'Miracle Workers' Continues to Miraculously Waste Good Talent

The TBS comedy series Miracle Workers has been uneven since its initial debut in 2019, and, especially in Seasons 2 and 3, painfully unfunny. Initially billed as a heaven-set comedy, it quickly became an anthology series with a self-contained story starring the same ensemble cast each season, similar to shows like American Horror Story, but without the style or charm. The show wants to be Monty Python but is neither sophisticated nor clever enough to pull that off, relying on the star power of lead actors Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Steve Buscemi (The Death of Stalin) bolstered by the engaging work of Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers) and Karan Soni (Deadpool).

Season 1 held promise; the story, about two low-level angels (Radcliffe and Viswanathan) trying to save the Earth from being blown up by God (Buscemi), was cute, often funny, and full of heart. Heaven is a mega-corporation where the workers are uninspired, and the work culture is a soul-crushing bureaucracy. God, as CEO, is beholden to a board of directors and is also an illiterate slacker and royal screw-up. The angels try their best to perform miracles while balancing unintended consequences. For instance, answering one person’s prayer for rain accidentally creates a monsoon and kills hundreds of people.

It was an interesting dynamic showing how the angels must employ restraint and cunning. By season’s end, cooperation, friendship, and perseverance win the day and save the Earth. But it was not without problems, often bogged down by a plethora of penis jokes and bits that failed to land, leaving it feeling like it needed another edit. However, the season worked best because it was a complete story, whereas the following seasons feel more like “day-in-the-life-of” skits connected only by setting.