“In the beginning, there was The Boom,” says Daniel Radcliffe’s faux-Max Rockatansky in the opening seconds of a trailer that is not technically for a Mad Max: Fury Road spinoff series, but certainly behaves like one. In actuality, it’s the teaser for season 4 of Miracle Workers, TBS’ anthology comedy series that has flown quietly under the radar for years. Perhaps a splash of guzzoline can rev the mainstream-hit engines when it premieres this January?
Once again starring Radcliffe, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Steve Buscemi — who started off playing angels and God himself, respectively, in season 1, but have played a new batch of weirdos with each genre-jumping iteration of the series — Miracle Workers: End Times picks up in a post-apocalyptic future where a road warrior (Radcliffe) and his warlord pal (Viswanathan), to quote the official summary, “face the most dystopian nightmare of all: settling down in the suburbs.” Joining them are Miracle Workers alumni Jon Bass, as “a faithful war dog,” and Karan Soni, playing a “kill-bot who loves to party.” Delightful.
Miracle Workers was created by Simon Rich, the former Saturday Night Writer writer who has carved out a lively career in satirical short story writing. Rich adapted his own stories into the first two seasons of Miracle Workers, then handed the baton to writers Dan Mirk and Robert Padnick for season 3, which rewired the action into an Oregon Trail parody. End Times finds a dose of corporate synergy in the Mad Max riff (TBS is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is why the show’s first three seasons are all streaming on HBO Max) but also an avenue for a cavalcade of comedy guest stars. Quinta Brunson, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Lolly Adefope, and Paul F. Tompkins will all pop up this season.
End Times arrives as Radcliffe goes on a parodic tear; not only does it mark the fourth season of his series, but it will arrive on the heels of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, his relentlessly goofy spoof biopic of “Weird” Al Yankovic. In his post-Harry Potter days, Radcliffe has been all about committing to the bit of weirdo creators — see: the movie in which he played a farting corpse for Everything Everywhere All at Once directors The Daniels, as well as the movie where he had guns for hands — and End Times appears to be yet another challenge of going all-in, in this case, as both actor and producer. Bless the man.
Miracle Workers: End Times premieres on TBS on Jan. 16.