Midnight Mass

Takes place in an alternate Stephen King universe where no one has ever heard of vampires. I hear a lot of bellyaching about monologues, but when they're as well-written and character-rich as these are, I say bring 'em on.

Do they not have horror movies in this universe?

Being a true, believing Christian is a bitch. It’s baked-in with, yes, trust in the omniscient and the faithful - yet the moment you see a miracle (I can say I probably have) you’re praying through Matthew 4 and Shylock’s words haunt your visions: “The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” No other filmed piece I’ve seen ever truly got this terror before. IMO the series stuck the landing: the last episode is just one, bloody object lesson on Original Sin. We are all dust.

A few interesting ideas drowned in endless pretentious monologues. Some have praised how it leaves space for "both sides" of the "argument". I don't care about the other side. Others loved how it all unfolds like a big sermon. Agreed! Did you ever see me there on the church bench on a Sunday, buddy? Didn't fucking think so.

The real premise of this series is to promote a reflection on our existence and purpose. And it does this surprisingly effectively using mystery, intelligent dialogue and multiple points of view. It's also a warning of how the truth is so fragile that even religion can be manipulated to bring out the worst in us. Without a doubt, a masterpiece.

More trash from Mike Flanagan: he gets preachy in this one. The premise is somewhat original but it's buried under pompous and artificial dialogue as delivered by overgrown Drama Club students. It also does that thing where none of the characters call it for what it is, despite the fact that it's arguably the oldest and most famous myth ever.

mike flanagan made this for me, but I will allow you to watch it, too

A masterpiece from Mike Flanagan, whose work I adore. It's really not horror to me, I got 0 scared, but I think Flanagan has come up with the antithesis of cosmic horror. I would call it cosmic hope. It's looking at the vast unknowable abyss that is the universe and smiling at it. I loved the character work, and got so emotional for the final stretch. The ending felt triumphant. It's also a heck of a series to watch during the pandemic, with twisting and manipulating and unwilling contagion.

The bad age-makeup gave away quite too much about the twists and turns, and the horror is nothing to write home about. But i'll be damned, i hadn't expected a flanagan miniseries to tackle existential dread and the belief system as profound and extensive as this does. While there's a fucking gargoyle flying around in the background, mind you.

Started brilliantly the first three episodes, but really went downhill thereafter. Well built characters descended into stereotypes and there wasn’t enough plot to fill the overly run long in time. Hamish Linklater was amazing as the priest, which was the only thing that kept me watching past the half way point.

Like almost anything horror , it peters out when the horrific has to be dealt with, but that being said, the setup and depth given to much of the rest of the plot and characters, makes this one of the best horror series in years.

It's like those Lovecraft stories where a small town becomes enthralled by a sinister cult worshipping some monstrous eldritch deity, except this time, the cult is Christianity.

A masterclass in writing about guilt from a secularly religious perspective. The series represents many worldly and spiritual takes on life and death, without taking sides and giving all equally compelling arguments. Very light on horror, very heavy on melancholy. Somewhat reminiscent of “Shiki”. Best series of 2021, and one of the bests in its genre. The lamenting hymn at the end rang far longer than come dawn.

Impressive setup, but Flanagan just didn't know how to wrap it up without resorting to cliches and melodrama. All the character development, all of the complexity (not to mention Linklater's tour de force performance) is instead whittled down to well-trod tropes with a few cheap and honestly pointless twists thrown in just for the hell of it. It's frustrating, because frequently the series provided poignant insight into organized religion only to scribble a few cliches for the denouement.

The first five episodes are magnificent. Never seen anything by Flanagan before this but seeing the amount of craft at play made me an instant fan. Zach Gilford being given a leading role and hitting out of the park warms my FNL heart. Character work here is consistently good but a few flaws bring this down: The overabundance of monologues grate when they become too unnatural, don't believe people would follow the main antagonist and the final monologue felt, ironically, preachy.

Phenomenal performance from Linklater carries this series. Loved the idea, the execution not as much, probably would've been perfect as a movie rather than a miniseries.

have little patience for supposedly profound supernatural psychodramas.

This story would make a fun movie but it's dragged out over many hours by boring monologues written by a teenager getting stoned for the first time. What I call "American Atheism" features heavily - trying so hard to disbelieve in a Christian god specifically that you elevate it above all other gods that have or will be invented - basically just another form of US Christianity! Also, the concept of vampires doesn't exist in their world? Never mentioned in the X-Files?

Midnight Mass is both the love letter and bitter grievance for the Church that I couldn't write in any of my wildest or most twisted dreams. Hill House is still the best of the bunch but Midnight Mass feels like the most personal to Flanagan who I can only assume is Irish-Catholic based on the name. It won't convince any non-believers nor does it profess to answer life's greatest mysteries but Midnight Mass really is a special show that, for all it's pontificating, actually has something to say.

Honestly not sure how to rate this. When it comes to pure entertainment/cinematic value? Super uneven. Very strong highs, very strong lows. As a reflection on religion and our attitude towards death? Quite effective. Has a lot to say and is clearly passionate about the question. It's an original show, definitely worth trying out if anything.

Flanagan knows how to write, shoot and chop atmospheric, slow burning horror, and taken as such this is a great watch. Sure, there doesn't seem to be a situation too small for a character to give a prolonged monolog about some aspect of faith, but given subject matter and how it's basically structured as a sermon, it seems fitting, and as religious discord goes, the show walks the line quite neatly. The ensemble cast all give fine earnest performances, but Linklater steals the show.

