If you expect some fun loving adventures with quirky ideas and commentary on things, exposing new ideas and making you think -- look elsewhere -- unless you're high. Midnight Gospel has a market and Adventure Time viewers are likely not the same one. The bulk of Adventure Time viewers were not the "stoned to watch it" as the 10 season arch had wacky adventures but deep lore and character development. With heavy marketing surrounding Pendleton Wards Adventure Time as a leap off point it's quite the misdirect. While review outlets praise it for it's trippiness and in depth discussions, if you're not watching it high it feels more like asking "why does pizza come in a square box if it's round and all the pieces are little triangles". If you're not stoned these answers are simple. And that's what Midnight Gospel is. A show to watch if and only if you're likely high and want to ask questions no deeper than round pizza in square box. Basically a show that could have been awesome if not a weak stoner source material with as much depth as a sheet of paper. I've never listen to Duncan Trussell's podcast which served as in inspiration and thus not the demographic. This reinforces that I'll likely not listen to his podcast (or I will just to test) because if it is like this it's just surface level what ifs. Poor stoner writing aside, it still falls down. The main character development is weak to non-existant in some episodes. It's hard to develop a character when their words and the actions are so disconnected (another stoner appeal mechanism). Ricky Gervais Animated HBO show did the concept better because the animated segments related and highlighted what was happening -- it added comedy, context, misdirection, surprise but you knew it was just that on top of the podcast. Midnight Gospel is throwing a misdirect so that the discussion and the visual art are unrelated which means you have to try and follow two unrelated stories -- one visual and one auditory. Not a connecting thread between them. So if you're stoned it's going to feel interesting and trippy and soooo meta. Midnight Gospel for the non-stoners might well be improved if you watch it with audio off, and then later listened to it. It might actually get better with subtitles re-written for the actual story.
