Midnight, Texas: “Bad Moon Rising” Sneak Peeks
Angels, vampires, psychics, witches, assassins, racist biker gangs, ghost grandmas and a talking cat! Welcome to Midnight, Texas.
The first episode of the supernatural mystery aired earlier this week. TV Guide interviewed showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen to discuss what’s going to happen next.
Here is an excerpt from the interview:
Bobo took the fall for Aubrey’s murder! That’s not right, what’s next for him?
Monica Owusu-Breen: That storyline gets resolved in the second episode. It appears to be resolved in the second episode, I should say. We wrote a pilot and it was with the intention with the murder mystery guiding the entire series. When the pilot was shot, the network came to me and said, “Murder mysteries are done in a lot of shows. Can this be a supernatural show, with supernatural villains coming in and out of this world?” [NBC wanted] to really hit that.
So like every show, we’re sort of trying to figure out what we really are. So I went off and thought about it, and thought if I couldn’t do a supernatural show in a town like Midnight, I should hand in my Writers Guild card. So what begins as a murder mystery, you’ll see in Episode 2 opens up a bigger mystery and a bigger obstacle for the Midnighters and for Manfred (Francois Arnaud) specifically.
So the murder mystery won’t be the main thread of the season?
Owusu-Breen: No, that’s Bobo’s (Dylan Bruce) story. Every character has their own story, and the murder mystery and the fallout from that is Bobo’s story more than it is the story of the town.
Manfred is our window into this world, but soon he’ll have to be more proactive in the show. What drives him later throughout the series?
Owusu-Breen: I think what’s interesting about Manfred is that he’s a guy who’s used to running from things. I mean he grew up in gypsy caravan and he’s traveled the world, and whenever there were problems he and his grandma would leave. So the idea of committing to home and committing to a community is one sort of obstacle for our character Manfred who is not used to being alone. But I don’t think humans were meant to be alone, I don’t think we function well alone. For Manfred too, it’s about finding that community and place, where he is willing to take charge, and to lead, and to fight and to risk his own safety for this group of people who he will grow to feel a part of.
Okay, now we have to talk about my favorite character. There are so many supernatural characters, and you’re introducing all these different types of beings, and then, out of nowhere, we get a talking cat!
Owusu-Breen: Mr. Snuggly!!! I will describe it — because this show is wackadoo. I love wacky, I know I love it, I hope we find an audience who is as enamored with this crazy universe as me. When I read the books, I remember Mr. Snuggly was just always around, and then midway through the books or three-quarters through the books, he starts talking. But by that point he had been around often enough and the world had gotten nutty enough it was like, of course the cat talks. it kind of made sense in that weird Charlaine-inspired supernatural universe that of course a witch would have a familiar, and of course that familiar would have a voice. It’s a polarizing figure [laughs] but it makes us laugh.
Here are four sneak peeks from episode two titled “Bad Moon Rising”:
Midnight, Texas airs Mondays at 10pm/9c on NBC.
REVIEW: Midnight, Texas, Episode 101
I never watched True Blood, but I did hear great things about it, and for it to last 7 years it had to be cool. Since “Midnight Texas” is based on books by the same author (Charlaine Harris) I was hoping I could “atone for” not watching “True Blood” by watching this one. Let’s see how it will turn out.
Right in the first second of the pilot we are introduced to the main character: a psychic named Manfred Bernardo, who can talk to dead people. I thought the first scene was funny in a bit of a dumb way. Apparently Harold didn’t want his wife to move on from him as much as he said he did.
Because of some people that are after him, Manfred moves away. Following his dead grandmother’s advice, he goes to a town in Texas called Midnight. Like usually happens in supernatural shows, this town isn’t like the others. We learn later that it draws supernatural creatures to it. There they can lay low because the barrier between the living and the dead is thinner. But Manfred isn’t very lucky because we learn closer to the end of this episode that whoever is after him knows where he is.
It doesn’t take long for bodies to start piling up. Short after Manfred gets to Midnight he goes on a picnic and finds the body of Bobo’s fiancé (who had been missing for 2 weeks). Like most shows, the police doesn’t take long to start suspecting the new guy. Wanting to find out more about the murder, Manfred contacts Aubrey with an Ouija board and she tells him one word: “Pecados” (which is Portuguese for “sins”). In this scene things go terribly wrong but unfortunately it gets cut by a police officer who shows up in his house.
It also appears that every Midnighter either is a supernatural creature or knows about them. Like always happens on a pilot we are introduced to many characters, and here are the ones I think are the most important (since you can’t really know based only on a pilot): Lemuel, a vampire that not only feeds on blood, but also on emotional energy; Bobo, I am not yet sure if he is human or not; Olivia, this one is said to be human and she is also very experienced with weapons (at least guns and bow and arrow); Joe, a fallen angel; Fiji, a witch that kind of looks powerful (at least in the final scene); Mr. Snuggly, Fiji’s cat, which can talk; Rev. Emilio, who I am also not sure if he is supernatural or not, but who has a pet cemetery, which, for a Stephen King fan, has a weird special tune to it; and Creek, who is human and kind of that cliché character everyone loves to hate because she is so sweet and interested in the main character.
The episode ends with Bobo being arrested for Aubrey’s death and people aren’t too happy about it, especially not Fiji. We also see that Manfred’s house has become a much hunted house, consequences of the interrupted scene.
I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this show and I am happy I didn’t. I found the supernatural part of it a little silly. My first supernatural show was “The Vampire Diaries” and I think supernatural creatures were well made there (maybe because it was my first) and I find all the creatures that are very different from it a bit weird. But this isn’t the only reason. I am going to mostly blame the fact I thought it was weird on the talking cat. Maybe some people found it nice, but not me. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against talking cats, but I think animals that speak are more fit in animated movies and not shows like this, nor live action movies. But maybe I took this show too seriously. If I had been prepared for the fact that there was going to be a talking cat, maybe I would have taken it more lightly. But I know now, and it is better late than never. Now I will be prepared for when it comes back.
I am going to be honest, I felt this was a “meh” episode. Not “meh” as in “meh, who cares”, but more like “Did you like it? Meh, it was OK”. I hope it gets better. I will give it a 6.8/10.
Hope my “meh” didn’t pull you away, because I will keep watching and reviewing it next week with episode 102 ”Bad Moon Rising”.