Miracle Workers – Episode Three (‘12 Days’)
The third episode of Stan’s new television show Miracle Workers showed us more God, more humans, and more of the ‘Answered Prayers’ team!
The episode began with God trying to work out a microwave and ended with him sitting on the couch watching YouTube – so just a regular day for anyone, really. Three episodes in and I hate to say it, but couch potato God is a getting a little old. I was really looking forward to Steve Buschemi as God but overall his character has been predominantly for comedic relief. It could be interesting to see what else they do with his character but with only four episodes left of the season, I think this is the God we’re getting.
On a more positive note, this episode featured a lot more of the ‘Answered Prayers’ department made up of Craig (Daniel Radcliffe) and Eliza (Geraldine Viswanathan). They are still on their mission to answer their ‘Impossible Prayer’ as part of the challenge set by God in order to save Earth, so you know, no pressure. In this episode the pair hit a speedbump in the form of a hipster-douche who looks set to get in the way of the duo plans and drag Laura’s life into chaos.
Laura (played by Sasha Compère) is one of the two humans whose prayer Eliza and Craig are attempting to answer, however her initial prayer was thrown aside in this episode while she got swept up in a hipster’s unique YouTube-based movement called ‘The String Theory’ which was equally parts hilarious and cringy. In the first episode of Miracle Workers, Eliza and Craig describe Laura as awkward and somewhat socially inept, and so far Compère has portrayed that character really well. Having only been in a handful of productions before this, Miracle Workers could be the show that gives her a platform and leads her to bigger and better things.
There is one more character we get to see a lot of in this episode and of course it’s my favourite, scene-stealer Sanjay! Played by Karan Soni, this week Sanjay was torn between the reality of his job (which this episode included helping God out of a sticky situation …) and his want to make his job appear amazing for the cameras of some television show he was trying to impress. And look, I’m not just saying this because he’s my favourite, but he really did shine this week! Showing a range of emotions and wiggling his way into almost every scene, I’m sure he is fast becoming the favourite of many more people than just me.
So far this season we have seen episodes directed by both Ryan Case and Jorma Taccone, the former of which has worked on various popular sitcoms while the latter may sound familiar from The Lonely Island fame or alternatively if you’re more of a screen person having worked on and starred in Hot Rod and Popstar as well as a few episodes of Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Both of their comedic touches can be heavily felt throughout the episodes we have seen so far, and although there have not really been too many dark or sad moments yet, I’m interested to see if there will be any and if there are, how they will be handled.
Miracle Workers airs Wednesdays at 6pm only on Stan