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This holiday story features a wide range of casting, acting, costuming, and design flaws. Iris Quinn as the visiting grandmother is distracting with Quinn's look just not blending in. The movie chugs along unevenly and leaves you plenty of time to notice the various small flaws that pile on nearly making the movie too annoying to watch to the end.

Could have been exceptional for the holiday TV movie genre but it keeps falling on its own sword standing up and repeating the whole self destructive pattern..

If you are looking for the next Stephen King, this isn't it.

Midnight Mass has depth and intricate character studies not found in typical works of horror. The pinch of horror is skillfully cloaked in the church standard hymns most will recognize. There are also joyous moments where ordinary people share daily life set to spiritual but not religious Neil Diamond tunes.

Set in a fictional place, Crockett Island, population 127 living souls and perhaps the traces of hundreds more who lived there in more prosperous times, the finite and insular community boasts but one church, a Catholic one, trying to offer a hedge against the everyday horrors of want of purpose, opportunity, and meaning.

On Crockett Island nothing and nobody is perfect, good and evil drift through the tale often hand in hand, and frequently in one person simultaneously.

This engaging drama is paced exactly right, and with just seven episodes it relates an intense transformation of both joy and sorrow that it demonstrates gently, rather than hitting viewers over the head with anything gratuitous. Every moment serves the story. One hint that doesn't spoil the story is to note the times the priest has solitary confession as he speaks into a mirror, vaguely reminiscent of the Faust legend.

This is truly a one of a kind limited television series, well placed in this difficult era of Covid and political upheaval. It offers the chance to reflect on the horrors we are facing in daily life where a few offer up lunatic miracle cures and the dangerous shimmer of easy authoritarian solutions while most of us simply struggle to make it through life as we try to define and achieve some of our own objectives.

There is a basic concept called suspending disbelief that allows the viewer to get lost in the story, forgetting it isn't "real life".

We all adjust to seeing the 1920's in color or voice overs in stories, but this series warps time in a few ways. Music and dance circa 2017 might work in a 1920's story if the dance weren't a jolt out of time but the real problem is lyrics that mention later eras such as mentions of television one may not be able to ignore. Dance could be less jarring if a more timeless style. Thank goodness no actress tries to sell Clear Blue Easy or the pill.

It's a odd choice to have future music and I hope it doesn't spoil a decent series. Mabbe future seasons, if there are any, will use a less jolting dance and music mix with 1920's Spain that serves the story.