MovieChat Forums > The Midnight Club (2022) Discussion > The short stories were my least favorite...

The short stories were my least favorite thing about this show

posted 2 years ago by snuggans (48)
3 replies | jump to latest

whenever they'd start one i couldn't wait until the show shifted back to the main plot. Natsuki's first story was especially bad, even if it was only meant to be introductory and cut short by Ilonka's hiding, the consecutive jump-scares reliant on loud audio shocks were so obnoxious. the stories didn't improve greatly after that, was the show trying to be "realistic" about these teens' writing skills and thus they had to be intentionally cheesy? i would've preferred the reverse really, it would have been easy to suspend my disbelief and have them all be master storytellers. i wanted to like the whole thing

where the show actually shines is when exploring grief and existentialism, and the relationships between the characters, you almost forget this is supposed to be horror -- the paranormal type of horror anyhow

[–] Daisy_Mabel (129) 2 years ago

The long, overly self-indulgent stories from Flanaghan's other shows were annoying as hell. Sometimes I found myself fast-forwarding through these cumbersome and arrogant parts. But, I find the kids telling of these stories to be one of the most entertaining aspects of this show. With adults, it just feeds into this idea of their ego and self-importance, but with the kids it's far more natural and there's a bit of modesty, nervousness and fear. It works.

[–] Grimace788 (267) 2 years ago

Totally agree. When they start telling the stories it kills the momentum of the show.

With that said, I didn't mind the story about the garage. That one at least fit the tone of the show.

[–] sslssg (34249) 2 years ago

The funny thing is, is that is what the book is about. They tell stories as a type of therapy. Unfortunately, the show went in a completely different direction from the book. There really wasn't much of a wrap around story other than them dying. There was no mysterious cult storyline, they didn't try any rituals to try to save anyone. There is nothing scary in the book, other than maybe facing mortality as a teenager.

I liked this series because I'm a gen-Xer who loved Pike's books, and we never really got any movies from them other than a poorly done made for tv movie of Fall Into Darkness. I understand why they chose this book, but there wasn't enough substance for a series. In that sense I don't like this series as much as I want to. In the book their stories weren't all that great. Here, they are telling other Pike books as their stories. The tonal shift between Flannigan's story and Pike's stories is just too different and I'm still not sure how well they go together.