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Plot vs Character Case Study: The Midnight Club (2022)

deep dive tv show Jun 20, 2025

You know that old plot-vs-character conundrum: What matters more, character or structure? Do you prefer character- or plot-driven stories? Which one should you focus on?

I’m one of those firm believers that this question is meaningless since Character and Plot are two sides of the same coin.1

“We cannot ask which is more important, structure or character because structure is character; character is structure. They’re the same thing and therefore one cannot be more important than the other.”

Robert McKee

Most of the time, a story without a well-developed plot will also be a story without well-developed characters.

But there are exceptions and today, I want to talk about one. And I want to talk about why it still works so well.

Today, we are diving into The Midnight Club, a show with amazing deep dives into characters’ emotional journeys but where the overarching plot falls flat. But how is that possible if I’ve just spent three paragraphs saying that character and plot are two sides of the same coin?

The answer lies in the use of a narrative technique called story within a story.

Side note: Before we continue, I want to be clear that I have not read Christopher Pike’s The Midnight Club and I am speaking about the limited series as its own work. Of course, had I read the book, I would probably have viewed it differently and this entire post might come out completely different. Who knows? Although if the story is the same, I doubt it would be very different.

If, however, I was a fan of Christopher Pike, I bet that would change my approach to this series. Oh well. If you are a fan, let me know in the comments what you thought about the show!

And if I ever read the book, I’ll return and add my edits then :)


PLEASE NOTE: The post below contains spoilers for the show The Midnight Club (2022).

So if you haven’t seen it yet, check it out and then return to read on.

Now let’s get to it.


 

 

The Plot

Let’s start with one of the less successful aspects of the show, its overarching story and especially its ending.

Shasta

The overarching story begins with Ilonka’s diagnosis and consequential arrival at the Brightcliffe Home hospice led by Dr Stanton. Here, she meets fellow terminally ill teens and tweens. They bond. How nice.

But Ilonka has an ulterior motive for arriving to this particular hospice. She has heard about the story of Julia Jayne who supposedly recovered from thyroid cancer which, incidentally, is the exact same type of cancer Ilonka has. She digs into the past of the hospice and finds out about certain cult-like gatherings that used to happen here. On one of her walks in the forest, she meets a hippie naturopathic forest woman named Shasta who turns out to be, wait for it, Julia Jayne! And yes, despite all of her calming and meditative monologues, it turns out she only wants to use Ilonka to get access to the hospice so she can perform her ritual sacrifice.

The whole Shasta/Julia James story is not really bad but it’s just too predictable. Of course the naturopathic mentor-like character who sees magic in nature turns out to be a cultist and a psycho! This was such an obvious direction that I kept thinking there had to be more to it. It turned out there wasn’t.2

But that was not the biggest disappointment of The Midnight Club. The biggest disappointment of the show, for me and as far as I could see for many others too, was the ending.

The Ending

One of the two “big reveals” at the end was that Dr Stanton was Athena. And, honestly, I don’t know what to do with that information. I kept wondering if I missed something. This was supposed to be a big moment but it felt quite empty.

You know when you’re watching a movie or a TV show and you can see that you’re *supposed* to feel or react a certain way and you search inside yourself but there’s just nothing there? That’s how this moment felt to me. I had the impression I was supposed to go “Whoa!” but instead, I just went *shrugs* “Mmkay.”

The purpose of plot twists is to make us see the entire story from a new perspective. Revelations like this would ideally give us a piece of information that changes everything we’ve seen so far. But in this case, it seems it doesn’t really change much except that it shows Dr Stanton had more insight into how Paragon functioned than we thought. And that’s all.

The other big reveal at the end is that the old man and woman Ilonka and Kevin have been seeing might have been the ghosts of the original founders of the Brightcliffe building.

Which is another piece of information with which I honestly don’t know what to do. It’s not like that changes anything that has happened so far or my interpretation of it. Except that it tells me that the old couple Ilonka and Kevin were seeing were not symbolic of their feelings but were instead actual ghosts.3

I don’t know. Of course, it’s possible I’m missing something. If you have any idea or have caught any detail that would explain the significance of these revelations in the last episode, let me know in the comments below!

The Protagonist

As far as our protagonist Ilonka is concerned, she has to get to terms with her cancer being terminal. This is also the strongest storyline of the overarching story.

If we consider Ilonka’s journey from diagnosis to acceptance as the main story, we can see that the rest of the plot is not bad and this stoy actually has a perfectly solid development.

We have Ilonka’s diagnosis as the inciting incident, her recovery as her goal, and all the ups and downs of the rising action that culminates in the ritual that fails. Although there are some disappointing elements in it, overall, the story’s structure is well-rounded.

The plot ain’t that great. But it ain’t that bad either.

