyman at the center of a conspiracy thriller normally operates under are given added, inevitable torque, and the tension builds accordingly.

The Madness is clearly intended to be a small-screen star-making vehicle for Domingo, who has already made his mark in theater and film (with an Oscar nomination earlier this year for Rustin and buzz building around his performance in redemptive prison drama Sing Sing). Whether the show gives him enough to do as an actor to make that possible, I’m not sure. He is called upon to do a lot of looking terrified, pained and determined, but there are peripheral characters who have more to do, and while his presence and charisma are indisputable, the propulsive plot threatens to remain the main attraction.