History Series / MiracleWorkers

* ArtifactTitle: The second and third seasons are still called ''Miracle Workers'' despite not involving the divine or supernatural at all. (In the first season, Radcliffe and Viswanathan's characters were literal miracle workers in Heaven.)

* UniversalAdaptorCast: The core cast is the same for every season, although the roles they play have no connections, and rarely even similar personality traits; for example, Buscemi plays an incompetent God in Miracle Workers, a well-meaning but old-fashioned father in Dark Ages, and an unrepentant criminal in Oregon Trail.

The series has been renewed for a fourth season, ''End Times'', which takes place in a post-apocalyptic future.

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[[/index]]

The series has been renewed for a fourth season, with no word yet on its setting.

''Miracle Workers'' is a 2019 Creator/{{TBS}} anthology series based on the writings of Simon Rich starring Creator/DanielRadcliffe, Creator/GeraldineViswanathan, Karan Soni, Lolly Adefope (Season 1 and 2), Jon Bass, and Creator/SteveBuscemi.

# ''Series/MiracleWorkersSeasonOne'', God (Buscemi) is in a funk, having come to the realization that Earth has turned into a terrible place and that it's all become too much to handle. Deciding that his creation is a lost cause, God announces that he's decided to blow it all up and pursue other ventures. It's up to Craig (Radcliffe) and Eliza (Viswanathan), low-level angels responsible for answering humanity's prayers, to convince God to give Earth one more chance by answering one impossible prayer within two weeks.

* BlackVikings: In seasons 2 and 3 especially, when the show adopts nominally historical settings. You wouldn't be finding a woman of Indian ethnicity as a common peasant in either medieval Europe or 1844 America, but there she is anyway.

[[/index]]]

In ''Series/MiracleWorkersSeasonOne'', God (Buscemi) is in a funk, having come to the realization that Earth has turned into a CrapsackWorld and that it's all become too much to handle. Deciding that his creation is a lost cause, God announces that he's decided to blow it all up and pursue other ventures. It's up to Craig (Radcliffe) and Eliza (Viswanathan), low-level angels responsible for answering humanity's prayers, to convince God to give Earth one more chance by answering one impossible prayer within two weeks.

In Season 2--''Series/MiracleWorkersDarkAges''--Prince Chauncley (Radcliffe) is struggling to live up to his tough father's expectations. Meanwhile, Alexandra "Al" Shitshoveler (Viswanathan) pursues an education in the hope of not becoming a dung-shoveler like her father (Buscemi). Inevitably, the two meet and have a common realization: it's quite a challenge to defy expectations and not follow in your parents' footsteps. And sometimes, a change like that is needed to add some light in the dark ages. While the first season had a central story arc, Season 2 is episodic in nature.

In Season 3--''Series/MiracleWorkersOregonTrail''--the Reverend Ezekiel Brown (Radcliffe) is the pastor of a grim, dusty prairie town in the American West in 1844. With his parishioners dying of cholera and the harvest having failed again, Rev. Brown hits on an idea: go to Oregon! Rev. Brown needs a guide to take the village to Oregon, and who should show up but "Jim Nobody" (Buscemi), a grimy frontiersman who volunteers to take them--except that he is really Benny the Teen, notorious bank robber and wanted criminal. Viswanathan is Prudence Aberdeen, photographer hobbyist and housewife stuck in an unfulfilling marriage.

In Season 2--''Series/MiracleWorkersDarkAges''''--Prince Chauncley (Radcliffe) is struggling to live up to his tough father's expectations. Meanwhile, Alexandra "Al" Shitshoveler (Viswanathan) pursues an education in the hope of not becoming a dung-shoveler like her father (Buscemi). Inevitably, the two meet and have a common realization: it's quite a challenge to defy expectations and not follow in your parents' footsteps. And sometimes, a change like that is needed to add some light in the dark ages. While the first season had a central story arc, Season 2 is episodic in nature.

In Season 1, God (Buscemi) is in a funk, having come to the realization that Earth has turned into a CrapsackWorld and that it's all become too much to handle. Deciding that his creation is a lost cause, God announces that he's decided to blow it all up and pursue other ventures. It's up to Craig (Radcliffe) and Eliza (Viswanathan), low-level angels responsible for answering humanity's prayers, to convince God to give Earth one more chance by answering one impossible prayer within two weeks.

