Midnight Mass (2021)
Netflix
Created by: Mike Flanagan
Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Written by: Mike Flanagan, James Flanagan, Elan Gale, Dani Parker, Jeff Howard
Starring: Kate Siegel, Zach Gifford, Kristin Lehman, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Annabeth Gish, Alex Essoe, Henry Thomas, Hamish Linklater
Netflix and Mike Flanagan’s latest partnership is coming out this Friday (September 24), and it’s time we talk about Midnight Mass. The limited series focuses on the residents of the Crockett Island. After the return of a former resident, and the arrival of a mysterious priest, a series of supernatural events start to happen. Those events revive the faith of the citizens of the Crockett Island.
Full disclosure here: I haven’t seen Flanagan’s previous Netflix anthology series, The Haunting. Sure, I heard a lot about Hill House and Bly Manor, and how great those shows are. But I never brought myself to watch them. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I was always watching other things, and ended up forgetting about these shows. So when I had the opportunity to cover Midnight Mass, I jumped at it. And I must say, I really regret not watching Hill House and Bly Manor in the past.
Writing and acting
Midnight Mass is fantastic. Mike Flanagan’s directing is beautiful and it really improves an already amazing script and story. His directing makes the show even better. I also really enjoyed the way the show was written and paced. The show consists of seven hour-long episodes. The shortest episode of the series is 59 minutes long, and the longest one is 70 minutes long. So yeah, the episodes are very long. But the way the show was written makes good use of each of these minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a streaming show that nailed the pacing as much as this show did. It is extremely bingeable
The acting performances are also worth praising. Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford and Hamish Linklater shine as the lead characters, and Rahul Kohli and Annabeth Gish are perfectly cast in their roles. But it’s Samantha Sloyan who gives out the best performance of Midnight Mass. The Grey’s Anatomy alum is absolutely amazing in the role of devoted Christian Bev Keane. Over the course of the series, Sloyan is able to craft a villain that is so real and so believable. It’s impossible not to hate Bev, but it’s equally impossible not to want to see more from her. While this is extremely unlikely to happen, due to the fact that the Emmys are known to overlook genre shows, Sloyan definitely deserves an Emmy nod for her role as Bev.
Conclusion
The best thing about this show, however, is how Flanagan managed to use the horror genre to discuss so many important issues that aren’t usually discussed on mainstream media. The religious theme of the series allows Flanagan to discuss issues such as life and death, faith and addiction, and he does such a great job at discussing these issues. He manages to raise so many interesting questions and discussions that will leave you thinking about the show even after you’re done with it. Midnight Mass isn’t just a great horror television series. It’s much more than that. It is a necessary and must-see story about life.
