Should We Skip ‘Midnight Mass’

The Netflix horror-drama series Midnight Mass has the Catholic faith as its focus. But as chris Byrd finds, for Catholic viewers there are problems. (Warning: Contains spoilers)

HIS EXPERIENCES AS AN altar boy and recovering alcoholic inform creator Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass. Commendably ambitious but marred by some highly problematic material, the supernatural drama — which is streaming on Netflix in seven onehour episodes — ultimately collapses under the weight of an absurd conceit.

Flanagan wrote, directed and executive-produced the series, which is also something of a family affair: Flanagan’s wife and frequent collaborator, Kate Siegel, portrays one of show’s leads, schoolteacher Erin Greene. Religious themes suffuse the series, as indicated by such chapter headings as “Genesis”, “Proverbs” and “Acts of the Apostles”.

Released from prison after a four-year sentence for vehicular homicide while driving drunk, former altar server Riley Flynn (played by Zach Gilford) returns to tiny, fictitious Crockett Island, his childhood home. Fr Paul Hill’s (Hamish Linklater) arrival in the community coincides with Riley’s homecoming. Unbeknown to his new congregants, Fr Paul has come to replace the parish’s long-serving and beloved shepherd, Mgr John Pruitt, who has been on pilgrimage in the Holy Land. Fr Paul’s cover story is that he is just filling in for the older priest.

Soon, strange, disconcerting events upset the isolated, tight-knit population. After a storm, for instance, numerous stray cats are found dead on a beach, the cause of their demise unknown. And a pet dog is fatally poisoned. But not all the mysterious events are negative. Thus elderly, homebound Mildred Gunning is gradually restored to her youthful self.

Fr Paul facilitates the most startling

of these peculiar happenings by commanding a paralysed local teen Leeza, the daughter of Crockett Island’s mayor, to rise and walk. “God’s gifts are as tangible as the ground beneath our feet,” the clergyman observes in the wake of this apparent miracle. While free of nudity or sexual content, Midnight Mass is challenging fare for other reasons. In addition to the inA scene from the Netflix series Midnight clusion of much bloodletting and a fair Mass, which is set within a Catholic amount of strong language, the series community. Photo: Eike Schroter/Netflix takes an ambiguous approach in its treatment of faith. Flanagan initially affirms the value and significance of Christian belief among his characters. Yet, as he reveals their extremism, they come across as simple-minded cultists rather than sincere Catholics. This is exemplified in their

In the show, Catholics come bizarre, savagely misguided interacross as simple-minded cultists pretation recorded of in the the words Gospel of of Jesus, John, by which he emphasised the necessity for his followers to “eat my flesh and drink my blood”. Since this teaching serves as part of the foundation for the greatest of sacraments, its sacrilegious misuse will disturb even thick-skinned Catholic viewers. Logically flawed as well as lurid, Midnight Mass turns out to be a mess.— CNS

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