TBS‘s delightful oddball comedy Miracle Workers is finally back and delivering its zaniest season yet with End Times, the fourth chapter in the anthology series starring Daniel Radcliffe, Geraldine Viswanathan, Steve Buscemi, Jon Bass, and Karan Soni.
Fans who have followed the gang since Season 1 know that every chapter sees them playing new characters. So, who are they in the End Times, which evokes comparisons to Mad Max and Dune among other apocalyptic works? Radcliffe and Viswanathan, who have played out the “will they or won’t they?” romance in past seasons, are kicking things off as a married couple, Sid and Freya.
The dynamic change offered the stars a new avenue to explore. “It was really nice to switch it up and kind of mine the territory of a relationship versus like the ‘will they won’t they’ of it all,” Viswanathan tells TV Insider. “I think we’ve definitely exhausted that, so it was cool to get right into it.”
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The season revolves around the pair moving to Boomtown, the equivalent of post-apocalyptic suburbia, where Sid explores the idea of a nine-to-five job and Freya seeks her next adventure as a Warlord. As Radcliffe explains, Sid has “lived his entire life as a nomadic road warrior with no home or friends or family.” And so, the move to Boomtown with his bride comes with challenges of their own.
“The whole show is about these people who’ve lived this very different life figuring out if they want to settle down and what does that mean when you are a road warrior,” Radcliffe shares. When it comes to his character, the actor says, “Sid just takes to it like a duck to water. He actually realizes that he would’ve loved to be living in the suburbs his entire life.”
Freya doesn’t take as easily to the environment though. Viswanathan says of her Warlord character, “she’s trying to hang up her ax and move to the suburbs and try on the domestic life, but she’s not very good at that. She’s just a warlord at heart. It’s what she was good at. It’s what she’s done her whole life.”
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Their married life sets the stage for “a lot of different jokes and different stories,” Radcliffe notes.
And joining them in their new life together is her Wardog, Scraps, played by Bass. “His sole mission is to protect her,” Bass says. “Now that they’ve moved to Boomtown and they’re starting this new life in the suburbs, he’s lost his edge and is now domesticated.”
If you’re having a hard time picturing a domesticated Wardog, imagine a grown man wearing a mohawk hairdo donning a gimp suit. “I said, ‘Can you make me as naked as possible?’ And they said, ‘Yes, we’ll put you in a gimp suit for the entire season,’” Bass recalls of early conversations with the show’s creatives. “I had to remind myself that I asked for this.”
Meanwhile, Buscemi, who has played an array of characters for the show ranging from God to a western bandit, is portraying Junk Man Morris Rubinstein. “He’s sort of the town big shot,” Buscemi says of his character. “He has the biggest business in town, and he’s a respected member of the community, but he’s not exactly the best role model.”
Viewers get a glimpse of this when Morris brings his employee Sid to a special business meeting outside of their junkyard office space in Episode 2. “He really cares about money and status,” Buscemi adds. “But I think he does have a good side to him. He does see something in Daniel’s character, even though he wants to exploit it.” This dynamic makes way for a mentor-mentee relationship, which will be tested as the season unfolds.
Rounding out the core ensemble is Soni, who takes on the role of TI-90 (a.k.a. Tai), a kill-bot and bestie to Freya. Soni says the character was pitched to him as the “one friend of yours who hasn’t grown up and is still partying ’til like three or four in the morning and kind of dragging you into this lifestyle that you’re maybe growing out of, but in the form of a Terminator.”
TI-90’s partying ways could pose a problem for Freya and Sid as they try and find their footing in Boomtown. Thankfully, their challenges are fuel for plenty of laughs.
Miracle Workers, Season 4 Premiere, Monday, July 10, 10/9c, TBS
