Midnight Mass

I love Mike Flanagan! Had tried to watch this a couple years ago but it opens with a drunk driving car crash and I had just had my spine fractured by a drunk driving car crash so I couldn't take it. Coming back today, I was able to enjoy Midnight Mass this time around, and I experienced it as a lovely dark drama/light horror hybrid series with themes of addiction, manipulation of religious control, and the power of human community. Samantha Sloyan's Bev Keane is so well done goddamn I hated that scheming holier than thou bitch. Hamish Linklater as Father P. was so good! He blends so many different emotions, while feeling like Priests I have seen in real life. His use of soft spoken conversation helped make him feel Saintly, and made me think about how that can work in real life. If someone speaks with emotion but in a quiet loving manner, it subtly pushes the listener to lean in and pay extra attention. It also feels non-threatening because they aren't in your face. They might stutter or seem like they don't know what they're trying to say, which makes them feel endearing and real. And if they talk about joy, love, or happiness, and begin to smile, it feels like you have witnessed something beautiful and meaningful. I find it hilarious how Father P. and Bev wind up saying some utterly ridiculous religious things, but don’t recognize how crazy they sound because they’re too blinded by faith and/or scheming, to recognize a freaking vampire. Father P. says it all in "Jesus voice" that loving whispery sound Christians always use when they want to pretend they're saying something meaningful but not have to back the point up with actual logic. Most of the other characters were also compelling, particularly Rahul Kohli as Sheriff Hassan. But ugh, Riley and Erin were so annoying and boring for me. Every time the two of them got a scene my attention would drift as they would monologue about generic thoughts for long stretches of run time. Even at the end Kate Siegel gives a melodramatic monologue that just wasn't needed. I love her, but monologues aren't the answer. Thematically, I believe Midnight Mass is paralleling alcoholism to the "hunger" the starving vampires end up undergoing. How the vampire feels so powerful in the moment but ends up destroying the person's life and the lives of those around them. There are also themes about religion, how people build their lives around faith, gain actual value from this faith, but are also susceptible to being mislead by that faith, or by those who misuse the power that comes with religious control. I wavered back and forth between 3.5 or 4, right up until the last line "I can't feel my legs" made it all come together and pushed me to a 4. The beauty of suffering actually did make perfect sense in that moment, based on everything we had seen. Wonderful conclusion to a heartfelt series.