Among an exciting and comedy atmosphere, this animation series follows Clancy, a spacecaster makes interviews with beings from other worlds. Clancy enters a new adventure at each episode.
There is a lot of activity in the foreground, background and middle ground of the frame, and the series is worth watching twice just to take in the details.
The Midnight Gospel cuts into viewer psyche with what feels like immense precision. In nearly every scene, I found some visual I enjoyed, one sentence I related to, or a feeling I thought only I'd had - no matter how overwhelmed I became.
The result is a little like Mr Benn for adults or, if you prefer, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, but with Jerry Seinfeld replaced by a pink cartoon human wearing nothing but a Gandalf hat and a hand towel to conceal his modesty.
The Midnight Gospel succeeds by subverting expectations of what one might expect from adult Adventure Time - and then subverting them again for one last emotional punch.
While the combination of creative talent behind the scenes is a winner, this new series is likely only going to appeal to the Adult Swim crowd. Your mile(high)age may vary.
The Midnight Gospel can be a little amusing at these times, simply for the "what the f--k" shock to your system, but it's not a sustainable concept because like the rest of those shocks, it numbs with repetition and time.
Ultimately, this experiment with narrative and visual forms works, making The Midnight Gospel the rare piece of legitimately daring television available right now.
The Midnight Gospel made me laugh, think hard thoughts about things I never have, and contrary to many other shows, I can already imagine myself returning to Clancy and his strange, imperfect spacecast multiple times in the future.
It pairs a laid-back, talk-heavy approach with lavish, surrealist animation. But much like the podcast episodes it frames itself around, there's not much in the way of an ongoing narrative to reward viewers or justify a binge session.
The Midnight Gospel" is overloaded with so many ideas it often threatens to devolve into one of those ephemeral late-night Adult Swim gambits... but Ward (who directs every episode) always comes back to the plot.
