Idk if you noticed but i personally loved the small details they took care of. Like, how he was wearing a silver wedding ring, whereas wedding rings are usually gold, but Islam doesn't permit men to wear gold jewellery. There were so many details like these that I absolutely loved!

Mike Flanagan writes tragedies disguised as horror. Midnight Mass strikes that chord perfectly.

As an atheist, I have to say that I thought this show depicted Riley the atheist character very fairly as well. It wasn't the standard wrong tropes we are used to seeing as atheists.

The scene where he debates with the teacher is the best scene portrayed by a muslim ever, truly a muslim being really a muslim lol

The ending was so amazing. The sheriff died while in prayer and his son was leading the morning prayer. Subhanallah. It was one of the best depictions of Islam and Muslims so far.

As a Catholic I was super impressed with the show. The Catholic portions were so on point that I felt like I had been to mass after episodes. They even got the Act of Contrition for the priest correct. It has changed over generations and he said the one that was appropriate for his age. Glad to hear from the Muslim perspective it was accurate.

As a muslim who went to catholic school too, I loved it! Finally a character who's muslim but being muslim is not their entire character and they aren't a bigot or a terrorist.

I was raised Muslim and I was super impressed by this show's depictions of religion in general. This is literally one of my favorite shows ever partially because of the accuracy and relatability of the Muslim characters growing up in a Christian environment and then Erin's monologue striking true to what I now believe as a spiritual but not religious person. The show did such an amazing job of representing all these different religious and spiritual viewpoints

Just occurred to me that the final prayer was Fajir! Only thing that caught guard was that they were facing East but the dad was hurt and the kid didn't have to time to pull out that compass. His monologue was also powerful and a really good critique on the war on Terror and how it has been subjected on the Muslims who have nothing to do with terrorism and really just want to chill and live in peace.

I am not Muslim, Catholic, or at all religious. But, I loved the representation of religion and Hassan was my favorite character. His faith was representative of him and his faith was his own. He was truly the only human on the island... at the end anyway.

I might have misinterpreted this, so will go back and give a second watch. But one of the things I did like about Hasan was that he was three dimensional, and they weren't afraid of showing that actually, despite what he said, he DID have some issues with his son potentially converting to Christianity - and was struggling to balance this with being open minded. I think that's believable, and human, and far more interesting than making him perfect. Great vid by the way, will certainly check out more of your channel!

So I myself am not Muslim I have read some passages from the Quran because I believe all faiths have a sense of wisdom to share with everyone. But the scene where they were praying on the beach at the end had me sobbing in tears.

I'm not Muslim, but I grew up in a really tight religious community and I think my favorite thing is the character of Erin, and the idea that you can have faith but still be accepting of others. I like that she took Hassan's side during the school thing, and I think she as a character functioned to represent what it looks like to be both religious and a good person.

I hated Bev so much!!! And it was so refreshing to see a good depiction of a Muslim. Flanagans shows are so interesting. Definitely binge watch all of them. I would rate this after the first one but before the second one.

I was raised Muslim in an Arab country for all my life but lost my faith as time progressed, it just wasn't for me. But I still *know* for a fact that representation is important, and how to call out BS representation from actually good representation, and the difference between 'liberation' and islamophobia, etc. So this show genuinely brought a smile to my face. There's a lot of good memories of being Muslim, like going to Umrah and eating honeyed mortadella and olive oil and bread on Friday and waking up at 5 AM to pray with my dad, setting up chairs everywhere for people to sit down, and running between the mountain tops at the green lights, and all the little things in life that shaped my identity that are so tied with the religion I was raised with, and seeing it be represented makes my heart flutter, and genuinely brings a smile to my face. Because I'm sure there are other Muslim kids and adolescents and adults alike who kept their faith and are still experiencing those things, and discrimination for it, so this just... makes me happy, y'know? That they get the representation the young and believing me never did get, and even if I'm not Muslim now, nor will ever be, it doesn't mean that part of my life, my childhood, was any less for being so, and representation still affects me the same it does my childhood friends who clung on to belief and Islam. Thank you for this video, it brought back a lot of really nice memories for me.

it was the fact that during the debate he literally said "we believe the same things islam is just a continuation" and they made it seem like he wanted to convert the whole town

I thought his character was one of the best parts of the show. I also appreciated that the subject matter of religion was treated respectfully as a whole. It was so well done. I loved this series.

