1
certifiedhater
This review may contain spoilers
Folger's 2009 Home for Christmas Commercial
From premise alone, Midnight Museum looks like a show that should be good by default. I finally decided to watch it after someone told me it was actually shit. After finishing it I can see why they said that. 8.3/10 is definitely generous.
From looking at the comments I can see everyone is thinking the same thing. Midnight Museum's storytelling is messy and poorly done. Each plot is interesting, but perhaps too ambitious to execute. Questions that should be answered or at least teased are left with the audience for too long, to the point that a "reveal" loses impact because you've already forgotten which element it connects to or what happened in a previous episode. Some questions are never answered. Some things that don't need explaining are given unnecessary exposition, like the snake dagger. A good storyteller should have a grasp on what the audience needs to be told, what can be hinted, and what the audience is smart enough to understand on their own. Midnight Museum failed miserably with this. It's actually unfortunate that the storytelling is the worst aspect of this show when the premise has so much potential to be good. So many shows have proven that an episodic formula can impact the audience: one episode is enough to emotionally connect the characters with the audience. Hotel Del Luna did it, and on the lesser budget side, Nightmare Teacher did it too. Every once in a while, Midnight Museum had a standout scene or the right setup for an impactful episode. But for some reason, the storytelling fell apart so dramatically throughout the entire show.
But even those who finished the show and came to MDL to write confused comments still seem to want a season 2. Part of it probably has to do with the acting. Now I have to give a full disclaimer, all the actors in Midnight Museum are by no means great actors. Some of them aren't even good actors. Some aren't even decent. What I really have to give immense credit to is the vision the casting director had when selecting an actor for each role. Know an actor's strengths, and stay away from their weaknesses, and even someone like Bright can stand beside a powerhouse actor like Pat and give a memorable performance. That honestly shocked me a bit.
Of course it was the talented actors who left the best impressions. As one would expect, it's a contracted actor giving a standout performance. Tor is undoubtable, and the scene where Khatha smashes the charred corpse and then holds Chan as he dies a second time is probably the best scene in the show (although the fight in the middle was pretty bad). There's not much to say, actors like him, Fah, and Gun elevated the show to a unique level whenever they were giving their best performance. Although I am disappointed that Gun spent so much time playing Dome or Chan. Very uninteresting characters. The short amount of time he spent as The One reminded me that he is a great actor after all, since I was beginning to doubt him. Unfortunately the role passed over to Nanon, who I think suited Ton the mannequin more appropriately. Having him play Dome and The One, and just three characters in general, feels like a bit much. His long monologue in the final episode was decent, and although I really had no fucking clue what he was saying (because the storytelling was so shit), I was able to sit through it without skipping. But I saw the scene get praised for his outstanding talent before I watched the show. Personally I think "outstanding" is a bit of an overshot. Obviously there are plenty of actors in Midnight Museum who did much worse, but their roles were more minor. As Ton the mannequin, he was good. For The One, I give him decent. Foei, by the way, can go straight to hell. Replace him with literally anyone.
On the topic of visuals, personally, bad CGI doesn't bother me. But this also has to be possibly the worst CGI I've ever seen in my entire life. It was so bad that I was laughing multiple times throughout the show, I couldn't appreciate things like character deaths that should have been impactful, and after the scene where Chan dies a second time, my tears dried up instantly and I had to try not to laugh too hard watching Nanon's Dome shoot fireballs at the meteors. I know we're on a budget, but oh my god.
Still, the good idea behind the show, even if the execution was bad, is why people want a season 2. I'm not sure if I'd watch a season 2; I watch bad shows all the time, so I'm impartial. Something a season 2 could improve on is a better use of budget. Some scenes looked expensive simply because a talented actor was on screen, or because there was no CGI being used. This honestly goes for every GMMTV show, but we need more talent on-screen. Whether that means contracting more independent actors, or actually signing more talented actors to be part of the agency. Also, my friend Reinee Seezinz is right. A little more ethnic representation wouldn't kill anyone. And as far as the terrible storytelling, I have no idea what went wrong. Was the premise of Midnight Museum just too ambitious? I don't know. Good luck next time though.