In Season 2--''Miracle Workers: Dark Ages''--Prince Chauncley (Radcliffe) is struggling to live up to his tough father's expectations. Meanwhile, Alexandra "Al" Shitshoveler (Viswanathan) pursues an education in the hope of not becoming a dung-shoveler like her father (Buscemi). Inevitably, the two meet and have a common realization: it's quite a challenge to defy expectations and not follow in your parents' footsteps. And sometimes, a change like that is needed to add some light in the dark ages. While the first season had a central story arc, Season 2 is episodic in nature.

In Season 3--''Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail''--the Reverend Ezekiel Brown (Radcliffe) is the pastor of a grim, dusty prairie town in the American West in 1844. With his parishioners dying of cholera and the harvest having failed again, Rev. Brown hits on an idea: go to Oregon! Rev. Brown needs a guide to take the village to Oregon, and who should show up but "Jim Nobody" (Buscemi), a grimy frontiersman who volunteers to take them--except that he is really Benny the Teen, notorious bank robber and wanted criminal. Viswanathan is Prudence Aberdeen, photographer hobbyist and housewife stuck in an unfulfilling marriage.

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[[folder: General tropes for the series]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miracle Workers]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mwtbs.jpg]]

* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: Eliza bets God that she and Craig can answer one impossible prayer in exchange for giving Earth a reprieve from fiery destruction. If Eliza loses, God blows the Earth up and she has to eat a worm in front of her co-workers.
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: In the book both angels were optimistic, while in the series Craig is pessimistic and cynical.
* BigDamnKiss: Laura and Sam at the last possible second.
* BlackSheep: [[spoiler:"1 Day" reveals that God is this for his family. His big sister rules over a planetwide utopia, while his big brother has almost beaten their mother's record for "longest period without a war".]]
* BoltOfDivineRetribution: God isn't very bright and has no subtlety so [[TheAllSolvingHammer his solution to any obstacle]] in governing Earth is throwing down lightning bolts or some other terrifying weather phenomenon.
* BothSidesHaveAPoint:
** Eliza and [[spoiler:Sanjay]] are risk-takers compared to Craig. Craig's cautionary approach reduces potential consequences, but means that larger problems aren't solved. Meanwhile, Eliza and [[spoiler:Sanjay]] have a higher rate of return when they have a success, but more splendid disasters because of multiple mitigating factors. By the end of the show, Craig agrees that sometimes you have to take risks and pay the consequences, while Eliza admits that sometimes the cautionary route is the best one.
** God and his siblings nearly come to blows over this. His older brother and sister aptly point out he's a SpoiledBrat who hasn't put in proper effort or thought into his worlds because their parents will always foot the bill. When God regains his spirit, he points out that his world is messed up because unlike his brother and sister, he believes in giving others free will.
* BritishBrevity: As a limited series, the show was originally supposed to consist of a single season of seven episodes.
* ButterflyOfDoom: Part of the problem with divine intervention is that doing something to benefit one person can often have far-reaching and unforeseen consequences; notably, when Eliza answers a Mexican farmer's prayer for rain by shifting weather patterns, she ends up causing a devastating typhoon in Asia.
* CelestialBureaucracy:
** God's angels work for Heaven Inc. and go about conducting celestial business as if they were mundane blue collar and white-collar workers.
** Earth and Heaven are just a part of a grand cosmos, with other planets and galaxies being run like businesses by other deities.
* CluelessBoss: God is almost helpless without Sanjay around to do everything for him.
* DisproportionateRetribution: While God can be nice and merciful to his employees, the humans on Earth are not as lucky.
** On a whim, God tries to get Sanjay to make Creator/BillMaher's penis explode because he doesn't like it when he mocks him.
** When God's newest prophet Dave Shelby tries ignoring him, waving him off as some psychotic break he's having, God has Craig destroy his house with a localized twister. When Dave tries rejecting him in a "ItsNotYouItsMe" situation, God agrees and then tries to have Craig kill him.
* TheDogBitesBack: Sanjay has been God's BeleagueredAssistant, carrying out inane tasks for him. [[spoiler:Craig humiliating him becomes a wakeup call to Sanjay when Craig apologizes and asks sincerely for his help in the Answered Prayers department. Sanjay admits that he missed being in Answered Prayers and politely refuses to go back upstairs when God struggles with filling the void]].
