'Miracle Workers: Dark Ages' Episode 7 Review: Eddie marries a goat to save his head after AI 'sues the Crown'
While 'Miracle Workers: Dark Ages' got off to a splendid start, mixing satire with medieval humor, the last few episodes have been low on laughs. Still, the charm of the cast makes it a pleasant if not "laugh out loud" watch.
There is a hint of the old magic in the cold open where King Cragnor (Peter Serafinowicz) roars menacingly as he draws a sword and marches off like he is going to battle. In the next scene, we see crickets chirping, as he lies on a couch in a therapist's hut. She questions him about why he felt it necessary to wear his armor to attend the session. The quick jump in mood and music as the bloodthirsty king becomes the twitchy, vulnerable patient is precisely the sort of absurdity that works well within the 'Miracle Workers: Dark Ages' set up.
But this early promise is squandered as the episode turns to how Al (Geraldine Viswanathan) goes to court to sue the Crown for the Royal Goat's "crime" for destroying her father, Eddie Shitshoveler's (Steve Buscemi) vegetable garden.
Lord Vexler (Karan Soni), defending the goat, quickly turns the tables on her by first making the goat "his client" and then accusing Eddie of having an anti-goat bias and casting slurs on "Gobbler" the she-goat's reputation. Since it is the Dark Ages, the penalty is death by "being eaten" by the defamed goat.
By this time, Eddie has faced so many near-executions that he is surprisingly chill. He even applauds Lord Vexler's prowess in reducing Mickey Shitshoveler (Jon Bass) to a shaking, weeping mess, even as the "stacked jury", who are all goat herders, prepare to convict him.
Al, on the other hand, who started this whole "sue the Crown" initiative, is panicking. With a goat-friendly judge and jury, the chances of her father escaping a death sentence are slim.
Even the court sketch of Eddie portrays him as the Devil with a pitchfork, forked tail and horn with a speech bubble that says, "I am Guilty". Meanwhile, the goat has ghost-written a memoir called "If I Ate It".
Al, at her wit's end, appeals to Prince Chauncley (Daniel Radcliffe) to get his father, the king, to the courthouse to ensure a fair and just trial. Prince Chauncley is having a "puzzle party" with his father. The king, post his therapy session to heal his "core hurts" (and presumably his guilt over last episode's fratricide), has mellowed considerably.
Confident that his father is now more loving and less prone to violent rages, Prince Chauncley broaches the issue. But King Cragnor's response is to get a nose bleed from suppressed rage when Chauncley dares question the justice being meted out in his royal court.
The prince backtracks quickly, not wanting to upset his father and destroy the bond they have formed. But when he tells Al this, she is outraged that Chauncley is OK with Eddie, her father, being executed, rather than risk upsetting the king.
Prince Chauncley, feeling guilty, turns up the Shitshoveler residence with all the law books in the palace's library. He ends up burning the midnight candle to help Al research the case to find a loophole to get her father off death row.
Eventually, right after Eddie has carved his own gravestone, Al finds an obscure law which states that a wife cannot eat her husband. Prince Chauncley unites Eddie and Gobbler, the goat in holy matrimony to secure him a pardon -- it's a gambit that is successful and the goat becomes Eddie's wife. One of the funniest scenes is the goat acting all in coy and demure when Al mentions she is Eddie's wife and the judge gives them his blessing.
Thankfully, no bestiality laws are in effect in the kingdom of Murkwood otherwise Eddie would have been in even more trouble.
'Miracle Workers: Dark Ages airs on Tuesdays at at 10:30/9:30c.
