Midnight Mass on Netflix
7 episode mini-series.
It was amazing. I have never seen anything quite like it. It went DEEP on many levels. By the 4th episode I realized that there was a horror genre I generally dislike, but it was still amazing.
I will be contemplating it for some time.
Highly, highly recommended !!
Luciferous
(6,262 posts)Bristlecone
(10,490 posts)Ocelot II
(120,883 posts)Tom Yossarian Joad
(19,263 posts)WOW! Very well done.
JohnSJ
(96,551 posts)ColinC
(10,702 posts)...as a vampire let alone as a human. Assuming he's human
He might be more of a "Bev"
Digging a hole in the sand to survive despite knowing it is all over.
Luciferous
(6,262 posts)Ocelot II
(120,883 posts)but this was very different, thought-provoking, well-acted and with a well-written script. And one of the awfullest characters, "Bev," I've seen in quite awhile.
flying rabbit
(4,771 posts)Like a Stephen King novel with a more thought out ending (I do like SK). Recommend highly. It definitely went deep.
wryter2000
(47,474 posts)Something about his writing bugs me, although I love his book on writing.
Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile are two of my very favorite movies.
wryter2000
(47,474 posts)I'll end up having to rewatch because I have the TV on while I'm doing other things. I like it very much.
nuxvomica
(12,883 posts)There's some really great scenes but I think even the supernatural stuff is more realistic than the long stretches of people whining about their lives. One of the great rules about writing is "show, not tell". These people just run on telling and telling and telling about how they feel. Good writing is not so lazy, instead revealing more about a character's emotional state by the odd choice of a word, the subtle gesture, the pained look, conversations about ordinary things in which you realize both characters are really talking about something else, just like in real life, not this constant parade of couch sessions. It reminds me of similar overly padded series on Netflix, like The Haunting of Hill House, which I watched to its unsatisfying end, and The Haunting of Bly Manor, on which I bailed in the first episode. That said, Hamish Linklater is brilliant as the priest, with some great speeches, while the rest of the cast seems uninspired. But I do intend to keep going because I'm wondering what's really going on. I think as soon as a couch session starts, I can fast forward and miss nothing.
alittlelark
(18,912 posts)Especially when we exist in a society that values the shallow and flashy - the planned and monetized......
This does not 'fit' into their Mold.
nuxvomica
(12,883 posts)But still the long whine sessions were just so inartful and overlong that I used the little 10-seconds-forward to get past them, and missed nothing. I think it's interesting that no one used the "v" word at all. What planet were these people living on? But that's an acceptable choice in storytelling, I guess. I also liked how people did not necessarily lose their humanity, that some personal ties remained. And Leeza's discovery, at the very end, was sadly appropriate and not glossed over. Overall, an engaging story, beautifully filmed, but could have used a lot less monologue, and better aging makeup, though that's also on the lighting crew. I have to hand it to the filmmakers for drawing so many parallels to today's social issues, which is not always easy to do in horror. So thanks for piquing my interest with your post. I might not have watched it otherwise.
alittlelark
(18,912 posts)In the times we are living in it is unfortunately 'normal'.
Those that see the value in reciprocity will see the value in the fillms.
wryter2000
(47,474 posts)I usually dislike monologues, too. I find them pretentious and self-indulgent. But the very last one, for me, was deeply religious in a good way. (I'm devout agnostic Episcopalian.) Juxtaposed with the music and the character's death in real time and what the townspeople were doing at the time, it was incredibly moving.
In Hill House, the monologue where the male caretaker explains why he and his wife never stay in the house after dark, was also eloquent.
I am a writer, published, and I agree about showing versus telling, but there was plenty of showing in this series. If the writers can pull off that kind of monologue, I say let them do it a few times.
ColinC
(10,702 posts)Maybe I haven't been around as much as other people, but I don't think I've seen such impactful, moving and overall incredible writing in probably the entire 36 years I've been around.
doc03
(36,709 posts)wryter2000
(47,474 posts)I've never seen anything like that ending. It's haunted me for about a week and a half now. Still processing it.
ColinC
(10,702 posts)Kept thinking about for like, 2 hours before I fell asleep. "What happens when you die" monologues will stay with me for life.
ColinC
(10,702 posts)This overall topic of life and death, dealing with our mortality and impulses, identity. Like man. I wasn't expecting that...
I'm looking forward to the next series The Midnight Club: Which will include a lot of the same cast in a completely different story.
wryter2000
(47,474 posts)I loved him
alittlelark
(18,912 posts)'Typical' alcoholic misfit done in depth.
bif
(24,013 posts)Very well done. It's just starting to get creepy. It's a slow build, but I can sense it's going to get pretty scary.
KT2000
(20,840 posts)Have never had a show affect me like this because I have never seen a production that has been so blunt about religion, faith, compulsion, and addiction. The so-called monologues are packed with the mechanism of believing incongruities for the comfort of faith. The horror genre is nothing more than Jim Jones, Trump and so many other cult leaders.
This was a well-studied and likely experienced examination of self will and those who wish to ensnare it.
I was amazed at Linklater's performance so in looking him up, saw he is experienced in Shakespeare.