When
I first heard that Pendleton Ward was releasing a new show, I was
ecstatic. Ward is best known for creating the classic cartoon
Adventure
Time
(2010-18), which follows the adventures of Finn the human and his
magical dog Jake. This cartoon is special to many, including myself,
for the unique atmosphere the show creates. In the show, characters’
lives are set against thousands of years of history, civilizations
rising and falling, and evil magic attempting to wipe out all life.
The most successful episodes of this series feature the characters
engaging in life’s smaller moments or pursuing goals of no import
to anyone but themselves. This is a show that understands existential
dread: that although in a thousand years our actions will be
forgotten and lost, while we are alive they are important to us as
individuals.
The
Midnight Gospel
combines these elements of Ward’s world building with podcast
conversations about spirituality and wellness. The show features a
human named Clancy, who moves to “The Chromatic Ribbon,” a
floating mobius strip of farmland out in space. He hosts a
“spacecast” where he uses a broken dimension simulator to travel
to different planets immediately before an apocalyptic event wipes
out all life. He meets someone new on each world, and has a
conversation on topics ranging from meditation, to taking massive
quantities of DMT, to coping with death. The conversations are taken
directly from a separate salon style podcast called The Duncan
Trussell Family Hour. (Trussell is a co-creator and producer on the
show). The conversation meanders while the characters move through
their own doomed world, trying to escape or save it.
The
animation is surreal, and often bizarre, carrying some element of the
conversation through it. In one episode, Clancy travels to The
Exoteric Trap, a prison for simulated beings who are unable to cope
with the mental strain caused by travelling between worlds. There he
interviews a spirit guide of a prisoner who dies over and over again
as he is trying to escape. Upon each death, his heart is weighed
against a feather as a psychedelic collage of images flash on the
screen, representing the emotional state of the prisoner at his time
of death. The loop then resets, and the prisoner, Bob, can try to
find freedom again. The spirit guide is the in-show embodiment of
Jason Louv, a teacher of meditation and magick, a spiritual practice
in which the mind is trained to manifest conditions favorable to
success in any endeavor. He talks about the history of Hinduism and
Buddhism, and the way that the two disciplines developed their
understanding of consciousness. The conversation strays into
reincarnation, and escaping our human conditions of suffering while
Bob, the prisoner, struggles to find his way through the literal and
metaphysical esoteric trap and escape.
There
is always more going on to the animation than meets the eye. This is
a show that begs to be watched several times. I’ve re-watched some
of my favorite episodes, and each time I notice something new that
ties into the main story in a way I hadn’t noticed before. The
seemingly random nature of the show never feels out of place, or too
bizarre to work. There is a tightness to these scenes that provides
both an excellent way to frame these heavy questions, and also a
compelling visual experience. The
Midnight Gospel
navigates between fast and slow moments, never once feeling boring or
too drawn out.
Despite
the heavy nature of the conversations, Trussell always finds a way to
make questions of spirituality accessible. I feel like I understand
the Buddhist and Hindu teachings both Trussell and his guests are
well acquainted with when placed in these goofy animated contexts.
The show can be as emotionally rich as it can be silly, a blend that
helps contribute to its unique feel.
The
existential tone of Adventure Time that made it so successful comes
through in The Midnight Gospel in a different way. On each of the
planets Clancy visits, some sort of apocalyptic event is in progress,
ultimately destroying the planet as Clancy is leaving. He experiences
the ending of everything his guests know and love, and they all take
it in stride through their conversations about life and death. Clancy
himself struggles with his own grasp of his existential nature as he
works through these deep philosophical issues with others.
Ward
also brings the small, personal goals front and center. Clancy is
making a spacecast with a single follower. His goals and aspirations
matter to nobody but himself, which is a struggle for him. The
lessons Clancy learns while travelling build a larger arc for Clancy,
one that I expect to be sorted out in the coming seasons. I truly
cannot wait to see what will come from this show in the future.
-Patrick Bernas
