On February 12th TBS aired its new limited show “Miracle Workers.” It is a comedy set in Heaven, following God (portrayed by Steve Buscemi) and his angels going about their business at Heaven Inc. The only issue is that God has decided that Earth should be replaced. He wants to blow it up and replace it with a lazy-river restaurant.
“Miracle Workers” begins with God sitting on his couch in grey sweat pants flipping through channels showing the bad things occurring on Earth, until he finds a channel playing a race car driver praising God for his win. God is relieved for a moment only to find out that the driver’s next race ended up with his car exploding and him dying. It’s shown that God is frustrated.
The audience then sees an adorable Rube Goldberg opening sequence showing the little marble destroying Earth along its way.
On February 12th, TBS premiered their new comedy “Miracle Workers”: A story about god and his angels overseeing Earth. Credit: MiracleWorkersTBS
This sequence leads into shots of Heaven Inc. where many angels work to help regulate Earth and its inhabitants. The Department of Animals causes animals to go extinct due to budget cuts. The Department of Constellations gets to create new constellations from the stars in the sky. The Department of Volcano Safety is seen sitting around as a volcano erupts.
Then the audience meets Eliza (Geraldine Viswanathan), an angel who wants to move up the ladder from her spot in the Department of Dirt. She wants more responsibility in helping Earth more.
She gets transferred to the Department of Answered Prayers which is where she meets a disheveled but devoted-to-his-work Craig (Daniel Radcliffe). Craig has been a loner for years answering prayers, but Eliza soon learns that answering prayers isn’t what she thought. She and the audience learn that the angels don’t have as much control in granting prayers.
This causes Eliza to confront God, who then makes his decision to blow up Earth unless Eliza can accomplish granting an “impossible wish.” God gives her and Craig two weeks to perform said task, so the two go and search for the perfect prayer to answer. They find it in Laura (Sasha Compere) and Sam (Jon Bass), two people crushing on each other. All Eliza and Craig need to do in two weeks, is to get them to kiss. What makes it impossible, is even though the two like each other, they are very very socially awkward.
“Miracle Workers” is a cute comedy. God is surrounded by the extravagance and cleanliness of white and gold furniture while he is a slob. He wears sweats and throws empty beer bottles in the attempt to make it in the trash bin. Spoiler: he misses, and the glass shatters. The Department of Answered Prayers, a place one would think is clean and beautiful, is nothing but a dark, crowded basement with answered prayers organized and pinned to a wall as only about three prayers get responded to a day since it takes so long for the angels to interact on Earth.
The actors were well chosen. Steve Buscemi plays a funny creator. Daniel Radcliffe plays a hilarious cowardly hermit angel. In Geraldine, the audience sees a determination that is relatable and lovable. Karan Soni (who plays Sanjay) plays a devoted servant to God, though one can relate to the frustration of being assistant to the Man.
The show keeps a decent pace that makes it very easy to watch, and the episodes are only about thirty minutes each. There is always a new little thing that the audience gets to learn about Heaven Inc and its workers, and about God himself. It’s entertaining.
“Miracle Workers” is based on the book “What in God’s Name” by Simon Rich. “Miracle Workers” is rated TV-14 for some of the humor and language, but the language is bleeped out.
If anyone is looking for a cute comedy to pass the time on Tuesday nights at 10:30 pm, “Miracle Workers” may be the thing to watch.
