Midnight Mass is another brilliant limited series by Mike Flanagan. Netflix describes it “The arrival of a charismatic young priest brings glorious miracles, ominous mysteries and renewed religious fervor to a dying town desperate to believe.” As a fan of The Haunting of series by Flanagan this series hits in very similar, but different ways. While Hill House was about stages of grief and family, Bly Manor about different kinds of love in a gothic backdrop, this series dives into a lot of religion and how humans cannot just manipulate others with it, but themselves.
This series has an ominous feel right from the beginning. A small island in an economic depression, thanks to an oil spill, gets a former resident returning to it as an ex-con and a brand-new charismatic priest at the same time. There’s a lot of religious imagery, actions, settings, and breakdowns throughout the series. Flanagan can go from convincing you of religious ideals to also showing the dark side of those same ideals. Humans can twist anything to fit their beliefs even with good intentions. Religion is a powerful tool in how the human psyche can perceive events around them and others. We are capable of great, but also terrible things thanks to beliefs.
There is a big discussion about how alcohol is not good or bad in this series, it’s the human that can take in alcohol to do bad things, destructive things. I feel like that is also a metaphor for religion and belief. It can be used for great things, to help others, but sometimes those intentions can become warped to do harm. It can also be used to manipulate others straight up for your own gain with no remorse. Both these paths are present in this series. I think Bev Keane may be one of the vilest characters in any show I have seen. Its because of how real the character feels and that is a type of person many of us can relate to having to deal with. Of course, if you just straight relate to her then, um, you have issues!
The genius of this show is that the most disturbing part of the series is not the supernatural part of it, but human nature. This isolated town was finding a glorious new path to follow. Sometimes when you think your path is righteous and for the better it is in fact leading to massive destruction not just for others, but for yourself. The supernatural element only uses our own weaknesses against us. What is too good to be true, often is. When large amounts of people feel like they are being blessed and rewarded can lead to view themselves as above others. They feel like they must liberate everyone even if it means murder and destruction; Gods will.
Flanagan has a deep sense of the weaknesses in humanity and how to display that in a horror setting. His brilliance isn’t in the ghost and ghouls of his series, it’s the pure display of humanity in all our strengths and weaknesses. His stories always teach lessons about us at different angles.
I want to give a special shoutout to Hamish Linklater who played Father Paul. His performance was amazing. I have never heard of him before, so I hope after this he gains a lot of attention to grace us with his acting skills for the foreseeable future. Amazing work by him. He really felt like a real-life charismatic preacher. Like he had been doing it his own life. Get this man some big roles. I also want to give props to someone we have seen in Hill House, Samantha Sloyan. She made Bev Keane one of my most hated characters in a TV series ever. She portrayed a manipulative fake, but smart antagonist brilliantly. I hated the character but loved the performance. BRAVO.
The design for the supernatural looked great as well. You never know with Netflix, but if you are going to back anyone with good effects it must be Flanagan. I can see some people being disappointed that most of the show centered on the human aspect much more than the supernatural. I was not. I don’t necessarily need over the top horror elements in this type of story. The human actions throughout our disturbing enough. The supernatural is just a catalyst in my opinion. That’s how I like Flanagan’s work and that’s why his shows are a must watch for me.