SERIES PREMIERE: This seven-part comedy series is based on a book by Simon Rich, creator of the unforgivably underrated FXX series
Man Seeking Woman. And yes, this new TBS series, about minions in heaven trying to save the planet Earth in general and one not-yet-a-couple in particular, has sparks of the same surrealistic imagination – but not until many episodes in, when God, played by Steve Buscemi, returns “home.” At home, it turns out, he has disapproving parents and a couple of snobby, overachieving siblings. Admit it: You don’t see
that vision of God every day, even in a farcical comedy. But for the most part,
Miracle Workers, which stars Daniel Radcliffe as a sad-sack functionary in the basement bowels of a heavenly factory wish-fulfillment system, isn’t quite amusing or inventive enough – especially when compared to NBC’s similarly heavenly
The Good Place, my current favorite TV comedy. Buscemi is fine, and plays God as a sort of Divine Dude from
The Big Lebowski – but the rest of this TBS sitcom doesn’t quite gel, or sparkle.
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.