The Madness feels like a modern take on Harrison Ford’s The Fugitive – but it’s missing a key piece of spice that made the latter so great. The Madness cast Colman Domingo as Muncie Daniels, a media pundit who is framed for the murder of a white supremacist and forced to go on the run. The series has a lot on its mind about the present state of politics and race relations in the U.S., but the engine that drives the story is very similar to The Fugitive.
Just like Harrison Ford’s Dr Kimble, Muncie is framed by an unseen foe and has to use his wits and smarts to stay ahead of his pursuers. The Madness feels more intense during its earlier episodes, where the threat against Muncie and his family is more intangible and vague. It arguably suffers when later outings introduce the key figures behind the killing of Brother 14, and the show loses the propulsive energy that made The Fugitive such a nailbiter.
The Madness Feels Like A Modern Remake Of Harrison Ford’s The Fugitive
Colman Domingo is a fine successor to Harrison Ford
A quick rewrite could have transformed The Madness into a more direct remake of The Fugitive – though the series is just as interested in Muncie’s family drama as it is in the chase. Considering the Harrison Ford thriller is over 30 years old now, Netflix’s show has the benefit of using modern tech and surveillance to make Muncie’s life even harder. This includes the nightmarish moment he stands in Times Square and sees his image plastered over the billboards, as passersby start to recognize him.
The Madness doesn’t have a standout setpiece like The Fugitive’s dam jump, but it does have some heart-racing chase sequences of its own. One of the elements that set the show apart from the 1993 thriller – which itself was adapted from a classic 1960s series – is that Muncie is receiving help from his family, including his daughter and son. Whereas Kimble had few allies on his side, Muncie has a community of people trying to help.
Around the midway mark of The Madness, it becomes less about Muncie’s efforts to stay ahead of his pursuers and more about trying clear his name. This takes some of the edge off the story, as it becomes bogged down in exposition and hitting familiar genre beats. This change in focus saps The Madness’ ending of a lot of tension, since it feels like the chase story has wrapped up long before the credits actually roll.
The Madness Needed A Great Antagonist For Muncie Like Tommy Lee Jones’ Fugitive Character
Tommy Lee Jones’ US Marshal Sam Gerard would have made Muncie’s life a living hell
When The Fugitive arrived, many critics felt it would be an elevated B-movie, at best. However, it was made with such craft that it’s regarded as one of the 1990s best thrillers and landed Tommy Lee Jones an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Jones’ US Marshal Gerard might be the hero in any other story, but in The Fugitive his relentless pursuit of Kimble makes him feel like a demonic presence. It always feels like Ford’s protagonist is barely half a step ahead of Gerard – and this is a dynamic The Madness is sorely lacking.
The Netflix thriller suffers from a lack of strong or even mildly threatening villains. Muncie’s most dedicated pursuer is the assassin Julia Jayne (Alison Wright), but while the show paints her as an ice-cold killer, she’s oddly incompetent in action. During her first encounter with Muncie, she misses while shooting at him from only a few feet away. She’s later forced to abandon a hospital hit when the FBI interrupts her, and she loses a car chase to Muncie’s teenage son.
In short, Jayne never feels like a genuine threat because she’s always failing, and struggles to even keep up with Muncie. What The Madness needed was a dogged, intelligent antagonist like Jones’ Gerard who was always snapping at Muncie’s heels, to make his narrow escapes feel truly earned. It’s a bad sign when a thriller feels less intense the more the villains are revealed.
The Madness Season 2 Should Fix Its Villain Problem
Will Muncie have to face more Madness in the near future?
The Madness doesn’t end on a note that suggests another season is a given. It ends with Muncie’s name being cleared, and the people behind his framing appear to have been brought to justice. Still, Domingo told THR he would love to return for a second season. Assuming The Madness season two comes together, then the series needs to tackle its villain issue. Muncie needs to face off with a character who is just as resourceful and wily as he is.
The next season might not repeat The Fugitive template, but it definitely needs to give Domingo a worthy foe to bounce off. That will depend on where the story takes the character next, of course; maybe the people who framed him the first time come back to seek revenge, or he becomes the target of a media smear campaign. If The Madness wants to make its Fugitive homage a little more direct, maybe casting Tommy Lee Jones as the antagonist is the way to go.
