Buscemi, Radcliffe in comedy heaven
If combining Mr. Pink and Harry Potter is your idea of divine, you might like “Miracle Workers” (10:30 p.m., TBS, TV-14).
Steve Buscemi (“Boardwalk Empire”) returns to television in this limited series comedy. He’s God. Or rather a bored variation on God, a distracted, disheveled old man who shuffles around his giant mansion looking for something to do. At wit’s end, he determines that Earth is too troubled to save and vows to destroy it.
Daniel Radcliffe plays Craig, a very low-level angel assigned to answering prayers. He was delighted to receive help in the form of new angel Eliza (Geraldine Viswanathan), until news spread of the boss’s apocalyptic decision.
Heaven is depicted here as a joyless back office. How dronelike are its employees? It features Angela Kinsey from “The Office.”
Between “God Friended Me,” “The Good Place” and “Russian Doll,” we’re living in a golden age of speculative supernatural series.
Despite its cast, “Miracle” is hardly heaven-sent.
› My favorite documentaries are those that teach me something new. Or help me rediscover something I’ve forgotten. “American Experience: Sealab” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) recalls a filed-away moment from the Cold War.
After orbiting the globe as a Mercury astronaut, Scott Carpenter joined the corps of the Navy’s “aquanauts,” divers out to explore the icy depths of Earth’s oceans, places almost as mysterious and forbidding as outer space.
“Sealab” profiles some of the larger-than-life figures behind this era of exploration and their ambitious plans to build submarine cities and harvest underwater crops. Reflecting the times, these projects saw nature as something to be mastered and harnessed, with little thought to environmental impact.
Like the race to the moon, this scientific mission had military overtones, as both the United States and the Soviets
were deploying nuclear subs to project power and engage in espionage.
The Sealab mission was short-lived. The term was revived in “Sealab 2021” a goofy, absurd 2001 Adult Swim cartoon that parodied an obscure Hanna-Barbera cartoon about the era of the aquanaut.
› TV-themed DVDs available today include two Acorn imports: “Bang” season one and the second season of “Ackley Bridge.”
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) features Sen. Marco Rubio, former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
› A couple on the run pulls off violent heists on “FBI” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
› Don Cornelius takes stock of his life on “American Soul” (9 p.m., TBS, TV-14).
› Clean soap and water on “The Kids Are Alright” (8:30 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
› Randall and Kate share memories on “This Is Us” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).