If you are looking for the next Stephen King, this isn't it.
Midnight Mass has depth and intricate character studies not found in typical works of horror. The pinch of horror is skillfully cloaked in the church standard hymns most will recognize. There are also joyous moments where ordinary people share daily life set to spiritual but not religious Neil Diamond tunes.
Set in a fictional place, Crockett Island, population 127 living souls and perhaps the traces of hundreds more who lived there in more prosperous times, the finite and insular community boasts but one church, a Catholic one, trying to offer a hedge against the everyday horrors of want of purpose, opportunity, and meaning.
On Crockett Island nothing and nobody is perfect, good and evil drift through the tale often hand in hand, and frequently in one person simultaneously.
This engaging drama is paced exactly right, and with just seven episodes it relates an intense transformation of both joy and sorrow that it demonstrates gently, rather than hitting viewers over the head with anything gratuitous. Every moment serves the story. One hint that doesn't spoil the story is to note the times the priest has solitary confession as he speaks into a mirror, vaguely reminiscent of the Faust legend.
This is truly a one of a kind limited television series, well placed in this difficult era of Covid and political upheaval. It offers the chance to reflect on the horrors we are facing in daily life where a few offer up lunatic miracle cures and the dangerous shimmer of easy authoritarian solutions while most of us simply struggle to make it through life as we try to define and achieve some of our own objectives.
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