Midnight, Texas, is a small town in the middle of nowhere. It’s a safe haven for people (or “people”) who can’t live anywhere else or don’t want to. It also may be sitting on top of a hellmouth, if that ominous glowing red light coming up through Manfred Bernardo’s (François Arnaud) floorboards is any indication. Speaking of the possibly-fake-but-probably-real psychic, Manfred flees Dallas for Midnight at the behest of his dead grandmother Xylda (Joanne Camp) to escape her determined creditors. He couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Within a few hours of Manfred’s arrival he encounters the corpse of Bobo Winthrop’s (Dylan Bruce) missing fiance, hits on Creek (Sarah Ramos) the daughter of a very overprotective father, has his life force sucked out by vampire Lemuel (Peter Mensah), steals holy water from a creepy reverend (Yul Vazquez), witnesses Fiji (Parisa Fitz-Henley) go all The Craft on a couple of cops, is beaten up by Olivia the hitwoman (Arielle Kebbel), and summons a host of very pissed off ghosts and maybe a demon. At least he doesn’t see Joe (Jason Lewis) sprout wings or hear Fiji’s cat Mr. Snuggly (Joe Smith) talk. Gotta save something for the second episode…
The main season arc looks like it’s going to be sorting out who killed Aubrey (Shannon Lorance) and dealing with the Sons of Lucifer white supremacist biker gang. Not to mention all the magic and supernatural happenings. Now, I’m a fan of Charlaine Harris’ work. I wouldn’t call myself a superfan or anything, but I’ve read all her stuff and enjoyed it all, no matter how stupid. The Harper Connelly series will always have my heart and frankly if I had to pick a Harris series to adapt to television that would be my first stop. Her Midnight, Texas series is typical of her work, in that it’s more or less literary cotton candy.
The premiere seems to be sticking fairly close to the first book, Midnight Crossroad. When Aubrey’s body is found in a creek and the cops – with Manfred’s psychic help – turn up a gun registered to Bobo, he gets accosted first by a pair of neo-nazis and later by two grouchy sheriffs. Turns out Aubrey was still married to a white supremacist gang leader when she fell in love with Bobo. But this ain’t Bobo’s story, even though his plot drives the action. Manfred is our protagonist, albeit one who mostly just stumbles from scene to scene. As in the books, Fiji is the most interesting character on screen. By the end of the trilogy, it’s clear the series really belongs to her. Whether that will translate to television we’ll have to wait and see.
I honestly can’t remember if this is canon or headcanon, but I always pictured Manfred as brown. He’s definitely supposed to be short, scrawny, and looking like a pierced punk, and Arnaud’s too much of a tall drink of bland for my taste. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the diversity. Most of the main cast are people of color, which is a huge plus for network television. My only reservation is with Fiji. Don’t get me wrong, I dig Fitz-Henley, but in the book she’s plus sized. I knew it would be too much to hope for television to cast a fat actor as the romantic lead, but still. We really need more body shape diversity on camera, and casting Fiji as skinny is a lost opportunity.
Midnight, Texas’s biggest mark against it is that it’s on NBC. This is a show that needs room to be bloody and sexy. Network television’s constraints are really going to hamper the story in the long run (especially if they are headed in the direction of the final showdown from Night Shift). Without the backing of a cable channel or streaming service, it lacks the budget to fully convey the craziness of a rural fantasy. More importantly, without a strong showrunner with a unique voice at the helm, it’s just another television show. With True Blood, Alan Ball added visual verve and social commentary to the metanarrative. Writer and executive producer Monica Owusu-Breen is a veteran television producer, but a lot of the shows she’s worked on suffer a lot of the same mediocrity maladies as Midnight, Texas.
To be fair, Owusu-Breen is actually sticking true to the canon; Harris wouldn’t know subtlety if it hit her on the head, and her idea of social commentary is having her only gay couple own a salon and behave like Birdcage LARPers. But I want more out of a show built on the idea of a bunch of outcasts forging a family out of disaster. If Midnight, Texas wants to succeed, not only does it need to be socially relevant but it must find a way to be more creative than its source material. Everything in the premiere is something you’ve seen before. It’s time to up the game and craft their own fantasyland, one that goes beyond Harris’ relatively limited vision.
Midnight, Texas is almost a good time. It suffers from the worst side effects of being on network television: mediocrity, half-assed graphics, and insisting on drama over camp. This is a show with vampires, angels, witches, ghosts, and sundry other supernatural beasties I won’t spoil for the newbies. Something like this ought to lean full into its bonkers premise. Say what you will about True Blood, but it totally understood its base material. Sure, it jumped the shark by the end (so did the book series, for that matter), but even when it was eye-rollingly stupid it still generally stayed true to its nature as a sex and blood-soaked paranormal romance. Midnight, Texas the television show is about as inventive and out there as Supernatural, a show that went off the rails about 8 seasons ago.
