The Midnight Club series review: An overall disappointing adventure
By Ricky Valero
We have a brand new series from Mike Flanagan streaming on Netflix in The Midnight Club. Is the series worth binging? I will share my review and let you know.
The Midnight Club follows eight members of the Midnight Club who meet each night at midnight to tell each other scary stories and attempt to see signs from beyond. The horror series comes from Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures.
Of course, this is Flanagan’s follow-up project after Midnight Mass which was one of the best seasons of television that Netflix has ever brought out. I was super excited to see what he had in store for us, plus he brought back some of the crew from that series to work on this project.
So as the series begins, we don’t have a better storyteller regarding his characters than Flanagan. Typically, that means we will likely get a slow build because that’s how he likes to roll out his series. If done right, you have us, the viewer eating out of the palm of their hands.
However, I was underwhelmed with the characters leading me to not connect to them. Because of that, I never felt like I had any stakes in the show. You even have some unlikeable characters and not in a good way.
The Midnight Club is disappointing due to the acting
It’s crazy to watch this series and it has all the great aspects of Flanagan’s shows. The score, cinematography, direction, and a fantastic soundtrack are among my favorites in any series this year. So he has the mood set for us on every level, but it fails to ignite because of the lackluster delivery by the actors.
And that’s where I think the show fails. I don’t think the script is terrible because the concept is relatively on point. I believe it fails to capture us because the acting was very mediocre. Several sequences in the show were supposed to land on an emotional level but failed to connect as the delivery was tough. If you take this show, maybe center it around older people, with a slightly better cast, you might have a much better series.
Overall, The Midnight Club falls short of expectations and is a mess of a series. However, I’ll never lose faith in Flanagan, and I’m sure he’ll come back with a banger. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend the series, but if you are a massive fan of Flanagan like me, it won’t matter as you’ll probably watch but temper your expectations.
The Midnight Club is streaming on Netflix now.