Colman Domingo’s new Netflix show, ‘The Madness’ drops a teaser
The Temple grad is definitely tapping into his Philly days to play a CNN political analyst who finds himself at the center of a murder mystery
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“I’m telling you, it was a set up. Now I’m getting questioned,” West Philly-raised actor Colman Domingo says in a new teaser for his forthcoming Netflix series The Madness. “I got a bullseye on my back.”
Domingo plays Muncie Daniels, a CNN political analyst in Philadelphia who writes for magazines like The Atlantic and Harper’s Bazaar, while also teaching at Penn. But when he goes to the Poconos for a writing sabbatical, Daniels finds himself at the center of a murder mystery that he soon discovers is part of a larger conspiracy. He’s framed for killing a white supremacist and the show follows his efforts to prove his innocence.
“He’s modeled after these pundits that are respected [and] at times, challenged even by their own communities, sometimes looked at as being not Black enough, and then to some folks too Black,” Domingo told People magazine in an interview this week. “He was someone who was definitely an activist when he was younger, he moved into a different Echelon and then became a bit of a superstar, and he’s a little bit removed from the communities that he was advocating for and then he’s accused of murdering a white supremacist.”
The teaser shows Domingo standing alone in a blue suit looking around as the screen glitches. In a voiceover, the character says, “Do you see what they’re doing to me? I feel like I can’t breathe.” Clips show a large ritzy estate in Pennsylvania covered in caution tape and Daniels (Domingo) running through the woods. Daniels is meant to be a cool and powerful media leader who unravels as the show continues and he tries to uncover the truth.
“The Madness is really examining the climate that we’re in right now and trying to tell us to think about that,” Domingo told People. “Who sows those seeds of disinformation, who’s puppeteering all of this? That’s why Muncie is going through different sects of society to find out what’s going on.”
The actor is tapping into the background he cultivated in Philadelphia as an undergraduate at Temple University, where he studied journalism. Domingo has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years as he’s appeared in major films like The Color Purple, Sing Sing, and Rustin, in which he starred as the West Chester-raised civil rights legend Bayard Rustin in a performance that earned an Oscar nod. The stylish star was also recently named a cochair of the 2025 Met Gala, which will center on Black men’s fashion.
The Madness premieres on Netflix on Nov. 28.