Tag: Francois Arnaud

Midnight, Texas Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

Happy Halloween! I’m going to rewatch season 1 of Midnight, Texas, so for fun I’ll try to write some quick recaps. Let’s see how far into the season I get. I recapped season 2 as it aired.

Midnight, Texas is a 2 season show that aired from 2017-18, currently streaming on Peacock, which is loosely based on the 3 book series by Charlaine Harris. The books take place in the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse universe with a couple of minor character crossovers, but the show didn’t acknowledge the connection. It originally ran on the NBC broadcast network, so it’s also much tamer than True Blood, but it’s still an hour long dramedy about supernaturals finding refuge in a small town in the southern US.

The main character of Midnight, Texas is Manfred Bernardo (Francois Arnaud), a medium from a long line of mediums, who was raised by his recently deceased grandmother and is still close to her ghost. Said ghost now dwells in the RV where they lived as they traveled the country, working their trade. Manfred is on the run from a business deal gone wrong, so Grandma Xylda (Joanne Camp) counsels him to hole up in her old haunt of Midnight, a town where supernaturals are safe to be themselves and everyone has a secret.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 9: Yasss, Queen Recap

~ Metacrone

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Yasss, Queen, episode 9 of Midnight, Texas’ 2nd season, serves as both the season and the series finale. This season’s storylines are wrapped up in spectacular, over the top fashion. The producers are shopping the show to other networks, so it could get more seasons eventually, and the episode ends with set ups for the next season, but nothing that takes away from the satisfying conclusion that’s already been reached.

I’m hoping that Netflix will pick up the show, since it’s already filmed here in Albuquerque, where Netflix is creating its North American studio. Plus, Midnight would fit right in with Sabrina and Lucifer, which Netflix picked up after Fox dropped it.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 8: Patience Is a Virtue Recap

~ Metacrone

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With episode 8, Midnight, Texas goes off the rails, into full on camp. It’s an over the top episode, with over the top acting, villains, costumes, and even incest, one of the shocking TV sex crimes of choice for the last several years.

The Spanish Inquisition even gets a nod. And no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

The story picks up right where it left off, with Manfred struggling to remove Theophilus’ necklace. It’s stuck and only gets tighter when he tries to pull at it. He and Kai discuss who Patience screwed worse. Kai now realizes that his entire life has been a lie and that she’ll kill him along with everyone else, once she has what she wants. Manfred lost Creek and his body is going to become Theophilus’ new body. It’s a tough call, between them. Let’s just agree that Patience knows how to make sure that she’s not the one being taken advantage of.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 7: Resting Witch Face Recap

~ Metacrone

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By the time we’re done watching episode 7, “Resting Witch Face”, the sleepy little town of Midnight, Texas has been turned upside down. Its darkest secrets have been exposed, friends and enemies have switched places, and another character has been lost. With only two episodes left following this one, the show is preparing its stage for a huge season finale.

As the episode begins, Joe is still out looking for Chuy, who is out of control and in his demon form. Walker has followed them. Fiji is hiding just how much her new affiliation with dark magic has affected her. Patience and Kai are supposedly dealing with the aftermath of the hotel being used as the epicenter of the town’s troubles in the previous episode.

And Manfred is still standing on his front porch, in tears, after watching Creek’s ghost disappear in flames. After a moment, he snaps into action and goes looking for Kai, who’s more than ready for a fight. They meet out in the street, shouting threats at each other. Kai tries to take Manfred’s powers from him, against his will. Only Patience is surprised. Lem stops Kai, then Patience takes him back to the hotel. Manfred tells everyone else that he saw Creek’s ghost.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 6: No More Mr. Nice Kai Recap

~ Metacrone

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Midnight, Texas is a weird show. It’s fun. It’s sexy. With all of those shirtless men and relationship plotlines, it’s clearly aimed at women. It’s based on a series of books by Charlaine Harris, who is a famous and successful woman.

Unlike True Blood and the Midnight, Texas books, this TV series kills off its female characters right and left. In episode 6, Creek returns to Midnight, only to be fridged by the end of the episode. Time after time this season, we’ve watched the women be killed or duped, while the men leave town alive, or overcome whoever cons them. After the deaths of Creek, Lyric, Sequoia, and Mary’s mother, Sheila (just to name a few off the top of my head), will the Rev and Mary the baby weretiger’s father be returning Midnight to be murdered in episode 7, and will Olivia’s father die the week after that, to help balance the scales?

This show’s history suggests that a woman from Midnight will sacrifice and be punished in some major way before the end of the season. It will probably be Fiji, with Patience as the dark horse coming up strong from the outside. Trace Lysette’s character Celeste will likely be brought back to die. Fiji has already given up her heart, and the aunt who raised her, to the dark side, but the town will rescue Bobo’s true love. She’ll be contrite for overreaching and daring to think she could handle dark magic as a mere woman (of color).

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 5: Drown the Sadness in Chardonnay Recap

~ Metacrone

The intense spellwork continues from last episode in the new episode of Midnight, Texas, and Fiji isn’t the only one practicing. Guests in Midnight, who may or may not be welcome, also dabble in magic spells.

