Midnight Gospel is an innovative spin on your typical podcast, blending real life conversations with abstract, and often wildly imaginative animation.
The overall storyline is basically about Clancy, an out of work ‘spacecaster’, (which is really just a podcaster except he lives in space, with only one follower) who, in each episode travels to different worlds, seeking out a new and interesting character to interview for his spacecast.
The main character played by the show’s creator Duncan Trussell often finds himself on some wild quests fighting zombies, being turned into soup, discovering islands with a ship full of cats to name a few of the many adventures.
Trussell formerly worked on Adventure Time so if you’re a fan of that then the animation will be familiar. There’s one unique aspect to Midnight Gospel however, and this is what’s really going on behind the scenes.
The story element about Clancy interviewing someone for his spacecast, is in fact a real conversation between Trussell and a different guest every episode discussing a specific topic (death, drugs, religion etc.) and overlays it with the bright visual story playing out on screen.
The conversation topics and onscreen adventures often go hand in hand while remaining a stand alone story in and of themselves. There is an overarching journey Clancy goes on which has details hinting at it throughout the series, but it’s really about the conversations.
Midnight Gospel is clearly not trying to be subtle, both with the topics and with the plots and subplots. They’re literally having a real conversation about an important issue and simply having honest discussions.
You can watch it through again and see or hear something new you missed the first time around, but it’s also something you need to pace yourself with, because of its unique and heavy subject matter.
One or two episodes are a little hard to get through especially if you do end up binging it, which isn’t recommended.
However, overall it’s worth watching if you’re a fan of either, philosophy, podcasts, Adventure Time, bright colours, all of the above, or none of the above but you just want something new.
You might love it or hate it, but you never know unless you give it a try.
At the end of the day it may not be your cup of tea but it’s certainly a creative show.
