SummaryPodcaster Clancy is forced to leave his home to interview beings in other worlds after his multiverse simulator malfunctions in this adult animated series co-created by Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell.
SummaryPodcaster Clancy is forced to leave his home to interview beings in other worlds after his multiverse simulator malfunctions in this adult animated series co-created by Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell.
Gospel's not for kids, but it reflects the ecstatic innovations that made Adventure Time such a trip. Ward directs every episode and finds moments of religious astonishment alongside gloopy horror, all of it served with chatty humanism and palpable sweetness. ... The result is a new kind of masterpiece: easy to like, easier to worship.
The animation here is really more of a supplement for the experience of the content of the interviews. This show is designed not so much for viewing as for listening. The interviews capture a wide range of perspectives on life from different celebrities and speak to their understandings of life's core questions of spirituality and human purpose.
The show overdoes it a little bit sometimes, but it's good enough to deliver the message.
What I find so fascinating about this show is how well it demonstrates how everyone is different and their beliefs are different and how they got where they are is different, but there is some sort of core commonality in everything you hear throughout that you can't quite place, which rests just on the tip of your perception.....
Something you cannot quite fully grasp or encapsulate into words, that you struggle to define for others. And you hear in every interview that others struggle to define it too, and from that struggle to define it emerges the differences in what you are hearing. But you get the sense what they are trying to describe is actually the same.
And you know, inherently in some deep part of yourself, that the thing they are attempting to describe (through their imperfect observation) is something critical to the very notion of being alive.
What I hear again and again is that the concept of one's "self" is, in our great confusion, formed by one's own thoughts. Thoughts which are attempting to shape a unique identity to our being distinct from others and the Universe around us because we feel that we must be a unique individual who can control the world and make things happen for us. We think that is how other people are too.
And that in our confused efforts to define ourselves this way, we actually create selfishness when it is not the natural order. Selfishness which is actually harmful to our "selves" and to others.
That is our common delusion, where the reality of this Universe is that all of us are both part and parcel to the entire universal system that surrounds us while at the same time being capable of observing that system through our sensory perceptions and consciousness. The reason selfishness is such a burden on the mind, body, and spirit is because it is not true, and the reason the selflessness, caring, and love are so freeing is because it alleviates us of the delusion and obsession with self.
My perspective, anyways.
Every episode approaches sophisticated ideas while stuffing them into an astonishing psychedelic cartoon, so that “The Midnight Gospel” forces you to push beyond the distractions of its many moving parts and appreciate the substance at its core. The resulting trippy sci-fi adventure is a feast for the eyes and mind at once.
It can be legitimately transcendent at times – Ward has so much creative energy that the frames burst with detail and Trussell is a great podcaster in terms of how much he truly engages with his subjects. It can also be damn overwhelming. I don’t recommend binging all eight because the onslaught of new age ideas and hyperactive visuals can be a bit much to take consecutively.
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but The Midnight Gospel is fascinatingly strange, and if you listen to what is actually talked about, you may come away with some insight into the human condition.
While there’s plenty of merit being preached in The Midnight Gospel, I don’t find the delivery method of its sermon particularly convincing, digestible, or enjoyable. But, hey, as someone who watched the show stone-cold sober, your religious mileage may vary.
The Midnight Gospel lets Ward go nuts without any network censors or content restrictions, and the team over at Titmouse absolutely runs with it. So 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.
Beautiful artwork. Beautiful spirit. Each episode is a self-contained adventure for our protagonist through a different collapsing alternate universe. The visual stimulation and philosophical discussion are equally stimulating to the point that I found myself pleasantly shifting my primary focus from the discussion to the animation when one or the other reached a maximum stimulus capacity. Makes for good second and third viewings. The final episode is nothing short of high art, and an incredible achievement when you realize that audio is from an actual archived podcast episode of the co-creator. I don't want to spoil it, but suffice it to say, it is alone worth the cost of entry.
This isn't particularly good, too bad cause it looks like it has all the tools to be. But it just isn't. There's no coherence, no story, and no reason to care about the discussion.
Oh my god! I sat down with my daughter (we both loved adventure time) and just stared at the screen for the first 10 minutes. We looked at each other, shrugged shoulders, asked why there was a tiny president and then what an earth where the monotone ramblings in the background all about. (Turns out it was about drugs, how cutting edge!)
I then looked deeper in to what this was all about, I now realise it's a podcast with animation over the top. Unfortunately neither the podcast or the overlaying animation offer anything worth sticking around for. The ramblings of the podcast are boring, it fades in to background noise while you watch the poorly drawn animation that goes nowhere and ultimately adds nothing to the context of the podcast.
On the scale of 'I want to be cool and like this because I feel like I should' I give this 137 out of 10.
In summary, pretentious claptrap that can only be enjoyed while off one's box on class A's.
The animation is great, but the content doesn't hold up. A lot of the dialogue is Eastern philosophy fetishism. The rest is recycled mysticism. It's all pretty meaningless when you get down to it.