Another magical practitioner, Kai, returns home with his “assistants”, Lyric and Sequoia, in tow. Even though Kai’s wife, Patience, is tucked in bed with Manfred when Kai calls to let her know he’s back, there don’t seem to be any bad feelings between them. But soon there is a dead assistant, Sequoia, in the lobby. Manfred’s initial investigation makes him suspicious of Kai.

The fact that Kai never releases the supernatural energy he absorbs, which has bothered me all season, is finally addressed, in a big way.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 4: I Put a Spell on You

~ Metacrone

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Midnight, Texas was a good show last year, but it’s improved to become a great show, within it’s genre, this year. It’s a fun, sexy, funny, slightly scary, thought-provoking romp through Charlaine Harris’ world. It’s True Blood Lite, and that’s not a bad thing. True Blood was amazing, but it also took itself too seriously at times and went off on some ridiculous tangents. Not to mention the gore.

Midnight Texas can be watched by a general audience, but it’s not just fluff and vampires. The characters have chemistry and have developed a bond that makes the drama they go through compelling. The supernatural elements are often used as metaphor, which gives the show relevance. But Midnight never forgets to have fun, and if all you want from it is a relaxing Friday night, you can ignore the larger implications easily.

Midnight, Texas is my choice for this season’s best show that nobody’s watching.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 3: To Witch Hell and Back Recap

~ Metacrone

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As we move toward the darkest time of the year, it’s a dark time in Midnight, Texas, too. Multiple hearts get broken on episode 3, To Witch Hell and Back. Some are demon hearts, so we shouldn’t be too sad, because no one likes a demon, right? But some belong to our favorite Midnighters, who’ve survived many obstacles already to be together.

Fiji and Bobo continue to investigate the supernatural cause of Bobo’s accidents, now with Manfred’s help. Manfred has given up on his dream of reuniting with Creek, and placed all of his hope in keeping his friends happy and together. How much struggle and heartbreak will the three of them have to endure?

With a Hunter’s Moon on the horizon, Chuy spends the night on the couch pacifying his inner demon. Joe, still looking for fulfillment in his life, meets up with that hussy Walker, the demon hunter, to go kill some demons without telling Chuy. Call me crazy, but I just don’t see a relationship that starts with a lying angel ending well. Walker isn’t good for Joe.

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Midnight Texas Season 2 Episode 2: The Monster of the Week Is Patriarchy Recap

~ Metacrone

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In this episode of Midnight, Texas, the #Me Too movement takes a distinctly supernatural turn, as ghosts, vampires, and vampire wives all stand up to the oppression of the patriarchy, with varying results. The moral of the story is, we are stronger when we fight together, but violence isn’t the answer. Or it almost never is. Maybe the moral is to use your powers wisely so the patriarchy daddy/husband vampire won’t find an excuse to try to take them away from you again. Or, put more simply, don’t get caught red-fanged. Channel Olivia or Fiji, not Dawnette.

The discussion as to why it’s fine for all of the men who hurt and exploited Dawnette to run around unpunished, and for Lem and the Rev to run around unpunished, while Dawnette has to quickly be made contrite and powerless again, will have to wait. Suffice it to say, broadcast audiences don’t want to see an angry, scary, powerful woman go unpunished, no matter how righteous her anger or deserving her victims. And a combination of misogyny, racism and classism dictates that a woman like Dawnette couldn’t be trusted to learn to control her power or anger, even though Lem did. They might as well have made her stripper name “Rebel China Doll”.

Episode 2 opens with Healer Kai curing a man’s elbow pain at the Crystal Desert Hotel, using the same basic procedure that he used to cure Manfred of his demon cancer in episode 1. He ends with sucking the negative energy out through the man’s mouth and into himself, but we never see him release it, just like the last episode. Kai’s two, ahem, loyal assistants, Lyric and Sequoia, are there to help.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 1: Head Games Recap

~ Metacrone

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It’s time to return to Midnight, Texas, or to visit for the first time if you’ve never been. There just happens to be a new hotel in town, owned by a renowned healer and his lovely wife. They can help you with anything from a crystal meditation session to rebalance your energy to an exorcism of your terminal demon cancer. And anything that might require a severed demon head, but let’s keep that between you and me. Healer Kai seems to want to keep his frequent sessions with the head private.

The town’s resident psychic, Manfred Bernardo, is a bit under the weather this week, having never fully recovered from last season’s finale, when he allowed 6 demons to possess him at once, so that he could drive away a really powerful demon, Colconar, who wanted to own the town’s resident witch, Fiji. The demons left a little something behind inside Manfred that’s slowly taking him over. The fact that it’s enough to bring his ghostly grandmother, Xylda, back from the hereafter, might make the whole thing worth it.

Other than Manfred and his girlfriend Creek, who are understandably having some relationship issues, the town’s couples are doing great. Bobo and Fiji are having such great sex that they don’t just feel like they’re flying, Fiji’s head actually hits the ceiling. Lem and Olivia now share a psychic connection to facilitate their wedded bliss, since he fed her some of his blood to heal her after she was gravely injured. He doesn’t have to be told which spot is the right spot anymore. And Joe and Chuy are as centered and peaceful as ever, or so it appears. Chuy is doing a lot of yoga to get his demon side back under control.

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