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theliterarywolf · 4 years

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So... How About The Midnight Gospel, huh?

Now, right off the bat, I’m just going to say it:

Did you enjoy the film The Yellow Submarine? Did you enjoy WTNV before the road block known as Old Oak Doors? Are you someone who, despite having your own spirituality and belief system, can appreciate discussions of other people’s religions and belief systems? Are you good at listening to a conversation while your eyes are being skull-fucked by bizarre imagery?

If you answered ‘no’ to ANY of these questions, then this show is NOT for you. Which is more than fine: not every piece of media matches everyone’s tastes. I would just rather people realize that sentiment rather than posting cold takes about this production being ‘Reddit: The TV Show’ or saying stuff like ‘You can just spray lemon juice into your eyes and get the same effect; you don’t have to pretend this show is good~’

Let’s go further down this rabbit hole under a ‘Read More’, shall we?

I’m a listener much more than I am a speaker. It’s one of the traits that people will actively point to when describing me in a personal light. So I do enjoy both narrative podcasts my fair share of podcasts: LORE, Fuck Humans, No Sleep, Uncanny County, Limetown (did Season 2 of this one ever come out?), the various audio productions by Katy Towell, and others that I’m probably forgetting. I also enjoy listening to people from different walks of life than my own: one of my customers at work is a Freemason who will gladly discuss the meanings of sky-patterns, another one is an older, soft-spoken gentleman with tons of stories due to being stationed all over the world in his youth, things like that.

So, when the trailer for The Midnight Gospel first dropped, I was... intrigued. Of course, I’m a fan of ‘bizarre animation with a purpose’: less your Problem Solverz and more your La Planete Sauvage, Superjail!, and, of course, The Yellow Submarine. So the visuals caught my attention and the audio did as well because, even from those brief few pieces, I knew that it was more conversation-heavy than most animations.

So, on 4/20/20 (because weed! Although someone mentioned that it also may have been because Duncan Trussell’s, the voice of our main character, birthday is on 4/20 -- But I think it’s more because of the prior) The Midnight Gospel premiered on Netflix...

And I completely forgot about it. I don’t know what was going on in my life during that day but I completely blanked on the fact that a show that I was interested in premiered. It wasn’t until a few days later that I remembered and loaded it up.

So, what’s the show about? Aside from trippy visuals and long discussions?

The story of the show (though you’ll be forgiven for missing it because it does fall to the side a bit with certain discussions) follows Clancy, a young man who has run away from home after stealing some of his sister’s money to buy a universe-simulating computer (that just so happens to be shaped like a giant vagina) so he can hop around various universes, interviewing various beings, and uploading remixes of those interviews online for his spacecast. You know, it’s a Podcast but it goes to space. It’s fine.

The course of the show has us following Clancy through what is initially quirky chaos but turns into Clancy having to come face to face with his own destructive, negligent behavior. Does he? Well, you’ll have to watch the show to find out.

However, of course, the portion of the show that stand out upon first watch is all the talking. Which makes sense when you realize that the interviews Clancy is having in the show are all taken from Duncan Trussell’s real-life podcast The Duncan Trussell Family Hour.

Now, I never knew who this guy was or about his podcast before watching this show, but if it’s anything like what we got in TMG then GOD DAMN, what the FU--

So, though an episode will have a narrative, the audio is front and center and the narrative is presented through the visuals as well as a few added dialogue lines to try and mesh things together.

To describe it better, it’s like hearing a discussion about the futility of the human condition and the brain-melting aspect of the cosmic index... but visually you’re being presented this discussion via an octopus trying to buy ice cream from a decomposing moose-head while an orgy is going on behind them.

This is where you will either like the show or hate the show. One, of course, going back to the visuals. They’re trippy, they’re from Pendleton Ward so if you don’t like the effect that shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show and SU had on Western Animation, you’re going to be unhappy on that front.

