In which the big bad is….herpes.
The PikeCast continues their watchthrough of Netflix's The Midnight Club series by Mike Flanagan based on the works of Christopher Pike. This week is Episode 4: Gimme a Kiss.
Ilonka and Kevin bring the rest of the Midnight Club to the secret floor. They find records of the original Midnight Club, which was founded by Julia in 1969, as well as evidence of cultists. Ilonka meets Shasta again. Sandra, who is religious, and Spencer, who has AIDS, get into an argument but reconcile after Sandra apologizes through a detective noir story she tells at Midnight Club. Spencer hears a voice calling to him through the intercom at Tristan's old room. Kevin goes to his girlfriend Katherine's senior prom. Ilonka realizes that “292.13” refers to the Dewey Decimal System, and uses it to search the Brightcliffe library for a book with the symbol on it. Anya sees the shadow again and collapses.
Danse Macabre – Kevin MacLeod
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Having just listened to this episode I wanted to reach out and emphatically state that I agree 100% with Cooper’s assessment and hated that pseudo-noir ‘Gimme a Kiss’ vignette also! What in holy hell did they do to that story?! I understand it’s not one of the Pikecast’s favourite novels but I’ve always thought it was a neat little departure for Pike – almost a detective procedural in the way it handled the point of view of the young cop assigned to eke out the truth of that day’s macabre events from the teenage protagonists. The plot does away with Pike’s more fantastical space-vampires etc and is almost truly believable – a smart girl with means at her disposal and an unremitting desire to get even could potentially get away with carrying out this revenge plot and for that the character of Jean is admirable in an off-kilter sense! Sandra’s (Flanagan’s?) version of the story totally decimated the plot and the noir motifs didn’t work at all; it was all just so cringe-inducing I was left speechless and disappointed at how badly it was handled. I don’t see how this could be termed ‘fun’, it was a total clash ??
For the record, and from what I’ve gathered by listening to the Pikecast, I’m close in age to Cooper and therefore older than Cassie and Becca – perhaps our different views on this is simply a generational thing? I also have a deep respect and love of noir so this may account for my displeasure – sure it can be caricatured successfully (Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is still close to my heart after being obsessed with it when I was 8) but this was just all over the place and clunky.