THE MIDNIGHT CLUB
Starring: Iman Benson, Igby Rigney, Ruth Codd, Annarah Cymone, William Chris Sumpter, Adia, Aya Furukawa, Sauriyan Sapkota, Matt Biedel, Samantha Sloyan, Zach Gilford, and Heather Langenkamp
Creators: Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong
PAIGE
Mike Flanagan, “The King of Death and Loss,” has once again earned that title with The Midnight Club. That said, this show left me feeling less satisfied than I have with his previous works. I enjoyed the journey we take with these dying teens, who are dealing with the horrors that life presents them and the desires they want despite them…and, wow, the young cast gives such powerful performances…but the series is a little rough around the edges, especially when it comes to its storytelling. These storylines needed to be fleshed out more to leave a more content viewer at the end of it all.
QUENTIN
The first word that comes to mind about The Midnight Club is disjointed because both the tone and narrative are very inconsistent. At times, it plays like an R-rated Mike Flanagan series, but at others, it’s a cheesy YA show more befitting The CW. Meanwhile, the story vacillates between being a horror anthology and the core story of a possibly haunted hospice. These constant shifts make it difficult to lose oneself in the series. Flanagan can still orchestrate an effective scare, but this is easily his weakest Netflix offering thus far, not to mention the sappy and lazy cliffhanger ending that can fuck right off. Q ⅗
