Crookery at Crockett Island!

Midnight Mass (Netflix miniseries; 2021)
Creator, Director: Mike Flanagan

This miniseries is specifically relevant to the many unthinking keyboard warriors who spew venom freely over social media with their ill-thought seventh-century ideologies to spread ridiculous so-called divine decrees. Just because outsourcing labour is a legitimate way to ease physical burdens, it does mean it applies to rational thinking. 

As the joke goes, the top students in the class will become scientists who will change the course of mankind. The following best will be professionals, doctors, architects, engineers, etc. The professionals will control the scientists. The truant skivers will become lawyers who will take charge of the first two groups. The playful mavericks who frequently dodge their assignments will end up as politicians and will dictate terms at the end. But it is the boys sitting at the back of the class who fail all exams who will end up as holy men who would eventually control everybody else, from politicians all through to the scientists. 

This is precisely what is happening here in Malaysia today. Sixty years of lulled intellectual development and lack of competitive edge to excel have elevated the godmen clan to such a level that defies logic. Every little day-to-day problem demands men of theology to have the final say, not science or intellectual discourse. Whilst the country is let wayward by corrupt politicians and left to rot as its neighbours reach for newer frontier, the masses are left inebriated in the opium of religion.

The uncertainty of the purpose of life and the fear of the unknown draws more inhabitants of a small remote island, Crockett Island, to flock to its only Church, a Catholic Church. It revolves around many of its inhabitants. A disillusioned young man returns home to the island after serving time for drunk driving and killing a pedestrian. He is trying to fit into his disappointed family and judging community. The Sheriff, a Muslim widower, finds it hard to fit into the exclusively Christian society. After losing his wife to cancer, his duty as a father to a teenage boy is challenging as the son seems curious about Christianity. 

Then, the resident Preacher, who is supposed to return from the mainland, fails to turn up. In his place is a young pastor turns up. He seems more dynamic and draws the crowd to the parish. The congregation at the Church grows phenomenally more significant as a miracle takes place on its premises. A wheelchair girl starts walking!

Slowly, people go missing. The last straw comes when an ultrasound-proven pregnancy goes missing. Meanwhile, there is a kind of caretaker lady of the Church who has a firm hold on running the house of worship. She indeed has planned for the Easter weekend, as the islanders stay vigil for Easter Sunday!

This miniseries, Midnight Mass, is a set-piece that discusses how faith can be contagious and fuel cruelty and violence. It justifies people's actions and inactions. The name of the Divine is invoked to absolve them of the moral culpabilities of their acts. A divine decree, however bitter, needs to be enforced. Organised religion seems to give a sense of superiority as if they have complete knowledge of the secrets of the Universe and a feeling of exclusivity, giving titles like heathens, pagans, kuffars and non-believers to others.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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