ThompsonHaddock9991
Since: Oct, 2016
06/17/2020 00:00:00
Quite right. I had a long argument about this topic with a friend who recommended the show. Going into it, I had some knowledge of it being related to Duncan\'s podcast with the psychedelic adventures being based on the guests\' discussions somehow, but going in I did not expect dialogue to be directly ripped from the podcast. I know that\'s quite reductive to what it fully is, but that was my first impression going into the first episode so I was quite confused and disappointed. The trailers and episode blurbs don\'t play up the podcast angle at all. I found some appreciation for the show but I honestly still feel a little pissed off and lied to by the misleading advertising.
Leave a Comment:
Poorly Advertised
The Midnight Gospel is a psychedelic animated cartoon series about a magenta coloured vlogger who visits strange new Worlds via an illegal virtual reality machine. Except it isn't really about that at all, and one of the big disservices to this show is how poor a job a lot of summaries and previews do, explaining what this is all actually is to potential viewers.
What this show actually is is a podcast with an animated framing device added to it. The podcast consists of Duncan Trussell interviewing various people of interest; social commentators, comedians, former death row inmates, and his own mother. Each episode and interview discusses a particular topic, such as recreational drug use or deathcare, in a loose and extemporaneous manner. Whilst they chat, the host and interviewer are represented on screen by cartoon characters stuck within a virtual reality world. If you get at all bored or confused by the interview topic, you can instead focus on the cartoon characters, who are often fighting through some horrible and deadly apocalypse.
Gospel might disappoint a lot of its potential audience from the get go, with Adventure Time fans dipping in to what they expected would be another surreal comedy adventure and discovering its actually nothing of the sort. I suspect the show is probably also disappointed for those stoners hoping to have something mellow and brightly coloured to have on in the background whilst they get utterly munted. The show (or rather, the discussions within) demands a little more attention than such people might be able to afford.
I'm not used to reviewing podcasts, but I found this one to be reasonably entertaining and insightful. I ended up learning far more about what I could be doing with dead family members, which is a surprise. If you go in with reasonable expectations, and a patience for podcasts, then you will have a decent time of it.