Miracle Workers: Dark Ages Review: Internship (Season 2 Episode 4)

Prince Chauncley and Mikey find fitting in a difficult thing to grapple with on Miracle Workers: Dark Ages Season 2 Episode 4, “Internship,” as they may need help grasping the basics.

It’s more of a simple, straightforward episode, where the emphasis is on life lessons for both Chauncley and Mikey that they should have learned many years prior. The story leaves Al and Ed as mentors of a kind, to be the voices of help and hope for both characters as they set off on paths they are not quite ready for.

Chauncley entering the work force and Mikey making friends are smart ways to deliver some touching growth for both through what they learn about others and about themselves. While Chauncley is learning about honesty, Mikey is learning about dishonesty, as his new friends use him multiple times.

Mikey’s situation is a little tougher for him to see through, mostly through how kind his new friends are with their cadence. Their way of talking is abundantly friendly before tacking on some questionable piece, making his confusion at least somewhat valid. His problem is that he’s too kind, and too easy to manipulate. But at least Al is there to push him in the right direction.

The shoveling trade may not come to Chauncley easily, but he could make a great fire-starter. It’s a classic kind of joke, to have a simple task become a fire or explosion, but with Chauncley it certainly sticks to his mode of existence. It also gives us Steve Buscemi saying, “let’s boogey,” which is hopefully a catchphrase that continues on.

Radcliffe and Buscemi together, it turns out, is a wonderful match. On the first season of Miracle Workers, their interactions are few and far between, but on this episode, as short as their scenes may be, there’s this genuine sense of fun for them being together, where their back and forth clicks. Hopefully, there’s more to come.

The merry gang of fiends that Mikey befriends is another one of the strange creations of the show, this group of Robin Hood-esque people turning out to be simple robbers looking for drug money.

It’s an impressive feat that the show continues to go for, that goodness rarely is as it seems, that there’s a gray area underneath the kindness in people’s hearts. Perhaps it’s cynical, but it’s a consistent theme the show uses to its advantage.

Miracle Workers: Dark Ages Season 2 Episode 4, “Internship,” is a mostly tame episode that accomplishes what it sets out to do. Some characters, like Mikey, have been mostly on the sidelines, and this is a successful episode of bringing him more into the fray of action than the previous attempt, Miracle Workers: Dark Ages Season 2 Episode 2, “Help Wanted,” where he’s mostly a punchline to Chauncley and Al’s stories.

Chauncley’s character continues to be the most interesting beyond the many jokes at the expense of his royalty. He’s overwhelmingly incompetent, but the earnestness that Radcliffe plays the character brings a warmth to the show.

Some stray thoughts on the episode:

• More of this book club that Al and Maggie have created could be a cool little side story. But with the gang taking Al’s book, and the potential rarity of books at this moment in history, it may be too much to ask.
• It’s good to see Lord Vexler already back to his old self, looking for ways to rid Chauncley of annoying him for the day. His worries on Miracle Workers: Dark Ages Season 2 Episode 3, “Road Trip,” look to be a distant memory now.

 

What did you think of this episode of Miracle Workers: Dark Ages? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Miracle Workers: Dark Ages airs Tuesdays at 10:30/9:30c on TBS.

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