On a final note, I can't say I've ever seen two bros done the same way as in Midnight Museum. That was interesting for sure.
From looking at the comments I can see everyone is thinking the same thing. Midnight Museum's storytelling is messy and poorly done. Each plot is interesting, but perhaps too ambitious to execute. Questions that should be answered or at least teased are left with the audience for too long, to the point that a "reveal" loses impact because you've already forgotten which element it connects to or what happened in a previous episode. Some questions are never answered. Some things that don't need explaining are given unnecessary exposition, like the snake dagger. A good storyteller should have a grasp on what the audience needs to be told, what can be hinted, and what the audience is smart enough to understand on their own. Midnight Museum failed miserably with this. It's actually unfortunate that the storytelling is the worst aspect of this show when the premise has so much potential to be good. So many shows have proven that an episodic formula can impact the audience: one episode is enough to emotionally connect the characters with the audience. Hotel Del Luna did it, and on the lesser budget side, Nightmare Teacher did it too. Every once in a while, Midnight Museum had a standout scene or the right setup for an impactful episode. But for some reason, the storytelling fell apart so dramatically throughout the entire show.
But even those who finished the show and came to MDL to write confused comments still seem to want a season 2. Part of it probably has to do with the acting. Now I have to give a full disclaimer, all the actors in Midnight Museum are by no means great actors. Some of them aren't even good actors. Some aren't even decent. What I really have to give immense credit to is the vision the casting director had when selecting an actor for each role. Know an actor's strengths, and stay away from their weaknesses, and even someone like Bright can stand beside a powerhouse actor like Pat and give a memorable performance. That honestly shocked me a bit.
Of course it was the talented actors who left the best impressions. As one would expect, it's a contracted actor giving a standout performance. Tor is undoubtable, and the scene where Khatha smashes the charred corpse and then holds Chan as he dies a second time is probably the best scene in the show (although the fight in the middle was pretty bad). There's not much to say, actors like him, Fah, and Gun elevated the show to a unique level whenever they were giving their best performance. Although I am disappointed that Gun spent so much time playing Dome or Chan. Very uninteresting characters. The short amount of time he spent as The One reminded me that he is a great actor after all, since I was beginning to doubt him. Unfortunately the role passed over to Nanon, who I think suited Ton the mannequin more appropriately. Having him play Dome and The One, and just three characters in general, feels like a bit much. His long monologue in the final episode was decent, and although I really had no fucking clue what he was saying (because the storytelling was so shit), I was able to sit through it without skipping. But I saw the scene get praised for his outstanding talent before I watched the show. Personally I think "outstanding" is a bit of an overshot. Obviously there are plenty of actors in Midnight Museum who did much worse, but their roles were more minor. As Ton the mannequin, he was good. For The One, I give him decent. Foei, by the way, can go straight to hell. Replace him with literally anyone.
On the topic of visuals, personally, bad CGI doesn't bother me. But this also has to be possibly the worst CGI I've ever seen in my entire life. It was so bad that I was laughing multiple times throughout the show, I couldn't appreciate things like character deaths that should have been impactful, and after the scene where Chan dies a second time, my tears dried up instantly and I had to try not to laugh too hard watching Nanon's Dome shoot fireballs at the meteors. I know we're on a budget, but oh my god.
Still, the good idea behind the show, even if the execution was bad, is why people want a season 2. I'm not sure if I'd watch a season 2; I watch bad shows all the time, so I'm impartial. Something a season 2 could improve on is a better use of budget. Some scenes looked expensive simply because a talented actor was on screen, or because there was no CGI being used. This honestly goes for every GMMTV show, but we need more talent on-screen. Whether that means contracting more independent actors, or actually signing more talented actors to be part of the agency. Also, my friend Reinee Seezinz is right. A little more ethnic representation wouldn't kill anyone. And as far as the terrible storytelling, I have no idea what went wrong. Was the premise of Midnight Museum just too ambitious? I don't know. Good luck next time though.
On a final note, I can't say I've ever seen two bros done the same way as in Midnight Museum. That was interesting for sure.
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