You can see the natural Hollywood ending of "Maniac" coming from the first episode, just as mentally ill protagonist Owen starts to see the face of drug addicted protagonist Annie on every ad he passes on the street. After all, this is a show that stars Jonah Hill as Owen, and Emma Stone as Annie, and it's clear they're already becoming a part of one another's lives even before they meet. Obviously we're in for a quirky love story, in which the pair find acceptance in one another, even if they can't fit in with the rest of the world. Or not.

　　The best thing about "Maniac" is that, throughout the entire show, it chooses to avoid that predictable route. "Maniac" is about a connection between two people, but it never becomes a love story. There's even a scene in the final episode of the show in which Annie, confronted with the idea of a romantic relationship with Owen, completely dismisses the idea. That's because the show isn't about two people falling in love--that would be too far along in their respective healing processes. Owen and Annie aren't ready for love yet; they're still figuring themselves out.

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　　Now Playing: Maniac - Official 'Connection' Teaser Trailer

　　Basically, "Maniac" is the about the old breakup cliche, "It's not you, it's me"--except it's true, the characters mean it, and they find ways to actually start dealing with the "it's me" part.

　　Both Annie and Owen are people with enormous personal baggage. One episode runs down Annie's past indiscretions: She feels directly responsible for the death of her sister in a car accident, specifically because of the way Annie treated her before she was killed. Annie is addicted to the drug "A," which is central to the plot of "Maniac," because it causes the user to relive the worst day of their life. Annie's worst day is her sister's death, but even though revisiting the event is incredibly painful, it also gives her a chance to be with her sister again.

　　Owen's schizophrenia combines with his strained relationship with his family, in particular his brother and father, and that causes him to struggle to trust people, including himself. In particular, he talks about his "blip," a psychotic episode in which he screamed at a woman he was getting close to, because he came to believe she was being paid by his well-to-do family to be nice to him. Owen's struggle with trust, paired with his illness, conspires to twist his view of his own self-worth.

　　Both characters find themselves in a clinical drug trial created by the maker of the drug A, Neberdine Pharmaceutical & Biotech, where we learn that A is actually one of three drugs that are meant to work in tandem. A causes the user to relive their worst experience; "B" is meant to break down the person's defense mechanisms; and "C" allows them to confront their trauma and work through it. Basically, the drugs are meant to replace therapy and fix people's problems for them.

　　Things don't quite go as planned, of course. Annie and Owen's hallucinations continually become linked, causing them to experience several lives together. The drugs create some weird situations for the pair, but the gist quickly becomes that, through their experiences and their connection together, Owen and Annie learn a lot about themselves.

　　Both characters get something out of the use of the drugs, but their success is more about helping one another than it is about the intended therapeutic effects. The pair's hallucinations together include memories of whole lives to go with them. In one, Owen and Annie are married in the 1980s but seemingly struggling, when they work together to steal an exotic lemur back from a local criminal. In another, Owen and Annie are divorced in the 1920s, both of them sophisticated thieves trying to steal a lost chapter of "Don Quixote" at a cultish seance--and they both betray one another, despite their history. In still another story, Owen is an Icelandic official who discovers (and accidentally kills) an extraterrestrial in the 1950s, and Annie is the secret agent sent to save him from the government.

　　It's not that every story has a happy ending, or that each one proves Owen and Annie should trust each other--in fact, it's more the opposite, with each experience giving both characters a candid look at the dysfunctions of the other. But the hallucinations Owen and Annie share, and their connection to each other, force them to think about how they treat other people, and themselves, and why. Their connection helps them make changes in themselves--Owen learns about accepting and standing up for himself, and Annie comes to terms with losing her sister and punishing herself for it.

　　Owen and Annie don't fall in love, because they can't. What they can handle is friendship, and so that's where "Maniac" leaves them. Both characters end the show knowing they have a lot of work to do to be happy, but they also know they have support and acceptance in one another. The entire series is a first step on the path of two characters taking a hard look at themselves and choosing to make changes.

　　TV star and drag queen RuPaul has a catch phrase that applies amply: "If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else?" That question, really, is central to the story of "Maniac." Annie and Owen might not love themselves by the end of the show, but they're trying. They're learning. They're growing. And they're helping each other do it. That the story doesn't force them to be in love is a big part of why it's so good. There are other ways people can form relationships without a Hollywood ending.

　　If you liked Netflix's Maniac, check out all the Easter eggs, callbacks, and references you probably missed!