CNN
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The curse of “Stranger Things” means each sci-fi/macabre idea involving youngsters will seemingly have its day on TV, with “The Midnight Membership” as the most recent instance. It’s creepy, to a degree, however strikes at a crawl, whereas specializing in the provocative if unappealing premise of eight youngsters with terminal sicknesses.
To not be confused with “The Breakfast Club” (Google it, youngsters), the idea comes courtesy of writer Christopher Pike, tailored by Mike Flanagan (the producer behind Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill Home” and “Midnight Mass”) and Leah Fong.
Set within the mid-Nineties, Ilonka (Iman Benson) gives the purpose of entry into the unusual happenings at Brightcliffe Manor, a spot the place teenagers going through a deadly prognosis reside collectively beneath the stewardship of Dr. Georgina Stanton (Heather Langenkamp), tasked with gently guiding these fragile younger souls via the method of understanding and accepting their fates.
The group has additionally created their very own secret society (therefore the title), assembly late at night time to swap macabre tales tinged with the supernatural, and making a pact for many who die first to attempt contacting the others from the past.
Ilonka, in the meantime, begins to unearth mysterious clues about darkish rituals practiced on the hospice via the years, together with the rumors of a woman who in some way discovered the means to cheat loss of life.
Whereas there’s actually loads of intrigue wrapped into that framework, over its 10-episode first season “Midnight Membership” bogs down in illustrating the lengthy tales that the youths inform to one another, peppered with the soap-opera features of their relationships, nonetheless hopelessly Romeo-and-Juliet-esque they is perhaps.
Ilonka, for instance, is drawn to Kevin (Igby Rigney), who appears desperate to consolation these round him and, within the clandestine conferences, retains stretching out his late-night story. On the identical time, the unfairness of their lot breeds loads of surliness, particularly from Ilonka’s roommate Anya (Ruth Codd).
The varied make-up of the important thing group and strategy to issues like LGBTQ rights give “Midnight Membership” a recent really feel, regardless of its basis prior to now. Tonally, the thriller maybe most carefully resembles the current Netflix sequence “Archive 81,” which featured the identical hurry-up-and-wait shortcomings – possible a think about its cancellation after one season.
Finally, such sequence depend on their characters, and this present comes with a pronounced young-adult spin. But regardless of discovering softer moments within the vulnerability of the central octet and their bummer of a state of affairs, there’s comparatively little to differentiate the drama on that degree.
As for the broader secrets and techniques, “Midnight Membership” is in no hurry to disgorge these, maybe hoping curiosity will pull viewers right into a second season. Stranger issues have occurred, but when not, this may very well be the most recent sequence on this style that struggles to maintain the midnight oil burning.
“The Midnight Membership” premieres October 7 on Netflix.
