My Week in TV Part IV: Miracle Workers

Credit: FilmGeorgia

Miracle Workers (TBS)-Six Days (Episode 4)-Simon Rich demonstrated an ability to make out-of-the-box comedy in “Man Seeking Woman” and if anyone’s going to make a televised response to ride the coat tails of “The Good Place”, he’s a pretty fitting choice. A version of heaven overrun with bureaucratic rabbit holes and enigmatically incompetent officials raises comparisons to “The Good Place” (particularly, the first season) but as the series has progressed, Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” seems like a more apt reference with all the anachronistic technology and emphasis on bureaucratic overload.

Most of my problems with the series are logistics but they are more nit picks than substantial plot holes that don’t really affect my enjoyment fortunately. There are fair too many easter eggs to enjoy as the show takes us through these labyrinthine delights. The highlight of the week in the humor department was seeing the past lives of three central angels: Sanjay was a cool prince, Eliza was ……[wait for it]….an ersatz Xena Warrior Princess, and Craig was…..[drumroll]…. a caveman who ate dirt in a bog.  The escalation and comic suspense here was priceless and it helps that these comic set pieces fill in blanks to build up this world.

My main irritation was initially the fact that God should have been easy to manipulate. As a leader who has been granted a dangerous amount of power, Steve Buscemi’s version of God calls to mind various interpretations of Presidents 43 and 45: Leaders with unfathomable amounts of stupidity who couldn’t supply the brainpower for the position without considerate staff assistance. And the truth is those leaders are highly easy to manipulate by staff members withholding papers from their desk or foreign leaders appealing to their flattery. Because I had a rooting interest in not seeing the world blow up and preventing our heroes (Geraldine Viswanathan and Danielle Radcliffe) reassigned to single molecules for all eternity, I started to wonder why no one was resisting God’s harmful idiocy.

In the past couple episodes, there have been encouraging signs that it is possible to outwit God and contain his awfulness. Craig (Radcliffe) manages to spare Tim Meadows’ life and Rosie (Lolly Adefope) manages to pass off God to a human so she can get her work done (although it’s entirely possible she’s as lazy as God is). Besides the satisfaction of God (at least this version of him) get his comeuppance, it also levels out the stakes quite a bit.

The central premise this week is a little more in line with “Man Seeking Women” where the episode is driven by a gimmick. God decides to find a new prophet and the process is played out like a match on Tinder. The talent of Simon Rich’s methodology is that pretty much every line of dialogue can be read in both absurdist scenarios: Consistent with both a pseudo-romantic relationship between man and deity; and the biblical history of the relationship between prophets and God.

This is a dense episode, however, and it’s quite admirable that the urgency of the world exploding hasn’t taken a pause so that God can get his friendship on with a prophet. In fact, this might be the most meaningful episode for Craig yet as his central conflict—feeling important – is dealt with more directly. Sanjay has largely served as a foil rather than a direct antagonist so having the two having a TGIF-like talk about how much they value each other isn’t as off-base as it might same.

And then there are the two socially awkward love birds around whose fate the universe might rest. It does seem easy on the surface for these two to kiss but real life shows that it’s not as easy as it looks for most people if there’s any pressure and I’d say two weeks counts. Factor in that these two are on the more socially awkward end of the spectrum and that there are going to be other guys in the dating pool to distract you (see episode 2) and there’s enough to keep the suspense. The latest obstacle is the dying grandma and it’s a good place to close the chapter.

Next week, the IMDB description indicates an emphasis on Rosie. She’s been the hardest to get a handle so it's about time.