He was nice to Pike, a good doggo, so that makes him the best person on that island in my opinion.

The character of Bev reminded me of Janis on The Sopranos. The character is so well written and so well acted, that you hate the character, but walk away loving the actress for making you feel that way.

This was an excellent video, glad to see more people talking about the show!

MM is an excellent show, and surprisingly respectful of religious people in general, considering current year It's a fantastic cautionary tale for spiritual experiences that may fall outside of the norm for what we experience as spiritual people- note that the priest kept his encounter a secret and never once took to his church to verify what happened to him

the pta meeting made me super sad. i'm not even a parent but that felt like a shot through the heart. being misunderstood like that is so tragic.

I watched this 2 months ago....LOVED it....cried at the very last scene when they died in prayer....I felt so sad. The show itself was full of mysteries and symbolism. Very very philosophical and it’s meant to make you think.....things are not what they seem

My only problem with the show is, all the characters are so articulate. Heck, even the town drunk speaks better than my high school English teacher.

Great commentary! I personally loved the monologue where Hassan denies the existence of healing miracles. It's partially just a very emotional and personal scene that Rahul Kohli just eats up. But I also really agree with his assessment that the very idea of miracles like that is very unfair. But then again, I'm not religious. I'd love to know if this approach to miracles is a common one in American muslims.

I was a practicing Muslimah at the time of 9/11 and when he talked about the lines at the Masjid for giving blood, wow, I remember that here on the West Coast. Loved your perspective!

Thanks for this. I was overwhemingly pleased with the show too. I'm also Muslim, but I'm born and raised in South East Asia. I am especailly really impressed with the scene in the classroom where Hassan tried to explain to them that Islam also believes in Jesus Christ but we just call him Prophet Isa PBUH instead. It's just that we believe the bible has been greatly altered. In my experience, a lot of non-muslims and westerners genuinely have NO clue that we acknowledge Jesus, and a lot of them kept getting surprised at how so similar Islam is with Christianity. At times it reached a point where I find their surprise bewildering, since I thought to myself that SURELY the fact that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all abrahamic religions shouldn't make you THAT surprised? So yeah, I'm glad they included that wonderfully written scene. Also, in regards to having pictures at home: I'm Sunni, and 80-90% of Indonesian muslims are also Sunni, and all of us do print, frame and hang our pictures at home. There has never been a debate regarding having pictures at home as well in my knowledge. I don't know if it's a cultural thing or what (since we are no where near Middle East, and in fact right next door to Australia). But yeah

I’ve been wondering about the accuracy of the Muslim characters since I watched it (raised Episcopalian), so thank you so much for this. I truly want to learn more.

Thank you for this! I’ve been looking around trying to find a Muslim perspective on the show. I loved the show, my favorite from Flanagan so far, and I’m so happy that Rahul had Flanagan hire some of his Muslim friends as consultants. It was great seeing this different perspective portrayed in such an everyday kind of way. The Catholic stuff was pretty interesting too. I’m glad that some creators out there are willing to do the work/research to give us accurate portrayals.

Interesting that you mentioned pictures. Many Sunni Muslims, like Protestants, feel weird about pictures, but many Shia Muslims, like Catholics, don't.

As soon as I noticed he was Muslim, I was like 'here we go let's see how they can butcher this' but yes definitely impressed!

What a coincidence, I was actually considering watching this for the South Asian representation rather than the character being Muslim.