95% preachy, repetitive, religious monologues; 5% supernatural horror story. Additionally, as the story progressed more and more unlikely coincidences began to occur, clearly there only for the sake of the plot and artificial emotional impact, and the ending has an ungodly amount of plot holes. I understand what Mike Flanagan attempted to make here, but this not the way to do it.

e1-6: 90+ e7: 20

The church as evil's favorite playground. If you asked a random adolescent from a posh progressive school to write a screenplay about what he thinks Christianity is, this is what you would get. The mandatory "applied-postmodern woke" social critic (from race to religion, from sexual orientation to ableism, from climate hysteria to cultural relativism) is hidden with the symbolic complexity and sophistication of exactly what you would expect from an uneducated 14 year old. I know, I'm ageist

Very good, as far as visuals and atmosphere go. I'm still thinking about the ending occasionally, which is remarkable.

A great premise that slowly gets bogged down into bloated monologues. I still enjoyed it - especially Hamish Linklater's performance - but I was rolling my eyes at every scene by the last episode.

Slightly prefer this to Hill House, because of Linklater's performance and that this so successfully evokes Stephen King at his best without being a King property. The one major downside is everyone monologuing at each other, which was particularly egregious towards the end.

Not without fault, but it is surprisingly good. Hamish is brilliant.

interesting and beautiful dialogues and monologues

I find it amazing that not only were they allowed to make this show, but also that there are people who genuinely think this is borderline revolutionary. The premise is something an edgy high school student could come up with and think they've created a masterpiece. And then they do an over the top serious take on that gringe-worthy idea. The cherry on the top is the endless preachy monologues that makes watching this feel like a proper grind. And yet, somehow, the end is even worse.

It’s obvious this was a long-loved idea of Flanagan’s before he ever started rolling. Everything about this is so measured, so purposeful—from the beautifully slow pace to the array of characters to the concepts at hand. I’m not religious in the slightest but I also didn’t find this to be a religious text. Rather, it’s like a golden era King novel—audacious, masterful, mysterious, and unexpectedly soulful.

Takes a bit to get into and feels pretty rote at first, but damn if it doesn’t satisfy by the end

Despite the slow burn the first two and a half episodes were great even if the first mid season twist was glaringly obvious. However once the 'classic horror' element was introduced the series began to decline and never recovered as the story just becomes a mediocre rehash of countless stories we've seen before. Despite setting up so many interesting characters, few if any have a satisfying narrative conclusion by the end of the series, with the final line emphasizing this.

Buried under its monologues and overlong runtime, is a treasure trove of thoughts about death, guilt and peace. The monologues delivered were an absolute joy though.

Good

Some incredible performances alongside a couple of performances that come up just a hair short. Similarly, there's some fantastic writing on display, but it's undeniably self-indulgent and prone to monologues that contain nuggets of gold while being extremely overwrought and long-winded. Occasionally feels like it's killing time, and the twists/reveals aren't as surprising as the show seems to think (some woefully unconvincing old-age makeup certainly doesn't help in that regard).

Hard to get into

As with most of Flanagan’s work, emotional character development is a bit over the top. Way too many and too long emotional scenes. I get the need but come on man, cut down a little bit. This time around, the ‘angel’ story line didn’t attract me as much, but it is yet again a very very well made piece of media. Masterfully crafted, shot and edited. If the storyline satisfies you you won’t get bored.

The end monologue of this series still gives me chills. Absolutely brilliant.

Verassend goed.

This is after just the first two episodes. Pretty slow. Didn't grab me. Probably won't go back unless I hear it gets better.

SHOW DON’T TELL. Pişmanlık ve din gibi güçlü ve iyi yazılmış temalar mile flanagan’ın yetersiz yönetmenliğiyle yine heba olmuş. O “yaşlı kız”I olacak o kadar makyajı ve numarasız gözlükleriyle iyi ve inandırıcı oynadığına kim inandırdı acaba.

While clearly written to point out the hypocrisy of the church and the dangers of religious zealots, this series does take the time to explore both sides of the argument, even expanding it into a mindset that transcends notions of God and faith. It's fascinating to watch the story unfold for all of these characters; no sub plot is ever boring, and the end is beautifully tragic yet still somehow hopeful. I will admit the "horror" elements don't shine as well as the drama, but it's still amazing.

Linklater is the attraction here and he is the reason this series has any hope of working. It does not really spread out the debate well because the second half is rather preachy with the message. It does have some very horrific images and some very intense conversations about what it means to be faithful or not.

TV Mini-Series: 80

By far the weakest of Flanagans horror series so far. Not much to be scared of here and endless religious droning wasn’t my cup of tea either. Reminded me mostly of the supermarket scene in the mist stretched out to 7 hours. You can see the influence from King which is in this case not a good thing.

Tries desperately to achieve some higher meaning through a series of never-ending monologues and Bible quotes, but fails to rise above the sum of its parts, and what we’re left with is a neat 7-hour Catholic vampire flick.

Went into this blind and loved every episode. Flanagan continues to impress and I'll keep watching anything he's attached to. The influences of Stephen King are all over this series. Fantastic performance by Hamish Linklater; I was glued to the screen every time he was on. It's very dialogue-heavy and at times can feel a little self-indulgent with the monologues but the performances, cinematography, and payoff make it worth it in the end. Think this one will stay in my mind for awhile after.

Well performed, good story, great setting. The pacing was almost on the edge of being too slow, but managed to keep my interest throughout.