This is important to notice because the overarching story provides a basis for getting deep into the characters. The show doesn’t disregard the “main story”; it just makes it solid enough so it can afford to do what it really wants to: focus on the characters.

Which brings me to the good part.

The Characters

One of the reasons I am a big fan of Flanagan’s work is that the elements of horror never upstage the characters. On the contrary, they function as modes of expression. They are metaphors in support of establishing the setting or expressing what the characters are going through. This is only amplified in The Midnight Club.

Besides Ilonka as the protagonist, there are seven central characters here: Kevin, Natsuki, Amesh, Anya, Spencer, Sandra, and Cheri. They are the other children at the hospice and we get to know them quite well.

Each night, they gather around midnight (hence the title) and one of them tells a scary story. This is the framework that enables a deep dive into each character in the show.

This is where all writers should take notes as the show proves time and time again that the best way to let the audience know what the character is going through is not to tell us about it but to make us feel it.

And while the horror genre by itself is a great platform for doing that, the characters themselves telling stories about the darkest parts of their own personalities and histories can be such a delight in the hands of a skilled storyteller.

As is the case in The Midnight Club.

Do you want to know how it feels to be a suicidal teenager? How it feels to be suffocated under family’s expectations or pressured into hurting people you care about? How it feels to be divided between the perfectionist and the self-destructive sides of your personality?

You can experience this, and so much more, from the comfort of your own couch watching The Midnight Club!

This is the part that the show excels at.

It’s not about hearing what the characters have been through and it’s not about knowing every little detail about their lives.

It’s about experiencing how they felt.

The Secret Sauce: Plot

Like I mentioned, the overarching story is not badly crafted. It’s just well-built enough to establish a basis for deep dives into each of the characters. In a way, the show prioritizes Character over Plot. Or so it seems.

Here’s the secret sauce that makes this work so well: every one of these character’s stories has a plot of its own.

They don’t just talk mindlessly about their feelings. Their experiences and emotions are wrapped in narrative structures.

This offers the perfect set-up for us to get to know the characters and for them to reveal more about themselves and their inner world than they ever would (or even could) when just plainly talking.

After all, that’s what stories are. They are metaphors for the inner workings of human beings. One could argue that every story represents a metaphorical journey of both the author’s and the audience’s inner transformation. (One would be me, I am One.)

And it all makes perfect sense in this limited series because the teenagers’ stories are based on or inspired by other Christopher Pike’s books!

Conclusion

At first glance, it seems as though The Midnight Club displays an in-depth character development at the cost of the plot, especially if you take the overarching frame story as the main plot. While the story itself is nicely structured and holds up, it doesn’t exceed any expectations and falls flat at the end.

On the other hand, the show leaves us with a satisfying feeling of how well we’ve gotten to know the characters and how much of an insight into their psyche we got. That’s when we realise the show’s plot is not in the overarching story.

Its real plot is in the character’s stories, their psychology, and their symbolism.

The reason why focusing so gravely on Character works in The Midnight Club is precisely because it is done through the tools of Plot, once again proving these are two sides of the same coin. The logic of a narrative provides a platform for Character expression and the emotional journey of the character gives life to the causality of the Plot.

Hopefully that makes sense! Let me know what you thought about The Midnight Club in the comments below.

As I’ve mentioned, I am actually a big fan of Mike Flanagan’s work (precisely because it is always so well made!) and to be honest, The Midnight Club is actually one of my least favourites. But it seemed perfect for the discussion about the relationship between plot and character, so I went with it. Maybe in the future, we’ll dive into some other stuff!

 


1

I can acknowledge that people in everyday conversations use the terms “character-driven” and “plot-driven” to describe stories that either focus primarily on the emotional and mental states of their characters versus stories that focus primarily on external action.

But when it comes to creative writing craft, it is useful to be aware that Plot is not about external action but rather about narrative causality. This causality can be expressed in a fast-paced as well as slow and poetic manner.

Just like Character is not about a character’s mental or emotional states but rather the transitions between them, usually expressed through their actions, which can again be either fast-paced and seen from outside or slow-paced, poetic, and symbolic.

2

Based on this you can guess what my views on healing modalities are haha. So I guess I’m a bit biased when it comes to this topic. As are the creators of the show. Because being biased is simply unavoidable and that’s okay. Best we can do is embrace and acknowledge it.

3

Which also makes them the only supernatural occurences in the entire show, which was another little disappointment. Of course, you could argue that the shadow Anya and Amesh see is the approaching death but I’d say that is more of a manifestation of their fear of looming death than an actual paranormal occurence. Of course, the disappointment that there is not much more to the story than I’d hoped for and that it’s just “real life” could also be a part of the story’s message. After all, the themes of hope and acceptance of reality are strong.

 

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