"Miracle Workers" is one of the best comedies I've seen in a while -- a clever concept, neatly played by newcomer Geraldine Viswanathan, not-newcomer Daniel Radcliffe and more. It starts Tuesday (Feb. 12) and reruns almost daily. Here's the story I sent to papers:
By Mike Hughes
PASADENA, Cal. --
These guys seem like semi-identical cousins.
There's Daniel
Radcliffe, of “Harry Potter” fame; and Simon Rich, who created
“Miracle Workers,” Radcliffe's new cable comedy. For starters,
they look alike.
“He's a lot
taller,” Radclife said. Not a lot; Radcliffe is 5-foot-5, Rich is
5-8, both have cherubic faces.
They also share a
sense of humor. “I respond to comedy when it takes chances,”
Radcliffe said.
That's Rich's style
– witty satire, punctuated by sudden jolts. “We probably have the
highest body count of any (romantic comedy) in history,” he
boasted.
And he's created an
expansive world to put those jolts in. As Rich explains the new show:
“God, in the midst
of a full-blown, midlife crisis, announces to his company – Heaven,
Inc. -- that he's going to blow up the Earth and retire and open a
novelty restaurant. Now they've got two weeks to get these two humans
to kiss, or else the world explodes.”
At first, that
responsibility falls on the unassuming Craig. “There's one guy, in
charge of answering billions of prayers,” said Radcliffe, who plays
him. “He does three or four a day.”
They're small ones,
mostly – finding a key or a glove or something. He would give up
...but his new co-worker, Elizabeth, is intent on saving the world,
even if they keep flubbing.
Together, Rich said,
they keep getting it wrong. “Terrible things are happening to
innocent, undeserving people .... So it's superficially defeatist,
but ultimately kind of sweet.”
That combination is
what makes “Miracle Workers” fun. “It's really a very delicate
balance,” said Geraldine Viswanathan. “It's sharp and cynical,
but also has a lot of warmth to it.”
As Elizabeth, she
adds to a project that seems to span continents. It has:
-- Radcliffe, the
Englishman who can be anonymous, even after his movies made billions.
“I'm 5-5, so I can put a cap on and no one will notice me.”
-- Rich, who grew up
at the epicenter of American show business: Broadway (his dad, Frank
Rich, now a columnist, was the New York Times' theater critic) ...
the Harvard Lampoon ... and then “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote
quirky sketches, which producer Lorne Michaels tended to put at the
end of the show. “I've always had a great relationship with him
.... Lorne likes the last 15 minutes of the show.” Michaels became
a producer of Rich's first series (“Man Seeking Woman”) and
“Miracle Workers.”
-- And Viswanathan,
who savors both countries' humor. “I've always loved British
sitcoms,” she said, but she also grew up as a “Friends” fan.
Her own roots? She's
your typical Swiss-Indian-Aussie.
Viswanathan's dad,
who has roots in India, is a doctor. After medical school, he studied
ballet in Paris – yes, he could have become a toe-dancing physician
– where he met his wife, an actress from Switzerland. They moved to
Australia.
It's a background so
varied that Viswanathan's first words were in Tamil (from her
paternal grandmother), she speaks fluent Swiss German, but she sounds
American Midwest in conversation.
Back in Australia,
she did the third season of the “Janet King” series. Auditioning
by video, she landed roles in three American movies (including
“Blockers”) and then entered Rich's vision of Heaven.
“We got to shoot
in a semi-abandoned fiber-optics factory in the middle of Georgia,”
Rich said. There, they created “this ramshackle, decrepit,
industrial vision of Heaven.”
That's where these
two hold Earth's fate. Craig is “a very diligent, hard-working
angel,” Radcliffe said, but “frightened and panicky ....
Elizabeth is extremely ambitious and driven – everything Craig is
not.”
They may save the
world; we won't spoil any surprises. And they'll inadvertently kill
some Earthlings.
-- “Miracle
Workers,” 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays, TBS, rerunning at 11:30; for seven
weeks.
-- First episode
(Feb. 12) reruns at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday; 4 and 11:30 p.m., Thursday;
8:30 p.m., Friday; 11:30 p.m., Saturday; 11 p.m., Sunday; 5 and 10:30
p.m., Monday.
-- Second episode
(Feb. 19) reruns at 7 p.m., Feb. 20; 11:30 p.m., Feb. 21; 11 p.m.,
Feb. 22; 11:30 p.m., Feb. 23; 11 p.m., Feb. 24.
-- TNT reruns the
first episode at 7:30 p.m., Saturday' and 10:30 p.m., Sunday (Feb.
16-17). It reruns the first two at 4:30 and 5 p.m., Feb. 20; and
11:15 and 11:45 p.m., Feb. 24.