Grover C. Magnus 
With another year passing with people around the world staying indoors in hopes of keeping friends and family safe during the coronavirus pandemic, audiences have had another year of gripping content on the small screen in a variety of genres. While 2020 saw viewers overwhelmingly happy to take whatever content they could get, 2021 saw productions having to adhere to social distancing protocols to bring imaginative stories to life, while viewers were King tiger-ed out, no longer settling for a new TV show they could get. Thankfully, streaming platforms and TV networks have risen to the challenge of bringing fans a number of awesome series to make us laugh, scare and delight in 2021, although the team at ComicBook.com can only deliver. just one impressive program the distinction of the Golden Issue Award for Best Television Series.
And the winner of ComicBook.com’s 2021 Golden Issue Award for Best TV Series is …
Midnight Mass!
Filmmaker Mike Flanagan has become a juggernaut in the world of genre storytelling, not only thanks to films like Silence and Gerald’s game, but also his TV projects, in particular his The haunting series for Netflix. Both The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly’s Mansion has made waves with audiences for the compelling ways in which it has mixed inventive tales of drama and tragedy with traditional horror elements, creating tales worthy of frenzy. Flanagan continued this tradition with Midnight Mass, which marked a slight change in storytelling from its previous Netflix series, as it was an entirely original story instead of being inspired by iconic stories.
In addition to the fact that the story is one of his own creation, Flanagan spoke about the inspiration he took from his own life to tell this story, as it allowed him to process not only his own connections. with religion, but also its struggles against alcoholism. . In addition to wrestling with these important topics, Flanagan also told a truly chilling story about an island community infiltrated by a charismatic new religious figure, which was moderated by the captivating Hamish Linklater.
With Flanagan having the freedom to tell this original story, it allowed him to fully set the pace and tone of the series. This means that while his other TV series have managed to be effective, Midnight Mass found arguably the best tonal balance of horror and drama, in addition to the series demonstrating Flanagan’s more effective narrative impetus. When the drama started to run out of steam, we witnessed a bizarre event, and when the terror started to escalate too far, the tension would dissipate to allow us to connect even more strongly to the daily struggles our characters faced.
As Linklater’s Father Paul hypnotized and broke viewers’ hearts, the rest of the ensemble consisted of a number of Flanagan regulars, all of whom played characters battling their own metaphorical demons. Audiences can’t get enough of this company of actors that Flanagan has amassed, with each new story adding more endearing characters to such a roster.
With Midnight Mass, Flanagan has proven that the most effective stories are the ones with the most heart and the inventive ways in which he has exploited his own vulnerability to translate real-world struggles into both a disturbing depiction of otherworldly creatures and in a commentary on a misguided devotion paid off with arguably its most powerful story to date.
Congratulations to the cast and crew of Midnight Mass for their victory at the Golden Issue Awards!
The nominees for Best Television Series are:
- Midnight Mass (Netflix) – WINNER
- Cobra Kai (Netflix)
- Heels (Starz)
- Squid game (Netflix)
- What we do in the shadows (FX)