Then the discussions themselves. I will say, front and center, that episode 1 and episode 3 don’t necessarily work. Episode 1 has Clancy interviewing a diminutive, but still pretty bad-ass, alternative-universe president during the final, losing days of a zombie outbreak...

And the discussion is about drugs. Particularly the notion of, and I paraphrase, ‘there’s no such thing as a bad drug; just bad trips’. Which! I appreciate the sentiment! ... But heroin and meth would like to have a word with you!

With the first episode it’s very easy to come away from the show thinking ‘ugh, this is just a bunch of privileged hippies talking about how no one should be mean about their drugs’.

But then you have episode 2 where Clancy interviews a... dog/cow/deer creature who is being put through a slaughterhouse and the discussion used in that episode was about having a more balanced approach to death and the notion of what love means: are you willing to put yourself through the most gut-wrenching, agonizing pain possible for the sake of another person? Like a mother giving birth? Or like Christ on the cross? So you’re left thinking ‘okay... I can jive with what this show has to say. Yeah.’

AND THEN EPISODE 3′S VISUAL STORY IS CLANCY TAGGING ALONG SOME GUY WITH A FISH BOWL + GOLDFISH FOR A HEAD ON HIS PIRATE SHIP THAT’S DRIVEN BY HOUSECATS! AND THE DISCUSSION IS SOME GUY WHO WENT TO JAIL FOR KILLING SOMEONE AND WHO PRACTICES MAGIC AND FOLLOWS THE TEACHINGS OF FUCKING ALEISTOR CROWLEY, AKA: ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS WHY PEOPLE CAN’T HAVE CIVIL DISCUSSIONS ABOUT MAGIC AND MYSTICISM BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS GO BACK TO THAT ONE FAT OCCULTIST FUCK!!

Ahem.

The rest of the series stands up pretty well, though: with discussions on forgiveness, a discussion on what meditation means to different people, and even a pretty in-depth conversation about the Death Industrial Complex where the interviewee is voiced by none other than Caitlin Doughty, the woman behind ‘Ask a Mortician’ and one of the most vocal voices for people reclaiming how their loved ones’ bodies are treated after death, and more.

But then... You get to episode 8. The final episode.

I will not discuss episode 8 here. It is the season finale (GOD, I hope this show does well enough by Netflix to get a S2) and the combination of the visual story and the discussion come together so well...

I cried. I shit you not, I broke down into tears for a good few minutes. It is definitely something that should be watched.

And that’s the best recommendation I can give to something like The Midnight Gospel: while episodes 1 and 3 are clumsy and ‘why’-inducing, the rest of the episodes make the premise of combining this eclectic podcast with visual/narrative stimulation. If you aren’t bothered by any of the things I prefaced this write-up with, I would definitely give it a shot and see how you end up feeling.

#The Midnight Gospel #not really a full review #but just some thoughts

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lit--bitch · 4 years

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Current-Reads (20/04/2020 - 26/04/2020) 🍓🐢

(Disclosure: I don’t know anybody I’ve been currently reading this week. 😊)

Adding the preface again here: every Sunday without fail I throw up the freshest literature and photography I’ve read over the week, sometimes it’s a book, sometimes it’s a piece I saw in a magazine or an online zine, sometimes it’s something I saw on social media, etc. Sometimes I add ‘RECOMMEND’ next to a few of the titles, but that’s not to say I don’t recommend all of them, I just love some pieces more than others. Not everything will be everybody’s cup of tea, yanno, c’est la vie. And any titles that you see in bold are hyperlinked so if you click or tap them they’ll direct you straight to the source… or shopping basket.

This week I’m gonna throw in a red herring and tell you about something I’ve been watching as well as what I’ve been reading, because I think it’s really cool and definitely appropriate for the age we’re living in at the moment.

