The Midnight Gospel is set in an imaginary alternative reality called Chromatic Ribbon. A spacecaster called Clancy Gilroy owns an unlicensed multiverse simulator he uses to travel around. Through his travels, he meets with different people and interviews them for his podcast. The show is a meta take on changing the narrative of podcasts. It takes authentic podcasts that comedian Duncan Trussell has with various guests and transforms them into adventures.
The show is perfect for various reasons. Firstly the narrative is original. With a trippy and psychedelic onset, the show manages to touch a lot of soft corners present in our lives. this theme continues up until the very end of the season when Clancy gets to interview his mother about how he grew up. It will take you on a mind-bending emotional ride through life with a satirical expression. Although the show is based on Duncan’s real podcasts called The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, the visual team does a remarkable job creating bizarre worlds.
Shows of this nature force us as viewers to shift our binary rules of spectatorship. Like famous movies based on conversations, including ones like Her, this show also takes advantage of the power of dialogue. With different production processes and the collaboration of visuals with audio, the show manages to achieve something new altogether. From using the Kuleshov effect at its prime, the creators of the audiovisual delight highlight the power of perception.
The Midnight Gospel was cancelled following its first season. In an interview with Inverse, Trussell shared his feelings about the cancelled show. He adds on Netflix’s streaming practices, “Well, you know, it’s Netflix. I think that they’re like fishing, right? So they’re throwing out a lot of lines. They want to catch a Stranger Things, and that’s how they do it. So with The Midnight Gospel, even though it has a wonderful big fan base, it’s not like the mega fan base of Stranger Things.
“So if I had to guess,” he continued, “it would just be a simple business decision. Animation is expensive, and that’s why they did it. I have no hard feelings, by the way, because they let us make the thing. It’s cheesy to say, but they were the coolest executives I’ve ever dealt with. They were so collaborative in the best way possible.”
The brilliant comedian and podcast host Duncan Trussell is currently working on Krapopolis with Dan Harmon. He shares that he is truly having a great time working with funny dialogues and the genius of a creator that Harmon is. Although the creator did not share any hard feelings for the early death of the show, we will always have one whole season of a rollercoaster.
Often colourful and vivid animations pose as a shadow over philosophically contested dialogue. Playing one on all that shines is not gold. The notion is to make the dialogue, context, and narrative as strong as possible to pose upfront questions. To explore the very niche when it comes to human existence. Very similar to Bojack Horseman where the depth is found in the underlying story.
Watch Midnight Gospel if you have not watched it already, as it is currently streaming on Netflix. You can count on asking yourself a few questions after the show. Through it, you get to know yourself better with reflective and provoking shows that force you to engage in a dialogue by yourself. Watch the trailer for this one hit wonder here!
