Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
TBS’ ‘Miracle Workers’: Hideous Heresy or Just for Laughs? (Or Both? Or Neither?)

TBS’ ‘Miracle Workers’: Hideous Heresy or Just for Laughs? (Or Both? Or Neither?)

Last updated on: February 19, 2019 at 2:13 pm by Kate O'Hare

TBS’ ‘Miracle Workers’: Hideous Heresy or Just for Laughs? (Or Both? Or Neither?) 2019-02-19T14:13:32-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi of “Miracle Workers”/TBS

Yesterday, I got an email demanding that TBS cancel its new series Miracle Workers because it “blasphemes Almighty God.” So, does it? I guess, technically, if you have no sense of humor or proportion or even whimsy.

The half-hour limited series (official site here) premiered on Feb. 12 and airs Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT (the timeslot should be a hint that it’s not for the whole family). I’ve seen all of them. The show is the creation of puckish novelist and humorist Simon Rich, and is based on his novel “What in God’s Name.” The New York Times compared the book to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (one of my all-time faves) and wrote:

But this gentle, enjoyable parody owes more to “The Simpsons,” and to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s “Good Omens.” Rich isn’t interested in condemning religion — he just wants to have fun with it, using the Bible as an outrageous vehicle with which to present, in his own odd way, questions about faith and human nature. Funny and occasionally touching, “What in God’s Name” is satire that avoids sanctimony.

If you missed the premiere, here’s the whole first episode:

https://youtu.be/2jcvU607KCM

Miracle Workers isn’t a show about any real concept of God or angels or theology or religion. It’s a show about people employed at a huge, dysfunctional corporation (called Heaven, Inc.), who are trying, against all odds and occasionally badly, to save the world. Steve Buscemi plays a character called God, but he’s not what we call God. He’s a bumbling, incoherent, possibly illiterate, capricious comic construct. Daniel Radcliffe plays a character referred to as an angel, but he’s not an angel. He’s a former mortal human tasked with answering prayers at Heaven, Inc.

These characters are about as much God and angels as the Lincoln of Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter was actually our 16th president. So, if you can’t get the idea that these are utterly fictional characters straight in your head, then yeah, don’t watch Miracle Workers. But like the New York Times book reviewer, I can tell the difference between a humorous send-up of general religious themes and a malicious attack on the nature of belief and believers.

By the time I got through its final episodes — which are stronger than the beginning — Miracle Workers was amusing, rather sweet and made some interesting points about the dangers of answered prayers.

The central conflict of the show comes when God decides to destroy Earth — which, as he observes by watching TV, is in a terrible state — in order to realize his dream of creating a restaurant, and maybe gain his disapproving family’s respect. Angels Craig (Radcliffe) and Eliza (Geraldine Viswanathan) manage to head him off by making a bet. If they can get shy, hapless would-be lovers Sam and Laura (Jon Bass, Sasha Compere) to kiss, the Earth will be saved.

As Craig points out to Eliza at the beginning, answering prayers can be hazardous. Afraid to tinker too much with reality, he works within the laws of physics, using gentle nudges and slight alterations, concentrating on answering only the easiest of requests. Truly impossible prayers get sent via pneumatic tube to God, who ignores them. He’s far too busy worrying about eating, his new restaurants and any number of other pointless pursuits.

To be honest, Craig and I are on the same page about how prayers are answered. We all want big lightning bolts from the sky and immediate gratification, but as the show demonstrates, we have no idea how many levers and dials have to be manipulated in the universe at large for us to get what we want. And, what we want may not be be what we need, or it may hurt other people, or we may get it at the expense of something else or … you get it.

I think God’s answers to prayers are “Yes,” “No,” “Not Yet” or “No, But I Have Something Better in Mind.” And you get that answer is His time, not yours. We just don’t have a big enough picture to have any clue about the true cost of granting wishes. Miracles must be few and far between, because if they happened regularly, we wouldn’t be able to count on physics and biology and geology and all the other things that make reality comprehensible and predictable.

Nobody would, for even a day, want a world in which all our prayers are answered and we have miraculous escapes from every mishap. That would negate free will, which only is real if it has real consequences.

(Incidentally, in Miracle Workers, God’s insufferable family can’t imagine why he did something as crazy as giving humans free will.)

As Craig, Eliza and others they recruit to their cause scramble to unite Sam and Laura, mass disasters strike and thousands die. That’s an extreme example of what happens when anyone tries to force something into existence.

Here’s an exchange I had last week at the biannual TV Critics Association Press Tour on this very topic:

ME: Obviously, it’s not a show you’re going to go to for theology. But what I sort of liked about it is it pointed that when you want something you don’t know how many levers have to turn in the universe for you to get the thing you want.

SIMON RICH: Yes.

QUESTION: Was that like a central idea when you were doing this?

SIMON RICH: Big time. It might even be the central idea. Yeah. I mean, you know, we probably have the highest body count of any rom-com in history. This is a show where, basically, two humans pray to be a couple, and the angels are trying to make that a reality, but there’s constant collateral damage. They’re constantly, inadvertently, causing typhoons, terrible things are happening to innocent, undeserving people, and the show, you know, it sounds like a very nihilistic show because it’s a show that posits a cosmology where, basically, everything in human history is random and meaningless and accidental, but it’s also a show in which miracles are possible and in which individuals are capable of making good things happen in small ways every day. So, it’s superficially defeatist but, ultimately, kind of sweet.

Taken in the right spirit, Miracle Workers is very weird, a little sweet and ultimately fun. It’s not a show about faith in God, but about having faith in ourselves and in others — and hope. In an increasingly nihilistic entertainment world, that’s a nice thing to see.

Image: TBS

Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other home, as Social Media Manager at Family Theater Productions; and check out FTP’s Faith & Family Media Blog, and our YouTube Channel.

media

television

video

channel - Entertainment

Daniel Radcliffe

Steve Buscemi

TBS

About Kate O'Hare

Based in Los Angeles, Kate O'Hare is a recovering entertainment journalist, social-media manager for Catholic production company Family Theater Productions and a screenwriter. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

February 9, 2019

Thoughts on Watching PBS' 'Victoria' While Catholic (and Irish)

Next Post

February 19, 2019 'All I Do Is Prayer': Pop Sensation Sister Cristina of CBS' 'The World's Best' on Faith, Lady Gaga and Singing for $1M

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz