Synopsis: Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell's newest animated series for Netflix The Midnight Gospel follows a spacecaster named Clancy Gilroy who resides in "The Chromatic Ribbon" dimension where he runs a universe simulator which he uses to travel to various universes to interview different individuals. Each interview utilizes portions from Trussel's podcast The Duncan Trussel Family Hour.
My Thoughts: When I first saw the trailer for this, I had a few mixed reactions on what the show would be like:
1) This will be like Starchy's radio talk show on Adventure Time or Space Ghost: Coast to Coast but with more R-rated crassness to it and twice the dosage of psychedelic surrealism.
2) Ditto but replace the crassness with profound cleverness.
While the trailer made it out to be the former, I, fortunately, found it to be the latter albeit with some of the graphic cartoon violence and bawdiness. This show successfully manages to synthesize the podcast and the animation (by Titmouse) which both tell a unique story whilst remaining connected to each other, giving the visuals a more ambient quality to it that the characters are aware of but flow along with naturally. The conversations tend to cover subjects appertaining to mysticism and philosophy from the guest's point of view and unlike some shows/podcasts where the host will either challenge the interviewee or blatantly promote them, here the views are presented from an open-endedly which encourages the viewer to look more into the topic and expand their knowledge. Furthermore, the dialogue's somewhat informal and casual nature helps give the series more approachable with its idiosyncratic sense of humor. To add to that, even though The Midnight Gospel does make references to previous episodes, one does not need to watch it in order to understand the overall gist since it's episodic.
For me, the best example of the show's quality would be the eighth episode/season finale Mouse of Silver. In this episode, Clancy talks to his dying mother who is voiced by Duncan Trussel's late mother, Deneen Fendig, who died from cancer in 2013. Throughout the conversation, they discuss two of life's inevitable fates, death and grief. While I can't say I'm afraid of dying, I do greatly fear the suffering that might precede it and grief from seeing someone I hold dearly die so this one did hit me hard emotionally. There were two scenes that really struck a home run for me. The first is when Clancy's mom said that being aware of her imminent demise made her feel more alive because it made her want and try to appreciate the niceties of what life has to offer rather than take them for granted like many people do when they feel like they have forever to accomplish whatever they wish. The other was this part where explained how people respond to heartbreak namely by either engaging in various activities to avoid the painful experience or just cry because that love underneath will always be there. By the end, I was holding back tears remembering to cherish that time I have with a loved one and not feel shame in crying from these types of heartbreaking situations. That finale deserves a perfect 5/5 rating.
The only gripe I have is about the sixth episode Vulture with Honor in which Clancy's simulator malfunctions, leaving him to deal with his real-life problems until he finds a way to repair it and is sent to a dimension where meets a meditation master voiced by David Nictern. Despite David being a great guest star, he didn't appear until late into the episode so most of it was just Clancy's random daily happenings. The concept of seeing him outside of his virtual reality adventures sounded fun, it ended up being a rather dull exposition of a few arbitrary mishaps and misadventures. That being said, the last part starring David made this a 2.9/5 for me.
Final Thoughts: Overall, The Midnight Gospel is a pretty impressive and unique cartoon worth watching if you take a fancy to an animated podcast with surreal, colorful visuals and thought-provoking themes.
I'd agree with your assessment of the show overall. It's not for everyone (the animation style alone probably drives away the majority people over a certain age) but those with an open mind will find profound ideas that shake their worldview at the roots.
ReplyDeleteThe finale... I'm struggling to find words that capture the magnitude of its impact on me. Never have I seen something so heartbreaking, so confounding... as someone who rarely elicits an emotional response to entertainment media, I can say with absolute certainty that this episode shocked and touched my soul more than anything I've seen in years. My heart breaks with Duncan Tressel's.