Is The Midnight Club woke?
TV Show · Released October 7, 2022
The Midnight Club has a wokeness score of 6/10, which we rate as Socially Conscious. Clear woke themes are present and intentional, but feel balanced and organic to the story. The message supports the plot and characters rather than dominating them.
Key points
- Adaptational diversity expands book’s all-white cast to include Black, Asian, and disabled leads with intersectional identities.
- Openly gay Spencer’s arc addresses homophobia from conservative family while promoting acceptance and found family.
- Intentional inclusion of marginalized groups and themes of solidarity integrated into terminal illness coping story.
Wokeness analysis
The Midnight Club features intentional diversity updates from its source material, including a predominantly non-white cast of terminally ill teens and prominent LGBTQ+ representation through the openly gay character Spencer, who faces rejection from his conservative Christian mother and has AIDS. Disability is highlighted via the amputee character Anya, portrayed by a real-life advocate. These elements support themes of acceptance, found family, and solidarity among marginalized individuals coping with mortality, often contrasting progressive inclusivity against traditional religious views. Co-creators emphasized intersectional characters and representation in interviews. However, the core narrative centers on horror storytelling, hospice life, faith versus quackery, and the inevitability of death in a 1990s setting, with woke messaging integrated organically rather than dominating the plot or delivering lectures. The diversity feels updated for modern audiences but remains balanced within the emotional and supernatural framework without overt activism.
Plot
Set in 1990s at Brightcliffe Hospice for terminally ill teens, the series follows Ilonka and seven others who form the Midnight Club, gathering nightly to share scary stories drawn from Christopher Pike novels while making a pact to communicate from beyond the grave. Ilonka seeks a mysterious cure linked to a past patient amid a cult history at the facility. The show blends anthology-style horror tales with an overarching mystery involving faith, death, and the supernatural, exploring how the group faces mortality together.
Analyzed by AI on October 28, 2026