Earlier today I finished watching through Poker Face. I managed to binge through the show's ten episodes in just two days. Recently I haven't been watching a whole lot of shows, however. More sticking to the film side of things as a result of just struggling to find something new to watch. Though, with the first season of Poker Face now through and a wait for the second season, I felt content with starting something new. Not really feeling the guilt of starting too many shows at once and then accidentally forgetting about a few of them in the process. But fortunately that horror of scrolling endlessly in search of something new was again avoided, with someone suggesting a show called Miracle Workers to me. I searched it up online immediately, it was the first time I had heard of it. Daniel Radcliffe's credit appeared, and a UK release date alongside it. Part of my judgemental side appeared and I felt some concerns; a British television show, perhaps? I'm not a big fan of those! But I was wrong, Miracle Workers is sort of a mixed collaboration. British actors, American actors, but a seemingly American production. I didn't pay much attention to the synopsis, and decided to check it out shortly after. I have seen a few things with Daniel Radcliffe in over the years, and I think he's definitely managed to find his place after the massive role of Harry Potter he had years ago. That place? Well, actually far from the wizarding world, and instead in the realm of comedy.
Currently, there are four seasons with the fourth season just airing. I have no idea as to whether there will be a fifth, I sort of expect four seasons to be enough. But this does mean that my guess is this show may have the ability to get cancelled; but at the same time it appears this show has a structure in which each season essentially tells a different story with the same cast. I managed to watch through the entire first season, and got into a few episodes of the second season in order to find this out. I guess, to some degree, this may bit a slight warning to anyone reading this and perhaps interested in checking it out. Personally, I can't trust modern streaming shows, as the threat of cancellation lingers, ready to pounce on anything regardless of the quality or popularity. But that said, Miracle Workers has been quite a fun experience so far, and one that seems to contribute to a trend I mentioned a few months prior. I'm quite excited about this show due to this, and I'll get a bit more into why with these first impressions.
Miracle Workers
The vast majority of new series thrown into the chaotic dice roll of original streaming "content" seems to be catered to pulling in your attention and maintaining it for as long as possible. Specifically made to farm minutes from you with lengthy hour-long episodes in which nothing happens, with a hint of drama somewhere around the season to give viewers the implication of something to come. The Walking Dead ultimately perfected structure of baiting viewers into sticking around, as a good recent example. I find, with so many new shows getting cancelled, and so many of them being just too long for me to want to risk time investment, that I just rarely watch anything that hasn't already finished. Sometimes, if a show has short episodes, I'll bite. And that's what I have noticed has been the case for a few months now. What We Do In The Shadows, Wellington Paranormal, Ghosts, and The Good Place. These shows have been comedic, very light, and seem like they're in a world of their own. Comedy shows, of course, are not some magical new concept. What makes them stand out more than something like The Office, or Trailer Park Boys, is that these shows have fantasy settings to some degree.
In Miracle Workers, its first season gives us the perspective of a corporate, capitalist world beyond Earth. Steve Buscemi plays the role of God: a completely lost leader that drinks, is totally careless, and starting to feel as if his project of Earth and humanity has lost its spark. His solution? Just wipe it all clean. Though, the lower level workers that contribute to the management of Earth fear the destruction of Earth's beauty and aim to defend it. These departments are quite funny; the show even pokes fun at how so many animals are basically just variations of dogs. The giraffe? It's just a dog but taller, and with a neck the size of one of its legs. With these departments, and a love for humanity, they come together to try to show that it isn't all lost, by trying to bring together two humans that seem to be soul mates. I really enjoyed this season, and the way it portrayed the corporate life of running Earth alongside Steve Buscemi God. With seven episodes and about a 24 minute runtime, these episodes went by quite quickly, which was a very nice aspect of the show as it really did everything it needed to without sticking around for too long. None of the characters or the events were fleshed out for an unjustified reason; and this respect of your time is actually really nice! You get the laughs, the fun, the setting, and the show leaves.
While the show has Steve Buscemi and Daniel Radcliffe, they're far from the only characters really utilised. They're given more important roles within the story, of course, but the show still manages to run through a few other characters. Admittedly they aren't as interesting. But they're relatively unknown actors, which is something I always approve of given there's no other roles to compare them to. Though, from what I understand, with each season being a different story and setting, their characters also change. So there really isn't much time or need for really extensive character development in the first place. Which I think is something to also appreciate. You don't really have the show trying to win you over, it instead just does its thing. It doesn't really care if you want more from it. This reminds me quit a bit of Wellington Paranormal, which was entirely focused on the comedy and didn't really bother giving you much depth to the characters beyond their idiotic nature. And yet I still managed to love those characters (I'm still hurt that the show ended). At this point, with Miracle Workers, I feel this might be the same. In fact, I may even be a bit disappointed if the show suddenly does decide to try to become more linear, to focus more on character backstory.
I'm quite surprised at how good the show looks, even. It certainly has been given a decent budget. Some of the set design in justified moments looks a bit weak, but there isn't much emphasis on special effects unless they're necessary. It seems a lot of the show is shit on location or with a set of some sort made. Perhaps that's just the perspective I have as of these two seasons, and maybe the next settings may call for more. But even so, it looks pretty good! And I'm really looking forward to how much more this show can surprise and change things up. So far we have seen the perspective of God, and it seems season two is a medieval story. What's next, prehistoric? Deep future? Alien world? Regardless, I'm ready to find out! And if you have nothing else going on, and perhaps want something similar to the shows I compared this to, you should check it out too! I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you enjoyed the other shows.
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