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cjlasky7Miracle Workers (available on Hulu and Vudu)
Miracle Workers is an oddity on TV these days: it's an anthology, but rather than individual episodes centered around a distinctive format (like Black Mirror), Seasons 1 and 2 were ten-episode standalone stories based on the work of one writer--in this case, humorist Simon Rich (Man Seeking Woman).
Season 1 featured a group of overstressed angels (led by Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan) dealing with an incompetent deity (Steve Buscemi!) and an imminent apocalypse. Season 2 brought back the same cast, this time dropping them into the Dark Ages. Radcliffe was a well-meaning but child-like prince, the son of a terrifying dictator (Peter Serafinowicz, in full tyrannical bellow); Viswanathan played the daughter of the town shitshoveler (Buscemi again) who really, really didn't want to inherit the family business.
Season 1 was charming, but only fitfully amusing. The setup was similar to The Good Place, but without the philosophical backbone that made the latter series so fascinating. In fact, s1 reminded me more of the wacky celestial comedies of the 1960s and 1970s that didn't bother with complicated questions of destiny and faith.
The angels' main dilemma during the season was a 7-day countdown to the end of the world, which could only be stopped by uniting a pair of romantically challenged nerdlings. Unable to directly contact people on Earth, they resorted to elaborate indirect "signs and portents"--which usually resulted in catastrophe. Maybe the funniest parts of s1 were the cutaways to a horrified TV newscaster, informing the public of the latest inexplicable disaster to hit the city.
Unfortunately, the chosen couple in question was boring (both together and apart), and the story slowed down every time they were on screen. The other main problem was Buscemi: his version of God was too stupid and incompetent to inspire awe, but too weird and skeevy to elicit sympathy. He was mostly a nuisance for the angels to steer around--and a gigantic wasted opportunity.
I thought the series was one and done, but it came back for another round this year--and miraculously, the writing staff had fixed all the problems. S2 dumped the dead weight, focused on character development, and sharpened the satire. Buscemi found a nice, relaxed groove with Ed, who was happy with his work and his place in the kingdom. (Note: Buscemi's father was a garbage man for 35 years, so he knew where Ed was coming from.)
The satirical highlights included a vicious parody of a children's Thanksgiving play (heckled by Viswanathan's Alexandra), a music festival featuring Fred Armisen as an obnoxious minstrel (read: rock star) and some understated but effective jabs at higher education and the Church.
But this season really wasn't a sociopolitical demolition job like Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was a coming of age story for Alexandra and Radcliffe's Prince Chauncley, both searching for a way out of their father's shadow in a time when options were extremely limited. Radcliffe was terrific as a royal fool growing up before our eyes. But the real find here is Viswanathan: she's enormously appealing and relatable, clicked beautifully with Radcliffe, Buscemi and the rest of the cast, and could easily carry a movie or TV series on her own. (She's in the new HBO movie "Bad Education" with Hugh Jackman. I should check that out.)
Season 1: C+
Season 2: B+
Breeders (available on FX-on-Hulu)
Breeders is Martin Freeman in an adult sitcom about late in life relationships and parenthood. Do you really need anything else? If you loved him in The Office (UK) or The Lord of the Rings, he's still the same sharp witted but likeable everyman--with maybe a bit more anger bottled up inside.
Freeman's Paul is in a long-term (but unmarried) relationship with Daisy Haggard's Ally, and the two of them are perpetually frazzled, dealing with all-consuming careers while taking care of two pre-adolescent kids who always seem to be fighting and demanding mummy and daddy's undivided attention. The main joke in the first few episodes is that Paul loves his children to death and simultaneously wants to kill them. He boils over and screams at 8 year-old Luke, feels bad about it, promises himself he'll do better next time, then loses it all over again. There's an uncomfortable but very funny sequence early on when Luke keeps injuring himself around the definitely not child proofed household--and Paul realizes the hospital staff is looking at him VERY suspiciously.
S1 kind of loses its way around the midpoint when Michael McKean literally moves in as Ally's bohemian (and broke) American father. McKean is always excellent, but the focus on his character and how he does or doesn't fit into a crowded household tends to drag attention away from the central relationships of the series. Once he's gone, things snap back into place, and the last four episodes raise the intrafamily tensions, leading to an unexpectedly dark two-part finale.
This was obviously a very personal project for Freeman (he gets a creator's credit) and Haggard matches him step for step. Excellent chemistry and they're convincing as a couple that's not exactly solid, but can bend to weather adversity. Not sure there's enough for an S2, but wouldn't mind a return visit.
