Miracle Workers: End Times Season 4 Episodes 1 and 2 Review: Welcome to Boomtown/H.O.A.
Unlike previous seasons, Miracle Workers: End Times Season 4 Episodes 1 and 2, “Welcome to Boomtown/H.O.A.” gets off to a more outlandish start. This doesn’t translate into fantastic storytelling, which is most disappointing.
After three seasons of absolute bangers, having a post-apocalyptic season fall short of intriguing is just sad. The talent of the actors is still out of this world, but the writing doesn’t stand out from any other post-apocalyptic storyline we’ve already seen a hundred times.
What’s even worse is the show unsuccessfully manages to pull from different ideas and tries to mesh them together.
A Disservice to the Actors
With both “Welcome to Boomtown” and “H.O.A.,” it’s disheartening that the laughs are few and far between. Even the setting doesn’t serve up anything unique to Miracle Workers: End Times.
Daniel Radcliffe, Jon Bass, Steve Buscemi, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Karan Soni have been serving up hit after hit from season to season. So, for the writers to give them something as mundane as “a husband and wife, one a warlord the other hapless, stop living a nomad life and rejoin society” for this season is a misuse of their talents.
Bass’ character is the only one that gives the audience something to laugh at, but even that isn’t enough. There is just too much world-building — which would be fine if the world was something worth caring about — and not enough establishing the characters.
Viswanathan and Radcliffe have a wonderful chemistry onscreen together which has been utilized to the fullest in previous seasons, but so far the writing has them off in their own separate worlds despite being married. Maybe the best dynamic for them is when they are romantic interests that aren’t actually together at the start.
This way their chemistry allows something to build between them instead of having an already established relationship that isn’t being expressed the way their chemistry deserves.
Then there is the known dynamic between Radcliffe and Buscemi which has built this show from the first season. Now they are thrown together in a situation that, so far, hasn’t allowed their comedic timing to bounce off each other.
The biggest disservice to this season so far — which we still have 8 episodes so the hope is still there — is not hardly using Karan Soni’s talents at all.
He is by far the strongest player on the board behind Radcliffe and Buscemi and yet, so far Miracle Workers: End Times has him as this minor robot character who shows up to be snarky and lazy and not much else.
End Times We’ve Seen You Before
Going into this season, I was a bit nervous about the setting because it’s something that seems to be all the rage in the past decade. This means that the industry has been over-saturated with content about post-apocalyptic society.
“H.O.A.” offers us a little bit of relief with the introduction of an H.O.A. within the new society, but even that still falls a bit short. Freya wants to make the rules because she’s used to being a warlord so she runs for President of the H.O.A.
This is a story that could be expanded on beyond the half-hour run time of the episode, and yet everything gets mushed into one episode. It makes everything feel incomplete and unnecessary.
We aren’t given enough time to process what is happening between Freya and the current President, Linda before it’s revealed that the election has happened and everyone voted for Linda. If the writers are going to create this sort of storyline, then it needs to be the sole focus of the story.
Instead, we have to flip back and forth between Freya’s quest and Sid’s adventure with Rubinstein to make a little side money. There is so much going on that “H.O.A.,” much like “Welcome to Boomtown,” comes off as filler instead of establishing a foundation for the rest of the season.
After all, it already feels like we’ve been here before (because we have in every other dystopian genre film/TV show).
If we are in the first episodes of the season, nothing should feel like filler content. Despite having a wonderful previous track record, Miracle Workers: End Times seems to be an epic flop.
There’s a chance the rest of the season will round things out a little bit better, but hopes are not very high at this point.
Stray Thoughts
- Jon Bass continues to delight by playing ridiculously outlandish characters. This season as a human pet that acts like a dog dressed in BDSM-esque leather is hilarious just on image alone — then he speaks.
- Rubinstein’s McMansion of the 2020s — which looks like a cross between a home and a McDonalds — is insane, in the best way.
- Sid’s excitement over a chair is peak Daniel Radcliffe comedic timing
What did you think of these episodes 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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Mads Misasi
Mads is a part-time entertainment journalist and full-time marketing content creator. They love any and all TV Dramas with a few sitcoms mixed in. Join in the fun talking about TV by following them on Twitter: @dorothynyc89.