Revenge is a dangerous road to travel.

Set in 1990s Los Angeles, Lisa Nova comes to town with her short film under her belt looking to make it big as a movie director. She meets movie producer Lou Burke who thinks her short is something special. The quality of her short film shows that she has a lot of talent and he makes a deal with her to start her Hollywood career. Not long after the ink is dry on the contract, Lou steals her project to turn her short into a feature-length film. A furious Lisa then runs into one more terrible person called Boro. Boro sees this young, strong, angry woman as a tool, not a person. She offers Lisa revenge and Lisa is eager for her help.

Brand New Cherry Flavor is nuts. That’s the easiest way to explain the whole show. By the end of the first episode, you know this is a revenge tale. What you don’t know is how far down the mouth of madness you’ll see Boro take Lisa. Boro is a witch, and what Lisa doesn’t recognize until it’s too late is that Boro also has an agenda. She isn’t being helped. she’s being exploited. And that’s after Lisa is exploited by a scum bag movie producer, so Lisa’s anger blinds her. Any rational thought is thrown out the window until it’s too late to stop (spells have very strict rules). Even faced with doing things that are far from normal, Lisa continues down the rabbit hole Boro opened. The first side effect of Boro’s spell is an alarming one that no one could ever see coming: vomiting kittens. By that I mean Lisa gives birth to kittens by painfully throwing up. Kittens that Boro then comes to collect for…her own use. If there is an upside, it’s only one cat at a time.

Regurgitating kittens isn’t the craziest thing that happens either. Spirits/demons, assassins, zombies, body horror, and assorted scorned people also come into play.

The intriguing thing about New Cherry is that everyone gets their own backstory that makes you reconsider how you view them. Lisa isn’t as innocent as she looks. She’s got her own out-of-bounds reason that she shows up in LA on her own. Lou is set in his ways, doing anything he wants to leverage his place in the industry. It’s brought him great success, so why would he stop? Roy is a huge movie star that’s trying to stay a huge movie star. Behind the scenes, he’s a mess, but his Hollywood image portrays a man who has everything going for him…and there is something about Lisa that draws him back to her one crazy event after another. I guess helping to dispose of a body is a great relationship builder.

Take these people (and a few more, I’m leaving quite a few out), introduce a witch who is a master at pulling strings, and watch as their lives turn into a complete nightmare. Revenge rarely goes well and the force of destruction often ends up much larger than ever thought possible.

In terms of overall storytelling, New Cherry hits all the staples of the genre. What it lacks in originality, it picks up in wild scenarios that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Half the time you’ll wonder what’s going to happen next, if anything could be more shocking than what you just saw, and if anyone is going to survive. New Cherry isn’t for everyone, it’s very adult and frequently gruesome, the special effects are really well done–they look real. If you can handle the insanity, you’re in for a wild ride.

Director/Writer/Producer Mike Flannagan is Netflix’s go-to guy for horror. This is his 3rd show for the platform and it again shows off his carefully crafted takes in the genre.

Midnight Mass is about a small, isolated island community in the US (I’m not sure where–there are no distinctive accents I picked up on). The kind where you take off and never come back when you turn 18 or you live there forever. There are only a few hundred people who live there so the families who stay tend to have roots that go way back. There’s comfort in the community, its slow pace, the simple way of life, and its tiny parish.

We first meet Riley Flynn, who comes back home after spending 5 years in prison for drunk driving and killing a young woman. He has to start his life over and has no other place to go. At the same time, a new priest named Father Paul comes to take over the parish from the Father who has fallen sick and is getting treatment on the mainland. Riley’s traumatized by what he did and his family has been coping with the public judgment they’ve received since he’s been away. His younger brother wants things to go back to normal, his mother tries to make that happen, and his father is the most outwardly ashamed of his son. Riley has a lot of questions and doubts about himself, but when he discovers his first girlfriend has moved back recently, he’s able to reconnect with her and open up in ways he can’t with other people.

At the church, Father Paul is welcomed with open arms by Bev Keane, a devout believer in Christ who has worked under the previous Father for years. She’s full of faith and ready to cast judgment on anyone in her line of sight. Shortly after Riley and Paul arrive, strange things start to happen on the island, which is quickly followed by miracles. The miracles are attributed to Father Paul and this creates a fervent renewal of faith in the community, one Bev is ecstatic to see and is eager to foster.

Midnight Mass is a slow burn. That helps and hurts the show. Riley is set up first and that’s done really well. His integration back into his family is awkward and painful, as is his dealings with guilt and shame. Father Paul is more of a mystery: where did he come from and how much does he know about what’s going on? Instead of getting intense right away, Mike Flannigan plants the seeds at the very start–something is off here, quite a few people are dealing with their own trauma and the community has its own scars and divisions bubbling about. There’s more here than just Riley and the side eyes he gets. Paul’s introduction is odd and there’s something off with him. He’s a charming guy and Bev is such a powerful and cunning presence that she often takes attention from him. As each episode oozes along, crumbs are dropped down, gathered up and it all comes together in beautiful chaos.

Knowing anything more than that will ruin things too much. It’s not a scary show. It’s unsettling and creepy. There’s a constant and growing feeling of paranoia and dread that occasionally fades away, only to come back with a new understanding that makes you think this isn’t going to end well. The escalation of horror and intensity is really well done. But I wouldn’t call it horror until the end, it’s much more driven by drama. Religion takes center stage from the very beginning and the growing secret of the bizarre events drives the story.

My biggest problem with the show is that it feels too long. Some episodes could use a few minutes cut out. There might be enough to cut to make this a tighter story by cutting it back by an entire episode. There are a lot of monologues that feel like sermons even when it’s not taking place in a church. Since the show is so steeped in Christianity (if you’ve attended mass before I’m sure you’ll get some flashbacks) that isn’t too surprising. As the monologues start to increase in number, I couldn’t shake the feeling of “how much is this necessary?” But, it doesn’t feel out of place and the biggest and most important ideas in the show come from these moments. That said, it can feel like the characters aren’t talking any longer, the writer behind the words becomes the speaker. That’s a disappointment as it takes away from being engaged with what’s being said and comes off as overwriting.

But the positive side of this is that the payoffs are awesome. When stuff happens in Midnight Mass, it pops off. There is some absolute mayhem at the end of this story that combines with fantastic plot beats and character arcs that are completely satisfying. The last 2 episodes in particular are phenomenal. For everything moment I didn’t like, I saw something that I did—and more–and that’s what kept me engaged and coming back for the next episode. I just had to know what was going on and how it was going to end. For me, these keystones in storytelling are really strong.

My final praise is aimed at the cast. Strong and believable performances from everyone, the highlight for me being Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Annabeth Gish, and Hamish Linklater. Everyone gets their moments to shine in this dark and brooding tale. I got attached to a few characters and their path between faith and organized religion is the most personal and unique aspect of the show. Can it be a little stuffy and slow? Yes. But it’s ambitious and doesn’t pull any punches so I think Midnight Mass succeeds in conveying complex ideas that will make you think about it for a while.