Sky's creation of a new comedy channel to fit around the returning "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and the new series "The Righteous Gemstones" has required them to find some more content to fill out the schedule. One such show they've pulled out is "Miracle Workers", the first season of which aired around a year ago in the States.
With Heaven operating like a mid-level conglomerate business, built to help facilitate the operation of the Earth, Craig (Daniel Radcliffe) is content working the in Miracles department, melting snow to help people find their keys and such. That is until he's joined by Eliza (Geraldine Viswanathan) who believes they should be thinking bigger. Far from infallible, God (Steve Buscemi) is losing confidence in his Earth project and is thinking about bulldozing it for a new restaurant. Always up for a challenger though, God bets Eliza that they can't get two humans, Laura (Sasha Compare) and Sam (Jon Bass) to fall in love, in the next two weeks, with all of humanity at stake.
Whilst I can't imagine that anybody would come away from this first season thinking that "Miracle Workers" is the best sitcom they've ever seen, I can't see too many people actively disliking it either. It's very amiable. It's a light, inoffensive, comedy utilising a largely likable cast to produce a short series that got a few laughs in each episode, but no real "bite" about it. And you feel like it could have, one episode spends some time considering the ultimate follies of our stupid blue planet, but that's about all there is.
I'm not sure I'm convinced that Daniel Radcliffe was the right actor for the job here. He's a little too "one note" for me. The fact that Steve Buscemi, rather than Owen Wilson is God is interesting though. There's more inherent threat under the surface to his portrayal that I imagine Wilson would have brought to it. The rest of the cast, including Karan Soni, Lolly Adefope and a host of guest stars, are universally good too.
I understand that the premise changes for the second season, which is an interesting way to go and might be the making of the series. This first run is, as I say, fine and mildly amusing. I'm not sure I'll remember it in six months though.
With Heaven operating like a mid-level conglomerate business, built to help facilitate the operation of the Earth, Craig (Daniel Radcliffe) is content working the in Miracles department, melting snow to help people find their keys and such. That is until he's joined by Eliza (Geraldine Viswanathan) who believes they should be thinking bigger. Far from infallible, God (Steve Buscemi) is losing confidence in his Earth project and is thinking about bulldozing it for a new restaurant. Always up for a challenger though, God bets Eliza that they can't get two humans, Laura (Sasha Compare) and Sam (Jon Bass) to fall in love, in the next two weeks, with all of humanity at stake.
Whilst I can't imagine that anybody would come away from this first season thinking that "Miracle Workers" is the best sitcom they've ever seen, I can't see too many people actively disliking it either. It's very amiable. It's a light, inoffensive, comedy utilising a largely likable cast to produce a short series that got a few laughs in each episode, but no real "bite" about it. And you feel like it could have, one episode spends some time considering the ultimate follies of our stupid blue planet, but that's about all there is.
I'm not sure I'm convinced that Daniel Radcliffe was the right actor for the job here. He's a little too "one note" for me. The fact that Steve Buscemi, rather than Owen Wilson is God is interesting though. There's more inherent threat under the surface to his portrayal that I imagine Wilson would have brought to it. The rest of the cast, including Karan Soni, Lolly Adefope and a host of guest stars, are universally good too.
I understand that the premise changes for the second season, which is an interesting way to go and might be the making of the series. This first run is, as I say, fine and mildly amusing. I'm not sure I'll remember it in six months though.
