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The Midnight Club - Mike Flanagan

JohnC

By JohnC,
in Film, TV & Radio

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JohnC

JohnC

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Mike Flanagan hasn't done a show about bombing down the Bayshore Route in Tokyo in cars that crashed through Halfords first. It's about a group of terminally ill young adults in a hospice who gather at midnight to tell scary stories. And make a pact that when the first dies, they communicate with others from beyond the grave. And when the first does die, strange things begin happening. Starts today.

 

It's also made it into the Guinness Records for the most jump scares in a single episode. Flanagan actually hates jump scares, but decided to deliberately go over the top for those people who clamour for them and try to make them meaningless.

 

Quote

I thought, ‘We’re going to do all of them at once, and then if we do it right, a jump scare will be rendered meaningless for the rest of the series.’ It’ll just destroy it. Kill it finally until it’s dead, But that didn’t happen. They were like, ‘Great! More!"

https://deadline.com/2022/10/the-midnight-club-now-guiness-world-records-holder-1235137919/

 

 

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Scribblor

Scribblor

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Just watched the first episode. Seems fairly good, definitely good enough that I'm going to watch the rest.

 

But it's really pretty 'Young Adult' and the dialogue is noticeably clunky, in a prose way. It's like someone adapted a book and lifted the dialogue wholesale without considering how unnatural it would sound when actually spoken.

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yakumo

yakumo

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2 hours ago, Scribblor said:

Just watched the first episode. Seems fairly good, definitely good enough that I'm going to watch the rest.

 

But it's really pretty 'Young Adult' and the dialogue is noticeably clunky, in a prose way. It's like someone adapted a book and lifted the dialogue wholesale without considering how unnatural it would sound when actually spoken.

It's based on a YA book.

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yakumo

yakumo

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15 minutes ago, Popo said:

Still mid-watch, but just a quick pit stop to ask - the Flanaverse? :lol:

Haven't started watching it yet since you know Hellraiser is on, but not shocked. If you watch Hush there's a connection to his other work.

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Popo

Popo

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9 minutes ago, yakumo said:

Haven't started watching it yet since you know Hellraiser is on, but not shocked. If you watch Hush there's a connection to his other work.


I haven’t seen Hush - it turns out there’s at least three movies of his on Netflix I didn’t know about!

 

Anyway, this is good. Great spooky mansion and classic Flanaverse camera work. 
 

The jump scares in the first episode we’re definitely done for laughs!

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CGB

CGB

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Just watched the first episode and thought it was great. Love the characters and the jump scares were really fun, especially the later ones. Agree with Popo that there was definitely some self-awareness about them - it was a fun ride.

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schmojo

schmojo

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I'd misread this one as being more of an anthology show, but it's a very standard Mike Flanagan show. Slow burning, subtle, the same background apparitions, not scary.

 

The jump scare segment was fairly funny, he certainly knows what he is and what he does, and can have some fun with that.

 

It's fine. He's fine. I'll probably make it til at least about episode 4 or 5.

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schmojo

schmojo

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Re: the end

Spoiler

It's a format ripe for another series. I know they're based off an author's books, so they can go back to that well. Or just make it a new anthology series.

 

Although it may suffer from the dreaded Second Season Escalation, when keeping the pace just as it is would be ideal. I suppose there's been too much exposition to go back to that place of quietly unravelling mystery.

 

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Chewylegs

Chewylegs

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Spoiler

I understand the need to set up another season but that didn't mean the ending had to be so unsatisfying.  I think the midnight club stories took a little too much of the running time of each episode leaving the outside story a bit bare and almost feeling a bit redundant.  I'm sure season 2 will explain more but after a promising start I didn't get to the end and think I really must know what is happening in the next season.

 

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Fuddle

Fuddle

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Finished this up now. On the whole absolutely great, I’m a pretty big crybaby, but this had me going a few times each episode 😅. 

 

End thoughts

Spoiler

I went into it expecting it to be a self contained thing though, so was wondering how the hell they were going to tie up the old woman ghost thing so quick. There better be another series in the works.

I guess the only niggle I had was the main girl not being aware of what was the most culty cult ever. 

Not sure it needed the twist of the main woman being a baddie (maybe) too. But hopefully that can be explained well.

 

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yakumo

yakumo

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 This show got me in the heart strings way more than I expected. It was sneakily heavy. It tricks you into thinking you’re watching a corny teen show, which it can be at moments, but its so deeply intertwined with the huge concept of accepting death along with some cult and ghost stuff. 

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