Like the paranoid notions that drive their protagonists, conspiracy thrillers are constantly shifting. The genre is remarkably malleable; the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s produced some of the form’s best — “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “Blow Out” — each of which iterated on the hallmarks of the form. A good political thriller is often decidedly of the moment, with enough meat on its bones to become timeless as it ages, and there’s certainly no shortage of material to draw on, given our current political climate.
The arrival of Netflix’s “The Madness” couldn’t be more timely if it tried.