The only thing I knew about the show Miracle Workers was that it had Daniel Radcliffe in it. You know, #HarryPotterForLife. Now that I’ve watched Ep1, I have to say, it is the strangest show I have ever watched.

The premise is that Steve Buscemi, playing God, runs a company called Heaven Inc., a giant factory that basically runs/serves Earth. Making animals. Monitoring dirt. Controlling volcanic pressure. And a lot of the people who work at the factory are about as smart as Homer Simpson.

Anyway, God isn’t too happy with the whole Earth situation, he’s depressed, hates his job and his life, and is thinking of blowing up Earth and starting a restaurant in space based on a lazy Susan design.

Enter Geraldine Viswanathan as hopeful Eliza. She’s been working in the Department of Dirt for a long time, and wants a transfer to a job with more responsibility. She ends up in the one-man Department of Answered Prayers, where Daniel Radcliffe as Craig is turning into Robin Williams Castaway role. He’s a hermit, no friends, and unable to do much about most of the prayers. So while he gets 2M a day, he answers 4 or so. Mostly people looking for lost keys. Anything more complicated, and he sends it upstairs to God who ignores it.

She’s young, she’s vibrant, she wants to make a difference. So when she sees what’s happening, she barges into God’s office and challenges him to solve everything. Which God agrees to do. By blowing up the Earth and moving on. In order to save Earth, Eliza bets God that she can answer one “impossible” prayer — two Earthlings who like each other wanting to “make it happen” and fall in love. If she wins, he spares Earth; if she loses, Earth is gone AND she has to eat a live worm in front of everyone and pretend to enjoy it. Yeah, God is a bit of a childish dick. But, whatever, the bet is ON!

Buscemi is mildly amusing. The people around him, not so much. The other workers, not so much. Yawn. But Eliza and Craig? They have some spunk. And I’m likely going to tune in for seven episodes to see what happens.

If it was just this premise, and it’s not a “prayer of the week” plot, I would predict CANCELLATION. If they answered a different prayer each week, could be like God Friended Me, and I might give it a bigger chance. Like Touched By An Angel but with an irreverent view of the cosmos. But apparently the show has an anthology idea behind it, i.e. each season will be something different. Okay, I guess I’ll go with RENEWAL then? Because it is more like a new pilot each year.