User:Z'Jarhae/The Midnight Gospel

Themes and analysis[edit]
Throughout the episodes, the series deals with different themes which were explored in the interviews. During the first season, the guests interviewed covered topics such as magic, meditation, forgiveness, spiritualism, funerary rituals, death, positivity, drug use, pain, moksha (transcendence), and existentialism. The animation also acts as a background for stories that expand the interviews. The storylines are, therefore, similarly wide-ranging. The second episode opens with deer-dog hybrids mangling baby clowns; compared to the fourth, which follows the journey of a knight (Trudy Goodman) seeking vengeance against an ass-wielding villain. These eclectic themes are selected in such a way as to complement the dialogue of the interview they accompany. For example, during the second episode of the series, Clancy discusses dealing with inevitability and acceptance of death with interviewees Raghu Markus and Anne Lamott, Anne then comments on her lack of fear of death, as their characters are wheeled to an industrial meat grinder run by a shudder of clowns. These animated backstories are designed to pull the viewer into the conversation, making them an important part of exploring the discussed subject.

One constant in several episodes is the life cycle. The series reinforces how this cycle is a continuous, never-ending process and one cannot escape it. In the last episode of the first season, there is a deeper discussion about the miracle of life, the suffering that existence brings to human life, and the detestable pain that death brings with it. The central theme of this episode entitled "Mouse of Silver" is dealing with the loss of a loved one. Despite being the main theme in this episode, the theme reappears in several others at different levels. For Trussell, the last episode becomes even more personal due to the discourse brought by the deep sorrow he felt after he lost his mother to cancer.