Written by Mike Flanagan And James Flanagan And Elan Gale And Dani Parker And Jeff Howard
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Father Paul (to the congregation): "Good morning. I know I'm not who you expected to see. Just know I'm only here to help and I look forward to meeting you all."
With his first two miniseries, Mike Flanagan had fun adapting haunted house material, so with this third show being more of an original piece (though very Stephen King inspired), we got something very different altogether.
While I'm definitely a Catholic myself, I wouldn't say I'm particularly devout. The exploration of faith in the small community of Crockett Island through the eyes of several characters on the other hand was certainly an eye opener.
The island itself was missing it's elderly Monsignor Pruitt but gained the much younger Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater) instead. He was determined to get the church full again and along with the overzealous Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan) and a "miracle", the young priest succeeded but at a very terrible cost to everyone, including himself.
Now the miracle itself was that Father Paul was actually a revived Pruitt and he wasn't the only one feeling the effects. You had Mildred Gunning (Alex Essoe) ageing backwards before her daughter, Sarah's (Annabeth Gish) eyes while Leeza Scarborough (Annarah Cymone) could suddenly walk again. What was going on here?
Well, it turned out that the miracle was actually vampirism and that Father Paul was saved by an "Angel" that was really an ancient looking vampire not dissimilar looking to Nosferatu if im being honest. Though this vampire was a lot quicker on its feet when it attacked male protagonist Riley Flinn (Zach Gilford) and made him into a vampire.
Riley's story made up a lot of the first half of the miniseries. He was a venture capitalist who spent time in prison for manslaughter and had a tasty relationship with his parents Annie (Kristin Lehman) and Ed (Henry Thomas). The latter in particular the most.
Riley does get several great scenes, particularly with his former childhood sweetheart Erin Greene (Kate Siegel), the latter who loses her unborn baby halfway through the series. There's a profound conversation both characters have about their own views on death. Erin's in particular served as a poignant bookend to the miniseries.
As for the rest of the characters, I did have tremendous amount of sympathy for town alcoholic Joe Colle (Robert Longstreet) but one of the best performances in the series came from Muslim Sherriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli). There's a scene in particular he gets with Sarah that's one of the most compelling performances in the series and there's a genuine sense of despair for him when his son Ali (Rahul Abburi) got caught up in the madness of the miracle.
While both previous Flanagan shows weren't exactly shy about the death count, this one really upped the ante in that regard. Excluding Leeza and Riley's younger brother, Warren (Igby Rigney), its a miserable ending for everyone on that island. Maybe the bleakest ending so far from this particular creative.
- Episode titles for this series were Book I: Genesis, Book II: Psalms, Book III: Proverbs, Book IV: Lamentations, Book V: Gospel, Book VI: Acts Of The Apostles and Book VII: Revelations.
- This show and the character of Erin Greene was referenced in the 2016 movie, Hush. I wrote a review for it on here last week.
- Carla Gugino has a voice role as Judge on the series. She's not physically seen in the series.
- Sarah is the only gay main character in this series. There's some hints of her love life in the second episode but mostly she's the doctor
- Standout music: Nearer My God To Thee is eerily used in the finale.
- Chronology: It's very much present day, though a four year gap between Riley's sentencing and release. Not to mention both Lent and Easter.
I have to admit that this was really something intriguing. A nice change of pace with Flanagan going all in on an original idea. Midnight Mass benefitted from a shorter run and while that ending was relentlessly grim, the series overall worked for me.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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