Miracle Workers: End Times Season 4 Episode 3 Review: The MatriXXX

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, Miracle Workers being covered here wouldn’t exist.

With Miracle Workers: End Times Season 4 Episode 3, “The MatriXXX,” things get weird and disjointed really fast — and not in an entertaining way. This season continues to suffer from uninspired ideas and a severe lack of flow.

The writing talents for this episode are definitely something to be acknowledged. The ideas are there but unfortunately are poorly executed and molded together in a disjointed way.

Sex Therapy? More Like WTF?!

One of the shining elements of Miracle Workers as an anthology series is that it works hard to push the boundaries of normality. Each season seems to be a contest of which setting can create the most outlandish lines, tropes, and situations. 

Unfortunately, in this post-apocalyptic world, this desire to push the format ends up harming the structure of the show and episodes. There is a difference between pushing boundaries and creating never-before-seen scenarios and simply creating cringe all over the place.

This happens when Freya and Sid decide to participate in marriage counseling with Tai. First and foremost, this could have been a great opportunity for the writers to build upon who Sid and Freya are as a couple instead of diving into their kinks.

By making the focus of this episode be their kinks instead of figuring out the core of who they are and why they decided to get married in the first place, the episode loses its chance to make this season mean something.

Instead, viewers are thrown into moments of gratuitous torture and boulder (?!) porn that allows Daniel Radcliffe to strip off his clothes and go bare for big chunks of time. Most of this episode doesn’t rely on the phenomenal acting skills of Radcliffe and Viswanathan and instead forces them to rely on their bodies and ridiculous kinks to sell what should be a fun story.

Even at its worst moments in the first three seasons, Miracle Workers has never reduced itself to relying on physical action instead writing and storytelling. 

Not only does this story misuse Radcliffe and Viswanathan’s talents, but Bass and Soni’s as well. All of these phenomenal comedic actors are reduced to juvenile sex jokes to entertain the audience.

Spoiler alert: none of it is funny.

What Is the Point of Morris?

The other portion of this episode that really pushes the cringe to the extreme is Morris’ high school reunion. Buscemi has become extremely adept at selling just about anything during his long and illustrious career. 

However, even he can’t sell the idea that talking to, dancing with, and having sex with skeletons is anything other than disturbing. The entire time “The MatriXXX” focuses on this plot we are left wondering when the torture of our eyeballs will cease. 

Why do we care about Morris’ now dead classmates? Do people really find skeleton cringe humor funny?

It’s one thing if Morris is standing around just chatting it up with these deceased folks. However, the story crosses a line when it pushes the narrative that Morris is attracted to and aroused by a female skeleton.

Once again, the gratuitous focus on sexual humor is unnecessary and actually makes this episode extremely hard to watch. There is no individuality or creativity at work during Morris’ break from reality.

This plot just further serves to make it obvious that Morris’ character has no real influence on Sid or Freya — who are our main focus this season. He fails to serve any major purpose and therefore seems to be wasting space.

If we stretch our imaginations a little bit, we might be able to say this story expands what we know about Morris and further solidifies his insanity persona. However, it shouldn’t have to be this hard for viewers to make heads or tails of why something is happening.

Ultimately this episode doesn’t work and fails to connect any of the episodes revealed thus far. It’s a tragedy really, because Season 4 could very well be the final season of Miracle Workers.

I’d hate to see this brilliant show go out on such a stinker of a season.

Stray Thoughts:

• Scraps continues to be the only character that makes me laugh.
• The simulated date at the end was extremely sweet and the kind of moments we should be seeing between Freya and Sid
• At this point during the previous 3 seasons, viewers were able to discern what the overarching story is, but with Season 4 I’m still scratching my head.

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

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Miracle Workers: End Times airs Mondays at 10/9c on TBS.

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Emmys 2023: Nominees include ‘Succession,’ ‘The Last of Us,’ ‘The White Lotus,’ and ‘Ted Lasso.’