Thoughts On: The Midnight Gospel

Imagine a Mongolian throat singer tripping on DMT

The Midnight Gospel is a one-of-a-kind experience. The not so simple premise of a boy traversing through dimensions and universes to interview people for his podcast proves a marvelous vehicle for exploring the big questions related to life, death, theology, and so on. Despite the show’s definite cosmic perspective and some of the most insane animation I’ve ever seen, the show remains grounded enough in the experiences of us all to be teaching, thoughtful, and meditative.

The basic construction of an episode consists of Clancy holding a deep philosophical conversation with his podcast guest while crazy shit occurs around them in the world. There’s absolutely no rules here. The animator’s imaginations are free to run wild, and that they do. Every episode is filled with bizarre characters and spaces that tell a rough visual narrative. Sometimes it relates to Clancy’s conversations, sometimes it doesn’t. Regardless, you’re in for a visual trip with every episode.

The dialogue is fantastic. Turns out, much of the dialogue is from irl podcast interviews. The voice of Clancy and co-creator, Duncan Trussell, has a podcast titled Duncan Trussell Family Hour, and each episode of The Midnight Gospel is based on and edited from a podcast episode. Of course, there’s also voice acted dialogue written within the context of the show which serves as a needed break between the intensely intellectual interviews. And unlike the podcasts, each episode isn’t self contained. There’s a through line between the episodes which I’m extremely grateful for as it gives the show a sense of progression. Even though the show mainly serves to meditate and illustrate on existential ideas, a plot is still needed.

I’d be lying if I said there weren’t moments where my eyes and mind glazed over a bit though. Sometimes the animation is just so far out there amid someone rambling about space, time, and eastern religions that trying to process it all starts to dull you. This isn’t a show to binge unless you want to walk away with a headache.

The humor mostly relies on the shocking animation. Absurdism, if you will. It’s the kind of humor that spawns a reaction because what you’re witnessing is just that fucking ridiculous. The laughs are a nice way to interrupt the heavy stuff characters are discussing. I wouldn’t say The Midnight Gospel is a comedy though, as the larger point of the show isn’t to make you laugh

The final episode is truly special. I’m not going to get into spoilers, but just know that the finale is by far the best in the season, keeping in mind every episode is good. Beautiful, heartfelt, moving, and an incredible capturing of the themes of love and death. While I highly recommend watching the whole season in preparation for this final episode, it’s so strong on it’s own that if you were to only watch one, I would recommend that one. This is a great, unique show that’ll stay in your mind long after the final song plays in the credits.