Maniac: The weird Nordic Netflix adaptation that returns Jonah Hill and Emma Stone to TV

Everyday loser/fantasy hero", read the tagline of Maniac, the 2016 Norwegian comedy show that looked at life inside and out of the mind of its catatonic hero, Espen. This is a probably the neatest summation of the forthcoming English-language Netflix adaptation of the same name, which stars Hollywood heavyweights Emma Stone and Jonah Hill and boasts direction from True Detective talent Cary Fukunaga.

The first trailer for Maniac arrived on Monday night, offering two minutes of baffling otherworld imaginings and grim laboratory settings. Looking to be a mash-up between Stranger Things, Inception and Black Mirror, Netflix’s latest big-budget original series has fascinated the internet. Here’s the need-to-know.

It’s set in a psychiatric facility

While the trailer looks mind-bending, or, to quote Emma Stone’s character: “multi-reality brain magic s---”, the original premise of Maniac was fairly simple. For reasons unexplained, Espen is largely unresponsive in a psychiatric hospital. What his doctors can’t see, however, is that inside his head he is living out the American Dream: variously embodying historical war heroes, powerful rich men and domineering sexual suitors.

As Norwegian TV executive Anne Kolbjornsen explained in 2015, Ebsen is “living a fantastic life, but only in his dreams, in his fantasy world. Every day appears like a party, and there’s no limit to what he was experiencing. But it’s simply too good to be true,” said Kolbjornsen. “In real life, he gets locked up at an institution, with a psychologist trying to win him back to reality.”

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It looks like the Netflix adaptation has ramped things up a bit. For one, there’s not one Ebsen-style character, but several patients (including Stone and Hill, who are posed as a couple) who have signed up for a controversial treatment created by Dr James K Mantleray (Justin Theroux). Mantleray claims he can heal any complaint of the mind, be it mental illness or heartbreak. According to the trailer, fireworks ensue during a three-day trial for the drug at the fictional Neberdine Pharmaceutical and Biotech headquarters.

You can still watch the original Maniac on Netflix

The Norwegian version, created, directed by and starring Hakon Bast Mossige and Espen PA Lervaag (who play characters of the same names), is available on the streaming service, in case you fancy a catch-up before the US adaptation’s release on September 21.

It did, however, get mixed reviews

While Maniac was a big deal in its homeland – and looked set to follow in the gilded footsteps of fellow Nordic TV export Lilyhammer – it didn’t pick up enormous traction in warmer climes. In Maniac’s defence, the Nordic humour seems to have been lost in translation, namely because it is far darker than US audiences are used to. In the UK, however, we’re rather more used to black comedy; just look at Black Mirror, Peep Show or anything involving Julia Davis.

Netflix think they’re onto a winner

Nevertheless, Netflix snapped up the adaptation. Reports emerged in mid-March 2016 that Stone and Hill were finalising deals to star in a Maniac adaptation directed by Cary Fukunaga. At this point, no writers were attached. Within a week, Netflix had made them a deal with a 10-episode, straight-to-series order. Writer Patrick Somerville, who has written a couple of episodes of the US adaptation of The Bridge but is largely known as an author, came on board afterwards.

It might not necessarily have been the contorted Nordic subject matter that swayed the execs, however. After all, Netflix enjoyed widespread acclaim and awards recognition thanks to Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation in 2015, and few could turn down Academy Award-recognised talent such as Hill and Stone, neither of whom have had a major TV role since the start of the decade.

These three, along with fellow Oscar-winner Sally Field, Theroux and Girls’ Jemima Kirke, suggest that Netflix are funnelling a lot of money into Maniac – certainly several multiples of the $1.3 million spent on the original, at least.