Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Miracle Workers: Dark Ages’ On TBS, Where The Cast Moves From Heaven To A Medieval Village

Simon Rich promised that the cast of Miracle Workers would return for Season 2, albeit in a different setting and story. And you can’t get further away from Season 1’s setting in Heaven than a filthy village somewhere in medieval Europe. Read on for more about Miracle Workers: Dark Ages.

MIRACLE WORKERS: DARK AGES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An execution in a medieval village. While the poor schnook goes on the chopping block, two young women sit on a roof and play a drinking game, hoping the old hag comes out so they both can really pound down their brews.

The Gist: The two women are Alexandra Shitshoveler (Geraldine Viswanathan) and her best friend Molly (Lolly Adefope). They both hate the village where they live, and Ali has a way out: She’s going to school! Her frenemy, Mary Baker (Jessica Lowe) is reveling in the fact that she’ll be a baker and Ali will be following in her father Eddie Shitshoveler’s (Steve Buscemi) footsteps as, you know, a shitshoveler. But Ali is convinced she’ll get to travel the world once she goes to school.

Then she goes, and finds out that everything she could learn there is taught in the first five minutes, including “the world is flat,” and “the devil is evil.” She reluctantly starts apprenticing with her dad, who gives her her own personalized shitshovel, made super-short so she has to stoop over to shovel. She’s completely disillusioned, especially because Eddie — who loves his job, by the way — has pretty much one rule: “don’t turn your back on the cart.” He also rejects her invention of a longer handle for the shovel, because that’s not the way it’s done.

Meantime, Prince Chauncley (Daniel Radcliffe) is trying to find a way to make his father, the violent despot King Cragnoor (Peter Serafinowicz) proud of him, and wrangling his 100 ducks into a specialty act isn’t one of them. Cragnoor tells one of his right-hand men, Lord Chris Vexler (Karan Soni), to keep an eye on his wussy son, who doesn’t even have a nickname like his dad, who is King Cragnoor The Heartless. He volunteers to help his dad conquer their enemies the Valdrovians, then chickens out when he finds out how bloodthirsty they are. He pretends to be run over by the Shitshovelers’ wayward cart.

Eddie takes the blame, sending him to the chopping block. But Ali, who cherishes her relationship with her dad and her childlike brother Mikey (Jon Bass), convinces the prince that he’d be considered to be “pretty cool” if he let Eddie go. After all, everyone in the village needs Eddie, especially if they’re sick or just had a huge meal.

Our Take: Based on one of Rich’s many short stories, the Dark Ages season of Miracle Workers feels more episodic than the first season did. The first season had a season-long arc that culminated in the Earth getting saved at the very last second. Not that the episodic nature of Dark Ages is unwelcome, but it also means that the stories told don’t hang together as well and feel more like a story that could take place anywhere.

But that might be the point. Like the first season, Dark Ages places 21st century characters who have 21st century worries and problems in a different setting; Rich doesn’t try to make his characters talk in an old-timey voice, and they use current colloquialisms and language. And there are some very funny gags in the two episodes we saw.

And, like Season 1, what we enjoyed were the smaller jokes and the relationships that were building between the characters. It’s a fun in-joke that Buscemi has gone from playing God in Season 1 to a shitshoveler in Season 2, but the other in-joke is that God was a miserable prick, while Eddie Shitshoveler gladly shovels shit, because he knows he provides an important service and it provides for his family.

We also enjoyed the fact that Adefope, so good in Season 1 and in both seasons of Shrill, is featured more this season. Molly takes a job a a nun, which she really just sees as a “cushy” job and nothing else. She drolly laughs at a fellow nun who wants to tell on her for not cutting out her tongue in a vow of silence, saying, “you can’t say anything, because you cut out your tongue!” Radcliffe plays your typical cowardly prince, but we can see his character learning and growing as the season goes on.

So, all the elements that made Season 1 such a success are there; we just wish there was more of a cohesive story for them to work with.

Sex and Skin: Nothing. Too much shit is around.

Parting Shot: Ali has a change of heart about learning the shitshoveling business, and Eddie actually lets her improve things, like the long handle and the stick used as a brake for the cart. The two of them walk with the cart through the village together.

Sleeper Star: We talked about Adefope, but Jon Bass deserves some mentioning here; he had a thankless role in Season 1 as one of the uncomfortable Earthlings that needed to fall in love for the planet to be saved, and his role as the simple but sweet Mikey will be more prominent. We’re enjoying what we’re seeing so far.

Most Pilot-y Line: This line was funny, but calling one of Ali’s frenemies Wesley Pervert (Jack Mosedale) was a bit on the nose. What else was he going to do having that last name?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Miracle Workers: Dark Ages may not have that satisfying story arc that the show’s first season has, but Viswanathan is a great lead and the characters are well-established by the end of the first episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Miracle Workers: Dark Ages on TBS.com