In my review of the final book in the Midnight Texas series, I summarized every Charlaine Harris property thusly: “Charlaine Harris is very good at what she does even if what she does isn’t very good. No one goes into one of her books expecting high art or powerful literature. When she gets into a narrative rut, she falls back on intensely detailed descriptions of events or locations that have absolutely no relevance to the plot or characters. When the plot gets too twisty to untangle, a random character from the periphery turns up to tell the main characters everything they need to know and what they need to do in order to resolve the problem. Bad things have few consequences and emotional turmoil lasts about as long as a plate of biscuits in front of a hungry teenage weretiger.” If you read that and your first thought was “Weretigers? Cool! Are they shirtless?” then welcome to the Charlaine Harris fanclub. If that description made you want to run for the hills, then Midnight, Texas is probably not the show for you.
Final Thoughts
- In case it wasn’t clear, I’m definitely going to keep watching Midnight, Texas. I really need a new dumb fun supernatural show to watch.
- Plus I gotta support Owusu-Breen. Put a Black woman in charge and diversify the cast and I’m there, quality be damned.
- From what I can tell, the show doesn’t exist in the same ‘verse as True Blood. Which makes sense, I guess. In the books, Manfred and Sookie don’t interact but live in the same world.
- STOP USING THE SLUR “GYPSY.” Seriously. Please put that offensiveness in the trash bin where it belongs.
Alex Brown is a teen librarian, writer, geeknerdloserweirdo, and all-around pop culture obsessive who watches entirely too much TV. Keep up with her every move on Twitter and Instagram, or get lost in the rabbit warren of ships and fandoms on her Tumblr.
I’m curious to see how they’re going to handle the end of the book. I can’t see being true to the book going over well on a major network.
Since reality shows about Gypsies have the Gypsies call themselves “Gypsies,” I don’t think the term is pejorative.
The comment about SUPERNATURAL is a nonsense regurgitation from people who haven’t watch the show for years. Sure, some of the seasonal arcs have been bad, but the show itself has remained fun, and the characters/actors continue to be awesome.
As to MIDNIGHT, I spent the entire first episode paying more attention to the correlation between the source and what was on screen than I did to the overall impression. I’d be interested to hear what people who haven’t read the MIDNIGHT trilogy think. The actors were okay, the town set up was accurate, and the themes and semi-story arcs were hinted at. My head canon had the Rev as an older man along the lines of John Carradine, and I did not hear Mr. Snuggly with a good ol’ boy Texas accent, though.
The showrunner is interviewed at TVGUIDE.com today. One of the things he said is that after the pilot, NBC told him to get rid of the murder mystery as the season story arc so Bobo will be cleared next week,
@2, I am your Midnight newbie! I’ve never read the books, but I am curious to read them now. I enjoyed the show and plan on watching more. The setting of creepy town vs. normal town should present some nice conflicts, as will the biker gang. Overall, I am sold! On the show, and I plan to try the books out. I burned out on both the Sookie books and the series after a few rounds with both, but I am willing to try something else of Harris’ and this show feels like a fresh start. Defintely looking forward to seeing backstories get fleshed out. I also hope they do not shy away from the ridiculousness of it all and really go for it with this one. Hopefully it has a chance to feel more cohesive as it goes, but I already like this new world a lot!
While I mostly agreed with this review, the one place I will disagree is with the call for this show to have scope for more blood and sex. Maybe I am more of a prude than I realized, but I am totally happy to watch network TV like this and know that I am going to get only a hint of sex and gore. I am so glad that violence and sex, and especially more than just hetero sex, is viewable on many cable shows now, but honestly, network TV is like my puritanical safe space and I kind of love it for that. Shows, like this one, can still push the edge of the envelope: be about scary events or people who enjoy sexy times with men, women or whatever and still not literally spill the blood and boobs all over the set. Glad you enjoy your cable shows with fhe full disclosure/contact, but some of us still love the wink, wink, nudge, nudgeof network TV.
In the books, Manfred is a skinny, pale blonde dude in his early twenties. Most of the other characters are some flavor of latinx.
@2 – for the love of god, please don’t let trashy reality shows be your guide post on how to treat people.
I am a complete newcomer to Charlaine Harris. I never read any of her books nor saw a moment of True Blood. I thought I’d check out the series as way to fill the void left by NBC’s Grimm.
I wasn’t blown away but I’ve watched a lot worse summer replacements (I’m looking at you Under the Dome!).
I liked the part where Manfred walked into the pawn shop and started hearing the merchandise telling sordid tales. Very relatable to anyone who’s been creeped out by an antique store. I liked the cast of characters and I’m eager to learn more about them.
@@.-@ Since I don’t watch trashy reality shows, I know about them because I scroll through show descriptions on the way to find what I do want to watch, I’m not affected one way or the other. For example, MY BIG FAT GYPSY WEDDING is a darn good example of why people who are Romani don’t have any problem with being called a gypsy. Sometimes, the PC crowd get upset without knowing what the spit they are talking about.
@3 I agree on the sex and violence. One of the reasons I never invested myself into TRUE BLOOD was because they used sex and violence as a massive crutch in place of character development, plot, etc. Harris’ books never had sex on the page, and the violence descriptions weren’t over the top, either, so that’s no excuse.
A funny thing about this series is that the only show I have watched on NBC for years has been GRIMM. Every time, the NBC announcer opens his mouth, I expect GRIMM. Bummers.