Breeders s1: B
Miracle Workers is an oddity on TV these days: it's an anthology, but rather than individual episodes centered around a distinctive format (like Black Mirror), Seasons 1 and 2 were ten-episode standalone stories based on the work of one writer--in this case, humorist Simon Rich (Man Seeking Woman).
Season 1 featured a group of overstressed angels (led by Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan) dealing with an incompetent deity (Steve Buscemi!) and an imminent apocalypse. Season 2 brought back the same cast, this time dropping them into the Dark Ages. Radcliffe was a well-meaning but child-like prince, the son of a terrifying dictator (Peter Serafinowicz, in full tyrannical bellow); Viswanathan played the daughter of the town shitshoveler (Buscemi again) who really, really didn't want to inherit the family business.
Season 1 was charming, but only fitfully amusing. The setup was similar to The Good Place, but without the philosophical backbone that made the latter series so fascinating. In fact, s1 reminded me more of the wacky celestial comedies of the 1960s and 1970s that didn't bother with complicated questions of destiny and faith.
The angels' main dilemma during the season was a 7-day countdown to the end of the world, which could only be stopped by uniting a pair of romantically challenged nerdlings. Unable to directly contact people on Earth, they resorted to elaborate indirect "signs and portents"--which usually resulted in catastrophe. Maybe the funniest parts of s1 were the cutaways to a horrified TV newscaster, informing the public of the latest inexplicable disaster to hit the city.
Unfortunately, the chosen couple in question was boring (both together and apart), and the story slowed down every time they were on screen. The other main problem was Buscemi: his version of God was too stupid and incompetent to inspire awe, but too weird and skeevy to elicit sympathy. He was mostly a nuisance for the angels to steer around--and a gigantic wasted opportunity.
I thought the series was one and done, but it came back for another round this year--and miraculously, the writing staff had fixed all the problems. S2 dumped the dead weight, focused on character development, and sharpened the satire. Buscemi found a nice, relaxed groove with Ed, who was happy with his work and his place in the kingdom. (Note: Buscemi's father was a garbage man for 35 years, so he knew where Ed was coming from.)
The satirical highlights included a vicious parody of a children's Thanksgiving play (heckled by Viswanathan's Alexandra), a music festival featuring Fred Armisen as an obnoxious minstrel (read: rock star) and some understated but effective jabs at higher education and the Church.
But this season really wasn't a sociopolitical demolition job like Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was a coming of age story for Alexandra and Radcliffe's Prince Chauncley, both searching for a way out of their father's shadow in a time when options were extremely limited. Radcliffe was terrific as a royal fool growing up before our eyes. But the real find here is Viswanathan: she's enormously appealing and relatable, clicked beautifully with Radcliffe, Buscemi and the rest of the cast, and could easily carry a movie or TV series on her own. (She's in the new HBO movie "Bad Education" with Hugh Jackman. I should check that out.)
Season 1: C+
Season 2: B+
Breeders (available on FX-on-Hulu)
Breeders is Martin Freeman in an adult sitcom about late in life relationships and parenthood. Do you really need anything else? If you loved him in The Office (UK) or The Lord of the Rings, he's still the same sharp witted but likeable everyman--with maybe a bit more anger bottled up inside.
Freeman's Paul is in a long-term (but unmarried) relationship with Daisy Haggard's Ally, and the two of them are perpetually frazzled, dealing with all-consuming careers while taking care of two pre-adolescent kids who always seem to be fighting and demanding mummy and daddy's undivided attention. The main joke in the first few episodes is that Paul loves his children to death and simultaneously wants to kill them. He boils over and screams at 8 year-old Luke, feels bad about it, promises himself he'll do better next time, then loses it all over again. There's an uncomfortable but very funny sequence early on when Luke keeps injuring himself around the definitely not child proofed household--and Paul realizes the hospital staff is looking at him VERY suspiciously.
S1 kind of loses its way around the midpoint when Michael McKean literally moves in as Ally's bohemian (and broke) American father. McKean is always excellent, but the focus on his character and how he does or doesn't fit into a crowded household tends to drag attention away from the central relationships of the series. Once he's gone, things snap back into place, and the last four episodes raise the intrafamily tensions, leading to an unexpectedly dark two-part finale.
This was obviously a very personal project for Freeman (he gets a creator's credit) and Haggard matches him step for step. Excellent chemistry and they're convincing as a couple that's not exactly solid, but can bend to weather adversity. Not sure there's enough for an S2, but wouldn't mind a return visit.
Breeders s1: B
