Review: The Midnight Gospel
Max Ingleby tells us all about the mystical world of the Midnight Gospel.
What does death look like to you? Ponder on that for a second. If the manifestation of death were standing in front of you, right now, how would it appear? For Clancy, the protagonist of this weird little cartoon, the answer is obvious; “fourteen feet tall with nice hair, one fun eyeball, a crab claw with a fancy jewelled glove, a bat wing, one clown leg, and all that in a child’s red wagon.”
The Midnight Gospel, an eight-part animated Netflix series, is the delightfully cursed offspring of Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward, and comedian and prolific podcaster Duncan Trussell. We follow Clancy, a neurotic drifter voiced by Trussell himself, who has fled his earthly troubles on, uh, earth, and moved into a caravan in another galaxy, where he spends his time exploring planets using his highly immersive universe simulator. Whomever he meets on his adventures, whether it be a president of a zombie-afflicted nation, or a sentient fish merchant who commands a ship manned exclusively by cats, he interviews for his “spacecast.” Hold on, it gets weirder.
What distinguishes The Midnight Gospel from other adult animated shows, is that instead of having voice actors and scripted interactions, almost all of the dialogue is lifted from Trussell’s vast back catalogue of podcasts. So, whilst Clancy and the President are fighting off vicious hordes of zombies, the dialogue is actually Trussell and Dr Drew Pinsky having a mellow conversation about mindfulness and hallucinogenic drugs.
Joining Clancy as he travels from world to world is the perfect escape from reality…
The contrast is jarring and confusing at first, but once you start to zone out and let your attention relax, the experience can be oddly transcendent. Watching the wildly creative animation intertwine and interact with the meandering conversations about spirituality and identity is fascinating – it both numbs and thrills in equal measures. The guests vary from morticians to ex-cons, and cover vague, existential topics Joe-Rogan-style (DMT is inevitably brought up), but Trussell’s ramblings frequently strike gold. Most potently, the final episode focuses on a conversation between Trussell and his mother, who is living with terminal cancer, as they discuss the broad subject of death, a theme that quietly dominates the series. It is enormously moving, with the animation complementing the gravity of the conversation, and is likely to change the way you view death for the better.
Joining Clancy as he travels from world to world is the perfect escape from reality, and it is refreshing to find a show that is unapologetically chaotic, yet belies a sly professionalism and a sense of craft that keeps you hooked. Highly original and gleefully weird, The Midnight Gospel makes for excellent quarantine viewing.