Thank you for your analysis! I'm super invested in this show because I was already a Flana-fan but apparently he made this show based on decades of pondering these things as a former Catholic who's now an atheist. And I was raised Catholic, I also went to Catholic school! They made us go to mass 1/month, 1/week during lent. And I am naturally an atheist--i spent decades pondering or obsessing over the topics Midnight Mass expostulates on. Obviously I related to Riley. I went thru the sitting out communion thing for years. Your parents are hurt and confused and worried, the rest of the community is doing a micro-judgement when their eyes linger on you. I loved the discussions and ideas in the show. But I LOVE that it didn't falsely pick any belief system as 'the obvious good guy.' it's a Catholic island so naturally there are catholic villains (Bev..=POISON) but it's not saying Catholics are fools or bad people. It does 👀 @ Catholicism's cannibalism aesthetic but you know what i think sometimes constructive feedback is appropriate... It wasn't about 'fixing' Hassan or Riley or Riley's parents or Erin, Mildred, Sarah, etc. it accepted everyone who is genuine and compassionate as valid. And people obviously makes mistakes. Riley, Joe, Father Paul. I think it exploded forgiveness in a very human and understanding way 💜

The one thing that was super unrealistic was that Hassan didn't say Authubillah when he saw that thing. I feel like it's instinct 😂

I love what you pointed out about the wordplay on 'Sharif', would've been clueless otherwise.

This was great Tasneem. Jzakallah ❤️

Amazing content. I've had many friends through my time here, and the dialogue with the sheriff was a conversation I have heard before. Will be subscribing for sure 😁

I appreciate this review so much!! ❤

Thank you for this review. This show touched me in a way that no other show has

Great video, Thank you for making this and sharing your knowledge.

You're very right at the end over religious minorities' common representation in media. I'm a pagan /occult practitioner and of course, I started thinking of movies like Rosemary's Baby etc. Despite myself not being Muslim, I still somehow related to the sherrif. Adhering to a belief system that's often misunderstood is tricky, and emotionally exhausting at times , even if people are trying to be nice like how the mayor tried inviting Hasan to church.

Thank you so much for this video. I’ve been on quite the spiritual journey as 1/3 of my family was Jewish, 1/3 practiced Islam, and then the rest were various forms of Christianity so I’ve been reading a lot. Hearing this video is really enlightening especially for how things are portrayed in media.

Thanks for reviewing this! I saw a clip of this show on KZfaq and was wondering how the Muslim character was shown

What a great analysis, thank you so much!!!

Another film you could watch is "One Night in Miami". Directed by THE Regina King as her directorial debut. The film imo is fantastic overall but could have probably done a little bit more research on Islam (especially the performance of prayer, or maybe the flaws were intentional because Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali at that time were new Muslims but I doubt it...) Anyways, would 10/10 recommend.

As a young white Australian man who loved this show, this point of view and opinions were so refreshing and educational. Thank you!

I'm a Baptist. I really appreciate your commentary on this show. Thank you!

Loved Midnight Mass and loved your video ! Your commentary was spot on to what I thought while watching it. Hill House is one of my fav series of all time. Mike Flanagan kills it

Omg I loved this series so much, ESPECIALLY the hot noble sheriff

Thank you so much for this. I loved this series. I’m glad they got a lot of stuff right, I’m glad to learn more from an actual Muslim’s perspective, and I’m personally grateful that you had some understanding of my own (lapsed) Catholic perspective.

great share and my thoughts exactly! they did such a good job with this character.

Wow I was not expecting a good review this is so refreshing to hear, I'm not fond of horror but I'm intrigued and interested in watching this! Thanks for sharing

Awesome sister. Your content is so honest and humble. Keep it up. It will help people a lot. ❤

Saw the series two werks ago, and i was also surprised in a positive way!

I don't even have Netflix but you really made me want to watch this. I'm intrigued 🤔

Great review! Excellent video. More please and thank you. As salaamun alaikum

This is a really awesome insight! I really appreciated that the show didn't universally demonize faith but instead did a very nuanced look at both the good and bad religion can do.

Just discovered your channel! Love you review of Midnight Mass! Looking forward to bingeing your videos!

This was such an interesting insight thank you. I'm in the UK and raised Christian but I'm encouraging my 9 year old to learn about different religions or spiritual view points to choose for herself. I often wondered if this show well represented the Islamic faith. Thank you for your perspective on this x

I want to stop the video because I want to watch the show but I couldn’t cause I really enjoy your talk about it 👌🏼✨

It's crazy because as a christian, I saw this show as a criticism of religious fanaticism, hypocricy, power abuses, etc but a very respectful and nuanced discussion of religion itself. Like.... if the shoe fits......

