“The Madness: Season One” (2024) starring Colman Domingo / Z-View

The Madness (2024)

Created by:  Stephen Belber

Directors:  Clément Virgo (Eps. 1-2; 7-8); Jessica Lowrey (Eps. 3-4); Quyen Tran (Eps. 5-6)

Teleplay: Stephen Belber (Eps. 1; 8); Stephen Belber & V. J. Boyd (Ep. 2); Obehi Janice & Dana Kitchens (Ep. 3); Maurice Williams & Liz Ellis (Ep.4; story by Maurice Williams); Katie Swain (Ep. 5); Felicia Hilario (Ep. 6); V. J. Boyd & Dana Kitchens (Ep.7; story by Jeanine C. Daniels)

Stars: Colman Domingo, Marsha Stephanie Blake, John Ortiz, Bradley Whitford, Tamsin Topolski, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Gabrielle Graham, Deon Cole, Ennis Esmer, Hudson Wurster, Lochlan Miller, Alison Wright, Eugene Clark, Rothaford Gray, Chris Henry Coffey and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

Tagline: You can’t escape.

The Plot…

Muncie Daniels is on the verge of making it big.  Muncie is becoming well known, not for being the son of an activist infamous for murder,  but for being a television celebrity.  Muncie’s talk show guest ratings have been high, and an offer for his own show is in the works.  Unfortunately, Muncie’s home life has suffered.  He has a grown daughter from a woman he never married.  He also has an estranged wife and teenage son.

When Muncie decides to take a weekend for himself to decompress, he rents a cabin in the woods.  As he’s getting things in, Muncie meets the man in the next cabin over.  The man informs Muncie that if he ever needs anything to pop over.

Later, Munice is surprised when all the power in the cabin goes out.  Muncie heads over to his neighbor’s to see if the power is on there.  No one answers the knock on the door, so Muncie heads around back.  He is shocked to see…

… two men cutting up his neighbors body!

Muncie takes off running through the woods with the killers in pursuit.  Before it is over, Muncie finds himself framed for the murder of his neighbor.  Worse still Muncie discovers a billionaire in behind the conspiracy. Now wanted by the FBI and every police department in the country, Muncie must find a way to clear his name.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

The story starts of well enough but as the episodes go on it meanders and drags.  The plot is excellent.  The actors, especially Colman Domingo, John Ortiz, Deon Cole, Bradley Whitford and Stephen McKinley Henderson shine.

The problem is the story.  At times it meanders and drags.  If someone had come in with a final edit to make the story leaner, allow the characters to make better (more realistic) decisions, then my rating would have been higher.

The Madness (2024) rates 3 of 5 stars