When it comes to horror television, I think it’s safe to say that Mike Flanagan has cornered the recent Netflix market with five fantastic series on the streamer. But with great influence comes great debates about which show of the five is the best. Ultimately, that honor should go to Midnight Mass , Flanagan’s 2021 series about a small island that is rocked by a religious revival with deadly consequences.
Yes, The Haunting of Hill House , The Haunting of Bly Manor , The Midnight Club , and last year’s The Fall of the House of Usher are all great in their own right, particularly Hill House , but there is just something so special about Midnight Mass , which out of the Netflix TV mix is Flanagan’s only fully original work. While Hill House set a high bar as Flanagan’s freshman TV outing, Midnight Mass takes the elements fans have come to love in his work and elevates it to a level I have yet to see again. While all of Flanagan’s other shows take inspiration from literary works and figures, with The Fall of the House of Usher most recently paying homage to Edgar Allan Poe, Midnight Mass takes a common horror element and transforms it into something mind-bending and new.
Following a dwindling community on Crockett Island, Midnight Mass tells the story of Riley Flynn ( Zach Gilford ), a young man who is returning home after spending years in prison for killing a young woman in a drunk driving accident. Upon his return, Riley finds himself to be an outsider among his j.