Personal take, idk is this on purpose or just coincidence with the plot not but I personally love how they choose Fajr prayer as their last prayer. Knowing their condition (Hassan's bleeding and Ali's not in good shape) by default we can choose to combine our prayer to the next prayer (Jama') if we can't find anything to clean it or if we're in heavy pain like Hassan's case we can even shortened it (Qasr), but Fajr prayer is different and the only prayer that we can't combine or shortened it, for me it kinda gave even more meaning to their last prayer.

Awesome video. Thanks for the commentary.

Excellent video, loved to hear your perspective as a Muslim. Hassan was my favorite character of the show, the only one who seamed to have common sense; perhaps because he was an "outsider" in that community, it allowed him to be more critical, which I liked about him. Have you watched the show Skam, it's from Norway, one of the main characters through the series it's a Muslim girl, Sana, season four centers around her, the experience of being the only Muslim in her friends group while staying faithful to her religion. Totally recommended.

V. good commentary Tazzy, thank you. I enjoyed your observation of Joe's 'insult slip' of calling the Sheriff 'Shariff'. Obvious to a 60's movie fan that it was a play on Omar Shariff's name but ironically it turns out to be a complimentary title! how cool ! Thanks again.

Great perspective! I also love the show. you forgot to mention that he is a really handsome guy hehehe. Loved the show I need to watch it again. loved all the characters. thanks for your post!

As a resident of Dearborn Michigan (city with the largest Muslim pop in the U.S.) I have a lot of Muslim neighbors. My youngest daughter is the only Christian in her class. I was so happy to see the positive representation in this show.

*Big Spoiler* Please do not read if you have the intention of seeing the mini-series **** My favorite part at the end, when they are all on the beach and the Muslim father and son were praying, the father died moments before the son did, and I thought how that was subtly brilliant in showing an example of the mercy of the Creator. The father did not have to see his son burst into flames. It really moved me, especially if that was intentional. It was a well-thought-out detail.

I'm probably as disconnected from all religions as you can get (that being said I loved this show), and it was really interesting hearing your insight.

I love your review sm!!

Hey! I hope you keep making your videos!

I was raised, and still am, Catholic and I loved the show. Many other commenters/reviewers have reiterated my same feelings about how accurate the show is to Catholic Mass so much so that it felt kind of warm and familiar in a way. I didn’t feel the show was attacking Catholicism - or any religion - but more depicting the dangers of misuse of religious text and manipulation of others with misuse of religious text, which essentially goes against the main point of the text. Eg. Bev knows verses by heart but doesn’t live in a way that shows love and understanding like Jesus preached, whereas Riley’s mum is devout and demonstrates this by being loving and kind. I feel like this kind of thing can be probably translated to any religion or ideology. An interesting note about Hassan is that Ali says at one point something along the lines is that Hassan only ‘became’ or converted or starting practicing as a Muslim for Ali’s mother, which might indicate some things that have slipped, like the picture for example, and also I feel informs how painful it would be to see Ali in a way turn towards Christianity and away from Islam as perhaps Hassan may feel he has failed his wife or Ali is turning his back on her or her legacy - not intentionally but how Hassan sees it or feels. If that makes sense. May be wrong of course but just some observations I had

Thank you for the informative video, I’ve been fascinated by the concepts this show introduced to me as someone that knows very little about the Muslim faith and whatnot. Also the Angel or Demon is based on the Hebrew version of Alukah that’s mentioned in the proverbs as being a shape-shifting being that feeds on blood. Shows how deep the writing went with tying a lot of the show back to religious faith.

Looool dipped as soon as I hear spoiler alerts

While I'm not a believer there where plenty of Muslim kids at my catholic school, there where never any exceptions for going to mass but we where always seated at the back with the kids who received communion at the front. I do not know how but the fact that the priest was able to avoid back of the class behavior from taking place was impressive now that I think back to it.

I always see MM as a question of faith and less religious. Is how a person needs to know what its good and not, or what is right or not, despite what is been told. Like Bev. Bev considered herself the true believer and confronting with with Angel/Demon, she never question! She just accepts as right thing to do. Even when what they where doing was wrong. Bev just didnt question! People with blind faith are dangerous. For me this is what the show is about. It doesnt matter what is your believe, as long you can question if is right or not to do, to behave, to live in such way. It doesnt matter if you follow a holly book, word by word. It matters if it comes from your heart and knowing to not do the wrong things, even if someone tells you, it comes from God.

