The Midnight Gospel - new trippy animated Netflix joint

[Ornlu]

Anyone else watching this? I heard Duncan Trussell talk about it a while back on Rogan, he (Trussell) and Pendleton Ward the Adventure Time man are behind it. An interdimensional being has a 'spacecast' and travels to different worlds to have long-form conversations with about philosophy and spirituality with local beings, with some very interesting visuals and a loose narrative starting to build.

I'm a few eps in and think it's pretty fantastic. Really quite charming, earnest and not at all up itself. A very cozy blend of Rick & Morty and Dr Katz Professional Therapist.

Graun: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/apr/20/midnight-gospel-review-netflix-trippy-cartoon-like-mr-benn-for-adults

[Sin Agog]

Yeah, Katz was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the first ep last night.  I probably shouldn't have watched it thinking the episode would be a really drawn-out joke with, maybe, a big punchline at the end.  It was more like how on the old windows media player when you played a song you'd get these cool little waveforms, except those waveforms are elaborate '70s science fiction acid fantasies and you're not playing a song you're playing a stoner rant from an early Linklater movie.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I watched the first one and hated it, the concept's a decent one but it was like being trapped talking to a stoner at a party who follows you from room to room whenever you try to escape. It's not that I even disagree with all of what's being said, but it's such a drawn out, tiresome unoriginal argument that I started loudly moaning at the screen, especially when the twat starting rambling on about mindfulness.

[madhair60]

Hahahaha! This sounds like the shittest thing EVER!

[Ornlu]

Hahahaha! This sounds like the shittest thing EVER!

That's what I thought! But then I posted this thread.

[up_the_hampipe]

I watched the first one and hated it, the concept's a decent one but it was like being trapped talking to a stoner at a party who follows you from room to room whenever you try to escape. It's not that I even disagree with all of what's being said, but it's such a drawn out, tiresome unoriginal argument that I started loudly moaning at the screen, especially when the twat starting rambling on about mindfulness.

I knew this would be the case when I saw Duncan Trussell's involvement.

[spaghetamine]

Big fan of Duncan Trussell, I can appreciate that he probably winds a lot of CaB types up but I'm very excited to watch this later, also Johnny Pemberton was involved who is another guy I think is underrated

[olliebean]

Based on the trailer, this looked like something I could possibly enjoy on a purely aesthetic basis, if it had been animated at more than 8 frames per second. But such choppy animation really spoils my enjoyment, as well as giving the impression of minimum possible effort expended.

For this reason, as well as comments here, I don't think I'm going to bother trying to watch it.

[Mister Six]

Watched the first episode of this last night, and I have mixed feelings.

The Dr Katz observation occurred to me too - it even has the mid-90s jaggly pixels, gradient fills and spray paint textures. But Katz worked because the animation complemented and illustrated the conversations, and because Squigglevision was so simple that it didn't distract from the actual content, which was the improv and stand-up routines. Here, it's like the podcast side of things is constantly battling with the baroque, over-designed visuals. It wasn't so bad early on, when they're talking while taking pot-shots at zombies or something, but by the time there was an elaborate chase scene with background gags at the same time as the conversation was getting pretty in-depth on... something, I was having to watch everything twice just to take in what was happening.

Also, at least in this first episode, the podcast side of things just isn't that interesting. I don't know who Duncan Trussell is, but I didn't think he seemed to be contributing a huge amount to the talk, and forcing the interviewee to interrupt himself to push on the "plot" by acknowledging zombies or the pregnant woman or whatever just got in the way of actual points being made.

I'll watch a few more because I like the aesthetics and am vaguely interested to see where things go in terms of topics, but this seems like something that is kind of flawed in its conception.

I did like the appearance by The Discworld in the background when he was flying down to the simulated planet, though.

[phantom_power]

They shouldn't have started with the drug discussion because that is the most boring topic to talk about, even to a lot of people who take drugs. I am not sure I can be bothered with the rest as the other bits weren't worth slogging through the dull acid casualty bollocks

[owhufc]

I love it.

It's feels like a cross between end of the run of Adventure Time and that Ricky Gervais cartoon he did of his pod cast. I hate psuedo-scientific, spiritual bullshit and despise Buddhism but I think the reason I can handle the chat is because I'm not listening to the content of what they are saying. Just enjoying how keywords are being turned into the animated story going on behind the chat. I kind of like the world that's being built behind it all as well. Also I think he's got a genuine (if misguided) love for all that nonsense so it doesn't feel like showing off for the sake of it.

I'm a massive fan of Adventure Time and it will turn into something along those lines. Or it might just not catch. Or it might get shit. But I think it's a good attempt at something or other was worth the effort.

[momatt]

I really enjoyed this.  Great idea for a show, very ambitious.  My only criticism is that it's very difficult to conctrate on the insane visuals and the speech at the same time.  I suppose anyone that's annoyed by the talking can easily ignore it and concentrate on the lovely animation.
I was thinking that if it wasn't for the occasional sweating, you could watch this with small children and there'd be something for everyone.

Yeah, Katz was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the first ep last night.

I was thinking of this show too, and also Home Movies.  Very similar slightly mumbly conversational style.

[Blumf]

Been giving it a go and am getting into it. The visuals are a win for me. The interviewees come across a bit "self-help" nonsense, but can still be interesting.

[momatt]

It was interesting to watch the episode about witchcraft with my girlfriend, as she's very knowledgeable about such things.  She immediately recognised that the fish-head bloke was a witch, due to the the special magickal hand-movements he made and the knife he had.  So it looks like they really do their research.

The more I think about it, the less likely it seems that this was ever made, such a mad idea for a show.