The Best Netflix Horror Miniseries Is Being Kept Away From True Fans

If you’ve never watched Midnight Mass on Netflix, you may be wondering what the show is even about. Without giving spoilers (trust me when I say you want to go into this one without any preconceived notions), this is a show that explores the complex intersection between the divine and the monstrous. When a charismatic priest returns to Crockett Island, miracles begin to happen, but it soon becomes clear that nothing so miraculous can happen without paying a terrible price.

When Midnight Mass first premiered on Netflix, it made a big splash with audiences and critics alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show currently has a critical rating of 87 percent, with critics praising the unique story, engaging performances, and masterful direction of showrunner Mike Flanagan. In short, it was the rare original series beloved by critics and audiences alike, which is the exact kind of programming that Netflix needs to stay on top of the streaming game.

Because Midnight Mass is such a popular critical darling, many fans expected Netflix to release the miniseries on physical media. However, the only two Mike Flanagan series that the streamer ever released on physical media were The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, and the prolific showrunner claimed the only reason those shows ever hit store shelves is because they were co-created by Paramount (a studio that still cares about physical media).

Earlier this year, Flanagan didn’t mince words when describing why Midnight Mass wasn’t getting any kind of physical media support from Netflix. According to him, the streaming giant is “actively hostile to the idea of physical media” and only cares about their subscriber numbers. He says (and I can’t help but agree with this notion) that Netflix is actively hurting media preservation, which means that some of the biggest hits of today might eventually be lost to future audiences.

Because Midnight Mass will seemingly never get a physical media release courtesy of Netflix, Flanagan has actually purchased bootleg Blu-rays of his own show. Instead of being angry that his show was being pirated like this, he called the pirates “the only hope for archival preservation of a growing amount of shows and movies.” Given the harm that Netflix is doing to media preservation, Flanagan is “profoundly grateful” for the pirates preserving his hit show.

Sadly, the streaming giant effectively teased Flanagan with the idea of releasing Midnight Mass and his other Netflix works in a “Flanaverse” (a word he rightfully hates) box set. After months went by without any updates, he eventually received a one-sentence email verifying what he already knew: that the company just didn’t have any interest in physical media.

At this point, it looks like the hopes of Midnight Mass ever getting a physical release are dead, and there’s nothing either Mike Flanagan or Father Paul Hill can do to bring those hopes back to life. I can’t help but feel like Netflix is being remarkably shortsighted here…after all, making more money off an existing hit show while keeping their best showrunner and his fans happy is the ultimate win/win.

Now, all we can do is hope that pirates keep preserving the hit shows that could otherwise be yanked away from us anytime a greedy executive needs another tax break.