TV Rewind: Midnight Mass Is a Balm for Survivors of Religious Trauma
Photo Courtesy of Netflix
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our TV Rewind column! The Paste writers are diving into the streaming catalogue to discuss some of our favorite classic series as well as great shows we’re watching for the first time. Come relive your TV past with us, or discover what should be your next binge watch below:
Much like the enigmatic Father Paul, by the time Mike Flanagan unveiled the project of his heart, viewers were ready to follow him just about anywhere. Even if we had no idea where he would take us.
That, perhaps, was the point.
Flanagan’s first Netflix series, The Haunting of Hill House, dropped onto the streamer in 2018 to instant acclaim, and was followed by the similarly well-received The Haunting of Bly Manor in 2020. Both series were loosely based on existing works of literature: Hill House on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel of the same name, and Bly Manor on Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw. So too would be his next couple Netflix series, with 2022’s The Midnight Club based on the novel by Christopher Pike, and 2023’s The Fall of the House of Usher adapted from the works of Edgar Alan Poe. But with Midnight Mass, Flanagan drew from a different sort of source material: his own life.
Rather than adapting someone else’s work, this time, Flanagan poured all of his struggles with alcoholism, religion, faith, forgiveness, and second chances into his own original story. The result is arguably his most intimate work, which can barely even be called horror until its final couple episodes. Until you’re in too deep to turn back.
Shot during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Midnight Mass brought viewers to the isolated town of Crockett Island, where everyone is barely scraping by and no one ever leaves, or at least not for good. Case in point, protagonist Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford, who will always be Matt “7” Saracen from Friday Night Lights in my heart; I’d like to think the Se7en poster hanging in Riley’s room is a nod to his time as a Dillon Panther), who attempts to escape his hometown after high school, only to wind up right back in his parents’ house a few years later after a night of drinking ends in him running over a teenage girl with his car.
Upon his return, the former altar boy finds himself deeply at odds with the sleepy, timeless norms of Crockett Island, affectionately dubbed “the Crock Pot” by its inhabitants—a cozy nickname that nods to the homogeneity that the islanders expect of their town. People may enter the Crock Pot as individuals, but once they’re left to cook long enough, they either all take on the same flavor, or get spit out.
One of the central ingredients of the Crock Pot’s signature stew is St. Patrick’s Church, helmed by the archaic Monsignor Pruitt… until Pruitt fails to return from a trip to Jerusalem, and in his place, the magnetic Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) takes up residence in the rectory. It doesn’t take long for the charismatic and soft-spoken priest to win over the hearts and minds of the Crock Pot, even the skeptical Riley, who lost his faith during his years away, but still attends mass at St. Patrick’s in order to not upset his devout parents. When Father Paul learns that Riley has to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on the mainland as a condition of his parole, he proposes a solution: he will start up a chapter at St. Patrick’s, so that Riley can meet his obligation and find healing right there on the island.
And for a while, he does. With Father Paul’s assistance, Riley begins to wrestle with some of his inner demons and make amends. In the process, he rekindles his relationship with Erin Greene (Kate Siegel), who also tried to escape the Crock Pot as a teenager only to return pregnant several years later after fleeing an abusive marriage. The two of them find comfort in each other, even though Erin’s life has led her back to the church, and Riley’s has driven him away.
Meanwhile, Father Paul’s rousing homilies draw the residents of Crockett like moths to a flame, packing the pews of St. Patrick’s. Eventually, it’s easier to list the townsfolk who aren’t at daily mass than the ones who are: the scientifically minded town doctor, Sarah Gunning (Annabeth Gish); Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli), a practicing Muslim; and Joe Collie (Robert Longstreet), the town drunk.