It takes a long time to get where it’s going, which is intermittently frustrating in real time, but Horror director Mike Flanagan ultimately delivers a thoughtful, deeply felt narrative that has its share of blood and a couple of scares, but is more concerned about human behavior as it’s applied to religion and community. Midnight Mass is worth the 7 episode time investment.

Taking place on the fictional Crockett Island, 30 miles off the mainland, the fishing community of just a bit over 100 people is centered on St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. There’s the town drunk, the small town doctor, and the fishermen, whose work has been curtailed by a previous oil spill.

But the main characters are Riley (Zach Gilford) a young man who, in the opening moments of the series, has killed a young woman in a drunken driving accident. At the start of the series, he is returning home to the island to start over from scratch after four years in prison.  Erin Greene (Katie Siegel), a former friend and flame will also play an important role.

Most notable is Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) who has come to the island to substitute for the beloved, aging Monsignor, whom we are told, is recuperating in hospital on the mainland. Father Paul seems pretty frigging weird and we have a feeling he’s up to something, but at the same time, we can see in private moments that he is utterly sincere and devout. What is he up to?

Flanagan has written a series that has too many long monologues and virtually every character will get a shot at delivering one over the course of some 7 hours of programming. You kinda wish this had been a two hour standalone movie, which would have forced some tightening up of the narrative.

That said, the ensemble cast are excellent and we do feel that we have an emotional  stake in at least a half dozen of them or more, which wouldn’t have been possible without the lengthy set up. Clearly, Flanagan knows what he is doing. One must take the whole ride for the pay off, and that’s not a bad thing.

And what about the horror aspect? It floats along the lines of supernatural stuff mixed with the human horrors of behavior brought about by extremism and cultish elements. However, there are no cheap shots at the church or the believers – not as such.  And that is all I will say – this series has mild spoilers from early on, and huge spoilers from about two thirds of the way through to its inevitable, poetic conclusion.

Linklater’s performance as the priest is worth the watch all by itself as he nimbly navigates between the weird, the wise and the what-the-fu*k. But the whole universe in a bubble that one enters into is a creepy/engaging/fun place to inhabit

Midnight Mass | 3 out of 4 Stars | Now streaming on Netflix