YMMV / The Midnight Gospel

• Awesome Art: As deranged the animation is, the worlds are lush and beautiful and the simpler character designs allow for subtle, nuanced body language that isn't common with many other animated shows.
• Broken Base: A fairly major divide regarding the frame story. Very few dispute whether or not it and its plot serve to distract from the meat of the series, the podcast interviews realized through Deranged Animation. But in general, those who like the show tend to like it in spite of the frame story, focusing entirely on the podcast and visuals, while those who don't like the show often bring up how the frame story paints the protagonist as an incredibly unlikable person or how his refusal to perform even basic maintenance out of sheer laziness and stubborn spite implicitly leads to the deaths of everyone he interacts with in the virtual world, kills a bunch of people in the "real" world, and subjects a likable character to a Fate Worse than Death.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Out of all of Clancy’s interviewees, Trudy seems to get the most fan art. Likely due to her design and interesting backstory. Episode 4 is also often cited as one of the best, the fantasy context and the relatable subject playing in its favor.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In "Vultures with Honor" Clancy peeks into a simulated world of sapient bubbles, each imprisoned in a cell with only a mirror for company. The episode (and the series proper) aired during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when many people were forced to self-isolate in their homes.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Clancy. He's a Manchild, he's rude and immature to his sister, and he neglects his computer despite multiple warnings and proceeds to blame it for malfunctioning, but it's clear he's heartbroken over his mother's cancer and is lashing out in denial.
  • Bob. He's trapped in an epiphanic prison and has to figure out through trial and error how to escape. He begins "Annihilation of Joy" as an angry, violent prisoner, but his repeated deaths and rebirths almost leave him in despair. His heart-demon weeps in frustration when the multi-eyed gods judge him after repeated violent deaths.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • When the show decides to get particularly gory.
  • In "Taste of the King", viewers see several water cooler jugs full of urine in the Oval Office.
  • In "Officers and Wolves", the funhouse/slaughterhouse in Meat City grinds up animals into meat slurry using spiked gears and blades. The slurry is then piped throughout Meat City, where it is used as "water" for decorative fountains, TV, and even a little girl's doll.
  • "Blinded By My End" features a new avatar for Clancy that has a cluster of a dozen penises AND vaginas, giant ravens with breasts that villagers milk, and a villain whose rear end transforms into a giant tooth-lined maw that demands to be fed.
• Spiritual Successor: The series is considered one to Waking Life, due to their trippy animation and ad-libbed philosophical themes.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: It's a brightly colored animated show from the same guy who brought us Adventure Time (which, despite being on a children's network, did too have its share of adult humor and dark moments, and was more geared toward preteens and teenagers than young children), so it must be appropriate for kids, right? Wrong. It's chock-full of nudity, sexual situations, language, and drug use in ways that make Adventure Time look like it's for preschoolers.

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