So I’ve been reading: Susan Sontag’s As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh (Diaries 1964—1980) which was edited by her son, David. I also read an interview on Granta from March between Rachel Long and Morgan Parker. I’ve also tucked into a couple pieces on Fence, Lexi Welch’s ‘Astroturf’ and Anthony Michael Morena’s ‘The Whale’. I also saw Cecelia Knapp’s poem in Bath Magg Issue Three (but the whole issue is an absolute smacker, it’s great). Last but not least, I’m up to episode 5 of a brand new thing called The Midnight Gospel. It is crazy good. And it’s on Netflix right now.

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Cecilia Knapp, ‘I Used To Eat KFC Zingers Without Hating Myself’, Bath Magg Issue #3: I really loved the whole of Issue Three, I guess I was quite struck by this particular poem for its “staccato-ness”. This poem is buttered with present-day references. But they’re not necessarily about creating a familiar environment. Rather the object of familiarity is found within the assemblage of places, snacks and thoughts, all of which compound the grief ‘I’ is experiencing. The ‘I’ ruminates on life’s banality and their personal insecurities in living banality: ‘I need a thigh gap. I use emojis / to avoid conflict. Worry I’m a gentrifier. Watch docs about murdered women’. The vapidity is funny. The pain is not. The insecurities deepen. Your body, your life, continues the ache of day-to-day routine, and finds no resolution in the things which may or may not stand to comfort oneself when ravaged by loss. The poem feels quite loose, and disinterested. It’s a sore poem, but its array of references make it colourful. It sort of reminded me of Édouard Levé’s work a little bit? But if Édouard Levé had been a pop culture fanatic chewing HubbaBubba bubblegum on the London Overground. Bath Magg is a pretty exciting new magazine, (been around just under a year I think?) and they’ve published a lot of great writers, many of whom are emerging and I’ve spotted some quite established peple in there too. Kudos to their rubber ducky logo. It’s run by Mariah Whelan and Joe Carrick-Varty.

In Conversation with Morgan Parker and Rachel Long, Granta Magazine: I deeply love Morgan Parker’s work, she’s, in my opinion, the master of titles. I can’t think of anybody who titles their work as well as Morgan Parker does. And I love the depth of honesty and charisma in this interview. Like yeah, it appears to be a generic Q/A but, it genuinely feels like a conversation, and it’s welcoming and unpretentious. Rachel Long asks some penetrating questions, and Morgan’s answers are so detailed and self-aware. Most of the discussion revolves around the action of writing poetry in general and where does that impulse arise from, but they do discuss Morgan’s latest collection Magical Negro which came out February last year. It’s a narrative on black womanhood, on micro-aggressions and reoccuring violence, it’s about breaking down white perceptions of blackness, and dissolving those projections. What I love about Morgan Parker is she’s tackling this fucking idiot thing where (mostly) white people think she’s attempting to represent all black women in her writing, which is, by Morgan’s own admission, impossible. Her work is a duty to herself, to the background she’s lived and lives, and to unpack that discourse in her own way. And if it resonates, then great! I felt all this was inherent in the interview and only adds to my respect for her, and to Rachel for being such an attentive interviewer. BTW Rachel Long has a debut collection coming out this July, My Darling from the Lions.

Anthony Michael Morena, ‘The Whale’, Fence Portal (Streaming) (RECOMMEND): I can’t tell you how much I adored this beautiful mass of whale and word. It’s an essay which references the American Natural History Museum’s Blue Whale model. The writing is thick with feeling and fat with concern. It blends monologue, memoir. It’s non-fiction and documentary. It’s elusive, enigmatic, fragmented. It’s like broken biscuits and blubber. To me it felt like a note on the offences of climate change, the emotional response and grief as we bystand erosion and corrosion, the loss of life, and the urge to merge something back together as it dissolves and fragments before our eyes. It’s as personal as it is public. A gorgeous and complex piece.

Susan Sontag’s As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh (Diaries 1964—1980) (RECOMMEND): I felt so afflicted reading Susan Sontag’s diaries, because y’know, it’s the equivalent of invading an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb. Like, leave people alone. At the same like, this woman. These diaries are still shaping me, and each section leaves you with the weirdest aftertaste. Her personality permeates through every detail, every line-break, every reference and articulation of feeling. You learn so much, you gain so much from her perceptions and observations. How do I contain Susan Sontag? How do I describe these diaries? Not at all. Just buy it.