For those who like supernatural shows, try WYNONNA EARP on SYFY. It’s about half way through it’s second season right now. It’s not perfect, but it is fun.
I actually find it refreshing that it won’t be some over the top sex and gore romp from being on a cable show.. I mean that stuff is ok at times , but certainly not telling of whether a show like this will be successful. Actually, that was one of my biggest problems i had with True Blood near the end of its run. It relied less on good storytelling and more on how much graphic sex and violence they could throw at the screen. American Horror Story seems to have headed in that free for all as well. I’m not a prude but then again i don’t need all of that to have a good time either .People keep knocking NBC but many forget or just don’t realize their other supernatural based show Grimm just finished it’s 6th and final season. So i think this could be alot of fun even with the budget constrictions. They still could do a great job. I also disagree about your assessment of Supernatural but that’s another argument for another day.
@2 and @6 You should be more careful about getting your information from television guides.
FYI “My big fat Gypsy wedding” is actually a show about the Irish Traveler community. Not the Roma and Sinti people of Europe. They’re both referred to colloquially by the slang term “Gypsy” but they’re not the same ethnicity or culture.
@2 and @8: Thanks for that, Michael. The reason I’m so against using that word and insist that it’s a slur is because the Rroma have. When a marginalized community, especially one I’m not a part of, takes offense at something, it’s my job as an ally to listen. Moreover, that term has been used to oppress and subjugate Rroma for hundreds of years, not just culturally but legally as well. As a queer Black woman, I can relate to that. So since I have a platform to talk about how that word is offensive and harmful, I intend to do so. If Manfred and Xylda were Rroma, they would probably rather be called that than the G-word. If they’re simply travellers (a la Irish Travellers), then just call them that instead. We don’t need to use a derogatory term as a catchall for magically inclined wanderers.
@5: Def check out Harper Connelley. And try her cozy mysteries as well. Harris is silly but fun. And we all need some quickie summer reads :)
@2: I am a regular Supernatural viewer, have been for years. And even though I still tune in every week, it’s been a disaster for more seasons than it’s been good.
@1 and @7:Thing is, the sex and gore are pretty integral to the books. The finale in the third book especially – which is why I’m concerned about how they’re going to play that. The thing under the floorboards doesn’t make an appearance until Night Shift, so if they’re bringing it up now (and apparently getting rid of the Audrey murder mystery), then that shifts the hell out of the final showdown. Especially if they keep network television tame. Not that it couldn’t work as is – Sleepy Hollow and Grimm did just fine without all the smexy, bloody spice – but it’s an adjustment on my end.
For what it is worth, NBC is the network that gave us Hannibal. Maybe that was one for the millennium, but we can dream, can’t we?
@2/6 “Sometimes, the PC crowd get upset without knowing what the spit they are talking about.”
Yeah, except that it’s not the ‘PC crowd’ it’s actually YOU that doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I mean, you’re seriously gonna say that when your only source is a reality TV title you once scrolled past??? REALLY? Here we go:
#1 Reality TV often hypes up horrendous things to make us watch. It’s the train-wreck effect. Call it “My Roma Wedding” and a wider audience isn’t going to know wtf that’s about because too many Americans think ‘gypsy’ is totally a-ok.
#2 Roma can certainly reclaim a derogatory name like any other group (N-word, Queer, Chick, etc.) and use it how they please. That doesn’t mean non-Roma can. This is -ism 101.
#3 Takes you all of 2 seconds to Google it and see if actual Roma people think it’s derogatory. Spoiler: They do.
#4 My best friend is Roma. They really, really hate that term. She straight up won’t watch a movie/TV show that uses that term, because if you’re doing that, then you don’t know the first thing about them, and you’re probably gonna f it up.
As to the show… I haven’t watched the first ep because the promos looked very low-rent and none of the characters/moments were interesting. I didn’t realize it was based on a series. I think the OP is right…needs a bigger budget to make it work, or else maybe dive right into campiness on purpose? Is it even that kind of book?
@12 I did do a search of term. Some of that ethnic background find “gypsy” pejorative, some do not and are proud of the term. They need to figure this out and let the rest of us know.
Well, if the Hallmark Movie & Mystery channel can adapt a Charlaine Harris series, then network tv stands a decent chance.
Oh! My boyfriend’s sister worked on this, neither of us had heard of the books before but it sounds fun.
I read the books, watched the series, then read the books again. I loved it all. Now I’m going to watcrh the series again. All the complaints are actually things I love about the stories. I love that it’s a somewhat boring town, with often uninteresting people (until something happens). I want to jump right in and live there. I totally get the atmosphere from the books and episodes, and I love it. I love that there is not much visual violence. I love that there is no political correctness in midnight, but a great amount of respect between people. It’s a town that doesn’t need political correctness, just a lot of caring and comraderie and loyalty. I love how slow moving it is. I also loved the true blood books, read every one. I loved the show until they had to start writing new stories not in the books and it got too bloody and ridiculous (none of that was in the books). I thought Sookie was the best character and actress ever! I couldn’t get enough of her.