James Delingpole James Delingpole

Profound and original and unashamedly religious: Midnight Mass reviewed

It is refreshing to see the lengthy onscreen depiction of Catholic ceremony – and not what you’d expect from Netflix

Not since The Exorcist in 1973 has a priest been depicted as an honest-to-God fighter against evil: Hamish Linklater as Father Paul. Credit: EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2021 
issue 13 November 2021

I was turned on to Midnight Mass by Ricky Gervais who raved about it in one of his social media chats: ‘I absolutely loved it, and it got better and better. It’s like all the themes like love and death, regret, second chances, but it’s about good and evil in a biblical sense.’

Yes. Midnight Mass is very unusual in that (so far, at least; I’m only two and a bit episodes in) it seems to take Christianity at its own estimation. God is real, miracles do happen, even (or especially) the most miserable sinners can find redemption through repentance. Watching it is quite unsettling because you keep expecting the rug to be pulled from under your feet and, say, the hero priest Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater) suddenly to be revealed as a secret agent of Satan.

You expect this because that, generally, is the job of clergymen on TV and in the movies.

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