New sub here. Thanks for the video! *lol you’re so funny I love it

Agree 100% one of the most authentic portrayal...thought the actor was Muslim. Great series and great performances

loved this, and YESSS plzzzz do the comedy show about the christian housing ❤️❤️❤️❤️

One of the most powerful scenes in the whole series for me was when the Sherriff tells his son that miracles cant be real because god didn't save his wife.

Just finished the show and it blew me away. I love horror and went in not knowing anything at all, so it was a cool surprise to see Hassan! I agree that him being the hero and honorable is soooooo he refreshing.

A really interesting and necessary view. I am not religious in any way, but people are people and I generally respect them believing as they do so long as they stay out of the business of those who may believe or live differently than them (this includes not using political machinations to force people to adhere to whatever religious beliefs they find valid).

Omg I loved Hasan I wanted someone to rewiev the representation and I was kind of scared you'd bash it :D He was done quite well in my opinion, Like I was bothered about the picture thing too but TBH many poople put pictures and stuff in their homes, we even have albums kept in this huge box somewhere. I felt he was a brilliant depiction of a 'normal, average' Muslim u know? He's seen praying with his son and over all a non-judgemental kindhearted man but still his son, seeing all the miracles, gets doubts in his head. I can imagine the kind of upbringing he may have given Ali. The prayers were absolutely wonderful too, like oh wow that's so accurate! He even says Astaghfirullah 3 times at the end! SO DO I! The only tiny issues I had was 'Assalamualykum' instead of saying the whole phrase. And at the end when he dies in Salah with Ali and the sun is nearly out. Me: You aren't supposed to perform namaz at this time, it's already light! Me: Well you are almost dying so, guess it's okay, and it makes for a beautiful moment.

Hi! Just found your channel, I really love this review and I’m so glad my feelings were affirmed because I loved Rahul’s character and I felt it was an authentic and respectful representation. Have you reviewed the show Ramy? I really liked the show (minus the gross parts lol) and I’m curious what you think about it.

I love the show already and the show can be a good example of parasocial contact hypothesis, good work

I paused the video watched the show and came Back now to watch your video

Thanks, i wouldn't have watched this, but now I'm interested!

Es bueno saber que es acertada en la representación de los musulmanes, es muy interesante aprender sobre estos detalles. Es un personaje muy agradable, y se entiende el dolor por el que pasa con su hijo. Saludos desde Argentina

He was literally my favorite character in the show. If i had been in his shoes, i would've behaved similarly.

You are funny and clever. Please do more reviews. I'd like to see more of your perspective on film and TV.

You are in the citations of the Midnight Mass Wikipedia article, which is how I found your channel.

Mohamed Bouissa and Mohamed Hajem are listed as Muslim Theological Consultants in the show's credits.

Ooh you could review the show United States of Al. It's got 2 seasons now I think. The fist season is very typical light hearted comedy. But the second season they try to hit on some tough issues. I would love to know what you think!

I cry when they died performing fajr prayer

If you attended a Catholic school, it is pretty hypocritical and narcissistic to judge them for making you attend Catholic mass, even though they didn't make you actually participate.

This is a fantastic video

Thank you for this review, it was very interesting to watch and I even learned a couple of new things. I was wondering if you'd care to share your opinion on the South Park controversy about Muhammad being displayed in the show. Freedom of art or simply insensitive button pushing?

Hi Tazzy. I have watched your channel for a long time and really appreciate your review. I'm not a Muslim but I really like hearing your perspectives on things. Would you consider watching Netflix's Messiah and giving your thoughts? I could be wrong, but my reaction to it was that they were telling the story of Jesus as it is told in Islam and not Christianity. I would be interested to hear your take.

I been to a Muslim school and a catholic school. I often felt forced in the catholic school to attend mass like ceremonies and pray before cristain idols. Now that I think back, a non muslim must have felt the same attending the Muslim school. They also had some questionable work ethics like the former . So school managed by some religious institutions are always alike based on my experience.

This makes me really curious how Christians or Jews are represented in media made by/for Islamic cultures.