Most critics like Midnight Mass, and more than one calls it Mike Flanagan’s best work. The praise gathers around the performances, with Hamish Linklater’s Father Paul picked out more than once, and around the decision to treat faith seriously rather than as set dressing for the scares. Reviewers describe it as more a meditation on religion and death than a straightforward horror, and most think that is a strength.
The reservations are about length and talk. Even admirers concede that the monologues run long, that scenes repeat themselves and that the middle episodes drift before a ferocious final stretch. Variety finds the series has passion but not the precision of Flanagan’s earlier work. The one clear dissenter is The Guardian, which argues the meditation collapses into absurdity and bloated dialogue, skilful jump scares and long takes notwithstanding. The spread is wide, from strong approval to flat rejection, with the argument turning on whether the sermons earn their running time.