The Midnight Club
Recap
A group of seven terminally ill young adults at a hospice center, meet each night at midnight to tell each other stories.
Spoiler Level: Mild
Review
The Midnight Club, based on a 1994 book by Christopher Pike, now streaming on Netflix keeps to the original era the novel was written in, the mid 1990s. Ilonka (Iman Benson) has her whole life before her as she prepares to graduate high school and go to college, but then her entire world is shaken, when she collapses at a party. It is thyroid cancer, and after months of treatment and fighting to no avail, Ilonka and her foster father, Tim (Matt Biedel), face the fact that Ilonka is terminal. While searching for alternative cures on the internet, she stumbles upon a hospice called Brightcliffe, geared specifically to young people with a terminal disease, and specifically one girl who was cured while at Brightcliffe, and claimed it was something there that cured her. Once there, Ilonka joins a group of other young people who secretly meet at midnight to tell each other stories and to make a pact, that the first one of them to die must try to get a message back to the others about what to expect. But Brightcliffe has a mysterious past and seems to be haunted. Things seem to lurk in the shadows and Ilonka has visions showing the hospices past. And the doctor in charge, Georgina Stanton (Heather Langenkamp A Nightmare On Elm Street) knows more than she is letting on.
At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to like The Midnight Club; I am just a bit weary of getting attached to characters who we already know are going to die. But in watching the first two episodes, I have been hooked. The story is really interesting and the characters, for the most part, are endearing. Iman Benson does a wonderful job of portraying someone in a worse case scenario, who never loses hope of a better outcome. It is this inner light and optimism that helps the audience connect. Ruth Codd plays Anya, the most tenured of the young adults, is brash and jaded. She no longer has the hope that Ilonka carries and has replaced it with a tough outer shell, but you can tell there is a caring person underneath.
At its core, The Midnight Club seems to be a type of ghost story with a mystery behind it and a bright young heroine finding the clues and putting the pieces together. The script is smart, witty, heartwarming, and sad and along the way tackles some great themes. Within the first two episodes alone, there were some amazing insights on a few different subjects. The way the public, especially in the 90s, treats people with AIDs as opposed to Cancer. The false hope that alternative medicine or herbal remedies provide and being able to leave this world on your own terms. The dialogue never felt forced or false, and there was a certain poetry to it. The production value is great with the setting being both gorgeous and appropriately creepy when it needs to be. The pacing is good and the scenes flow well between each other. This show isn’t really about death, it is more about how to live.
Final Thoughts
A well done mystery with some great performances and appropriately creep atmosphere.
The Midnight Club: A Dream Before You Die
- Writing - 10/1010/10
- Storyline - 10/1010/10
- Acting - 9/109/10
- Music - 9/109/10
- Production - 9/109/10