Netflix - Midnight Mass

Last edited Fri Nov 5, 2021, 02:42 PM - Edit history (1)

For no particular reason, I'd been putting this off. The preview looked a little bleak, and my usual fare is police procedurals, which this isn't.

Well, I found it addictive. Watched three episodes last night. It was past midnight, or I would have kept going.

I don't know the story behind this series, and I'm kind of leery of slows created, written, produced, and directed mostly by one guy, in this case Mike Flanagan, whose background includes a host of creepy, scary, and horror-y productions.

In the first episode, a new Catholic priest arrives in town to replace the former long-term priest who is reported to be ill after a Holy Land trip. Also arriving is the prodigal son (not quite at the repentant stage), an entrepreneur who was released from prison after serving time for killing a woman while drunk driving. The town is a remote island where everyone is related and/or knows everyone else. Personal histories and relationships go back decades and generations.

The previews captured the bleakness. This is one of those tv shows that seems to have been recorded with a blue filter (btw, I hate that trend). The new priest, played by Hamish Linklater, is riveting. A believer but not necessarily a proselytizer; I almost wanted to pop into one of the local churches today to see what it's all about - as does the sole Muslim kid on the island. His father, also a Muslim is played by Rahul Kohli, the ME on iZombie. He was great in that show, as was pretty much everyone else (I loved that show until it got really weird toward the end). How a Muslim sheriff ended up on this island is probably a story, but it hasn't been told yet.

Then the rest of the town: the girl in the wheelchair, the town drunk, the prissy and creepy deacon (I don't know what you call this person in the church - she assists the priest, makes sure everything runs smoothly, and she's also more Catholic than the pope), the fishermen whose jobs are at risk for all the usual reasons that fishermen's jobs are at risk, the school teacher (following her dead mother, who was the school teacher before her)

It takes a while, but weird things begin to happen (of course - it would be pretty boring otherwise), and now I'm just waiting for more weird things to happen. I saw some links online noting that something really, really unexpected happens mid-series, but I stopped reading to avoid the spoiler.

Maybe this isn't your cup of tea, but it's definitely worth a try - give it at least 2 episodes. I can't wait to return to it tonight.

UPDATE: Watched 3 more episodes last night. No spoilers, other than to note that I should have seen it coming.