Maniac's director, Cary Fukunaga, on the hidden influences of the show

Stone's sister and co-star on screen Julia Garner Also joins the podcast to discuss the challenges of playing both Ellie – a very real American girl – and Ellia, an accented elf, with a fluid platinum wig and pointed ears. (Did Garner take a pair of those ears for herself?

Maniacal Go completely gonzo for the first time at the end of episode 3, while at the bottom of their dreams, Owen and Annie, two strangers, find themselves as two close halves of a married couple to the pursuit of a lemur. Yes, a lemur. Fukunaga says that the first coen bros. movie Raising Arizona, Featured Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as hapless husband and wife H.I. and Ed, served as an inspiration here: "We just wanted something that brought them together in this kind of non-traditional domestic situation. [They are] so lonely people, to bring them together as a kind of dysfunctional married couple, seemed like the right solution. "

Other inspirations are a little more obvious. It's impossible to watch Stone and Garner in their braided Legolas wig in episode 7, for example, without thinking about the Lord of the Rings.

But as much as Fukunaga is happy to talk about cinematic influences on ManiacalHe is not inclined to describe the repeated motives of the season as "Easter eggs". He talks about the recent proliferation of Easter egg culture as "something to get people to look at something". "Think of how well-built layers are, that there is nothing – even if something seems random or tangential, everything is connected to something. Chance is not satisfactory in terms of the final project. "