Lexi Welch’s ‘Astroturf’, Fence Portal (Streaming) (RECOMMEND): My eyes locked onto this piece and just didn’t really stop reading. Lexi’s voice is enamouring and hypnotic. It’s so violent too. You’re lunged into friction burns and sports injuries, time and progression, the tensions between collectivity and individuality, family and sexuality, or as Fence put it, ‘lesbian eros’. This piece felt acidic. At times you can’t tell if the ‘I’ is indifferent or hurting to the point of numbness. It straddles so many different thematics, and breaks down a lot of conventions pertaining to the “ideal experience” of family relationships and team work. The resolution seems to be that in spite of people, our collectivity is defined by our collective solitude. This essay kicked me around a football field. It takes a good few repeated reads to appreciate its kaleidoscopic shifting, but it’s definitely one of my favourites.

The Midnight Gospel, from Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell, Netflix: (RECOMMEND) So the other day my friend Ben linked this to me and I had seen the trailer ages back and thought “Oh yeah I really wanna watch that”, but just forgot. After his reminder, I started watching it and ever since I’ve been saying to loads of other friends “Have you watched ‘The Midnight Gospel’ on Netflix?” because I’m d y i n g to talk about it with everybody.

I literally can’t categorise this “TV show” to you. It’s like if animation had a baby with a philosophy podcast and then put that baby onto an IV drip of psychedelics. It’s this swarm of different stimuli which you kind have to zone in on and absorb individually and yet somehow collectively.

So like, “Clancy” is a spacecaster who sets up “spacecasts” (podcasts) with creatures from other simulated worlds and he interviews them. But when Clancy transports himself into these worlds, it’s not like they’re sat down on some cream sofa with two glasses of water like it’s animated Oprah. No, his interviewees are like in the middle of fighting off a zombie apocalypse or meditating on a mountain or trying to find and save their lost lover. And Clancy just joins them on the journey and interviews them about their “specialism”. These are real people that are being interviewed like, the first episode is with Dr. Drew Pinker. And when you’re watching it, you think that the animation is totally separate to the conversation exchange the characters are having, but that’s not true. They have intersections, they have meaning. It only becomes obvious that it has meaning right at the end of each episode, but if you lock on you’ll see it’s all relevant throughout.

One of my friends was like “Oh I might stick that on tonight and have a joint” and I was like, don’t fucking get high when you’re watching this because it’s already intense enough as it is, like you know that Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell have felt some real shit to create this absolute rare jewel. In my opinion, you don’t need cannabis to appreciate these discussions. But if you wanna do it, then hey it’s a “free country”. And it’s not as though there’s a serious, central core plot like there is with Rick & Morty, I mean there is a kind of overarching plot but it’s not always integral. Like ultimately we’re invested in Clancy’s story but also all the stories of all the other people that come his way. There’s multiple plots, there’s multiple dimensions and ways of seeing. It’s a programme which delivers on multiplicity, which manifests itself in everything and everyone we see and know and touch and hear, etc, etc.

This production articulates some of the revelations that psychedelics can give you. Psychedelics don’t make you see the world literally like these animations do, but the sensations of the animation are reminiscent of an acid trip’s oscillating moods and sensitivities. It’s really cool, and it’s very poignant, and it’s my new favourite show to watch. And what’s so great about it is that, it requires multiple watches in order to really absorb everything in its entirety, so it’s a series you can just keep going back to even after you’ve seen them all. It’s re-watchable. Just fundamental goodness all round. Best way to indulge in it is with ice cream. 🍨

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So that’s it for this week, next Friday’s review is Annie Ernaux’s A Girl’s Story translated by Alison L. Strayer, published with Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Stay safe and well as always, my little caramels. 💁🏽

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