A Review of The Midnight Gospel

Last night I started watching this series and here I am re-watching it. I went from "Why am I watching this," to "where has this been all my life" within the span of 12 hours.

First, I watched this not entirely paying attention. At first I thought it was something similar to Superjail, with the colorful neon palette of colors and gory humor. I wasn't following the first episode with attention and came back to the screen to see the main character with muscles, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "Oh my god, that looks like Buttercup on steroids". At first I thought it seemed to be just a series that was just colorful noise, a series with a non-linear plot with no continuing plot line, then by the time I got to the second episode, that wasn't the case.

It's a combo of a podcast and a television show at the same time. An interesting and unique concept to television with the popularity of podcasts as well as adult animation with the success of Big Mouth and Love, Death, + Robots.

It's a show that has the dialogue and topics of a podcast, it helps that pizazz of the show with the main voice actor, Duncan Trussell is a stand up comedian and podcaster. That brings his character Clancy to be likable and believable as a podcaster. It was a perfect formula in the creation of this character that we follow in the vast galaxy. In the moments of the deep contents of the topic that Clancy brings up, as he flows with his interviewee, you don't have to watch the show entirely. In the first time I watched the show, I could look up and go, "Yep, it's still weird," and go back to work. But then sometimes when I do that, I'll miss a certain moment that had to be seen. This is something you can listen to for the in-dept advice but also be entertained by the animation you wouldn't associate with this.

The main character we follow on his space adventures for his galactic blog. It is odd to see a series with topics for the dialogue about different concepts: meditation, enlightenment, religion, deal with death, backfires, magic, dealing with the problems that are pushed away, the placement in life, etc. Then there are these intensely violent moments happening during the dialogue.

In my research for this show, I started seeing the niches, that are naturally associated with a Pendleton Ward series, it has those touches similar to Adventure Time. Clancy has a dog with powers (Finn and Jake), An alternate universe with crazy worlds (Land of Ooo), the cameos of prominent people, however not just actors, but various people have voiced a character on here. Drew Pinsky was in the first episode as the president, Pauly Shore (Yes that one that hasn't been around for a while), voiced a character in the forth episode named Prince Jan Roll (God that makes sense). In fact most of the cast, just stared as themselves or a fictional alternate version of themselves. Only to add to the flow of it. The custom discography that had a weird lyrics and a funky sound, but enjoyable to hear since it's a weird series, there has to be weird music.

I can see that Pendleton Ward had some fun to create this series in doing something natural of a flow with a touch of the supernatural weirdness. To do an adult themed show with his style of animation and usual tricks and gags.

Despite the 8 episode order in this series, everything has a short and simple wrap up with an open ended interpretation. There are jokes and jabs at the the idea you have to be high to watch this show. I can understand that part with the zaniness. There are likable characters despite the short time that we spent getting to know them.

The last episode is what hits home. All the weird wonders, the bizarre dynamics of health and hazards, to bring the payoff.

What makes that episode hit home, is the interview Clancy does with his mother, in a conversation to address death and to cope with it. That conversation was recorded 7 years ago prior to the show's release. The conversation wasn't a snipped crafted into a podcast for dialogue, it's a real conversation that the voice actor, Duncan Trussell had with his mother about her cancer and how she's coped with diagnosis and her eventual death. She tells him what it was like to be his mother. It's a powerful moment that reaches out to those who lost their loved one and didn't cope with it. The scene had already recorded material from a personal conversation to share in an animated series, with no cuts to derive from the past material. Because it's not dialogue, it's a real moment that Duncan gave. What makes this moment so moving is the way it was shown in animation, in a sequence of birth to death to rebirth and then a final goodbye. Sure there is a tiny cut away or a snippet of dialogue inserted that interview for the purpose of the plot episode flow. But it does stay on point to show what he wanted to share. To honor his mother and tell everyone it's going to be OK even if you aren't OK. Things will work, don't rush, just be in the present moment.

The Midnight Gospel, it is a therapeutic show, a combo of two different sides of entertainment, a wild ride, and another success from Pendleton Ward.