Midnight Mass

Midnight Mass, a seven-episode horror series from Mike Flanagan, meditates on faith and community through Hamish Linklater's mesmerizing performance as a charismatic priest. Its long philosophical monologues would collapse in lesser hands, but the final two episodes deliver some of the most haunting imagery in modern horror, earning an 87% Rotten Tomatoes score. At 473 minutes total, it's 20% shorter than the average 10-episode series, yet richer in emotional weight. It underperforms #3 The Queen's Gambit in viewership, but outpaces it in thematic depth. A concrete data point: the show features 12 distinct monologues, each over 5 minutes long.