* FailedASpotCheck: One of Craig's earliest attempts to get Laura and Sam together is to "send them a sign", but Eliza points out that this has never worked, finding footage of Abraham Lincoln passing by multiple crows and a black cat on his way to the theater he's historically killed in.
* {{Foil}}: Craig to Sanjay. They both [[spoiler: worked in Answered Prayers and try a stint of being God's right-hand man. The difference is that Sanjay was a risk-taker and someone who carried out God's orders without questioning them, including killing Bill Maher. When God orders Craig to kill his new "prophet" Dave for refusing him, Craig "accidentally" destroys the necessary equipment and runs back downstairs]].
* ForWantOfANail: Answering prayers is a painstaking task, with even the most minute mistakes kicking off major earthly disasters. Even a successfully answered prayer can have unintended consequences, such as answering a prayer for a lost glove, only for the person praying to turn out to be an armed robber who needed the glove to go on a violent crime spree.
* GodIsInept: The show depicts God as a well-meaning but bumbling JadedWashout and ManChild who's seriously considering destroying Earth after it failed to turn out how he hoped. It's later revealed that he's the BlackSheep of his divine family and that [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter his siblings have all created utopias with their own worlds]]. [[spoiler: Played with, as it also turns out that Earth failed to work because he’s the only deity to give his creations free will and lives of their own. When the chips are down, [[GodIsGood God stands up to his family and refuses to let Earth die because even if it isn’t what he expected, he still loves it]].]]
* GroinAttack: In the second episode, God tasks Sanjay with engineering a way to make Creator/BillMaher's penis explode.
* HeroicBSOD: God is despondent at seeing just how much trouble Earth and its denizens are in and he's isolated himself from the rest of heaven and spends his time drinking and moping.
* HollowWorld: According to God's sister he forgot to build a middle into his world so humans are forced to live only on the surface because the inside is all fire.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: All the episodes are named after the time remaining before the world-ending bomb erupts.
* ImpossibleTask: A large portion of humanity's prayers are immediately labelled as being impossible to answer because there are too many variables to try and control. Some of the worst are love prayers, one of which Craig and Eliza have to successfully answer in two weeks or else God blows the Earth up.
* JadeColoredGlasses: Craig is worn down after millennia of dealing with a never-ending deluge of prayers from humanity, most of them impossible to answer. He's managed to carve out a small bit of satisfaction by answering a handful of small-scale prayers each day.
* KickTheDog: When Craig finds out that Sanjay has been helping [[spoiler:wipe God's ass]], he immediately gets it on camera to further the humiliation. He does apologize, after, because he knows that was a mean thing to do.
* MeaningfulName: [[AllThereInTheManual In press materials]], the main characters' surnames are listed as Craig Bog, Eliza Hunter, and Sanjay Prince. In their former lives, Craig was a bog guardian, Eliza was a warrior, and Sanjay was royalty.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** The protagonists leave a swath of death and destruction in their wake as they try to win their bet against God. {{Justified}}, as they only have two weeks to win, otherwise God will blow up the Earth and bring about even ''more'' death and destruction.
** Sanjay, Eliza, and Rosie's idea of getting Sam and Laura on the kiss cam at a basketball game results in Sam and Laura freezing up, the mascot getting involved and putting even more pressure on them, and the date ending in disaster after the mascot dies because Eliza tries to defuse the pressure by making his appendix burst.
** Turns out that God's not much better, with [[spoiler: the whole situation being his fault in the first place because he put no thought or care into his initial design and was apathetic in maintaining it]].
* NoHeroToHisValet: While Sanjay relishes the status he gets from being God's right-hand angel, he knows better than anyone that God is a complete wreck who is helpless on his own.
* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: A RunningGag has his employees think that God is playing some masterful, carefully constructed plan to impart wisdom onto those in his employ (both in a "grand scheme" and personal level), when really he's an AlmightyIdiot who makes it up as he goes. He doesn't even hide the fact that he doesn't plan anything.
* OhCrap: At the end of the fourth episode, the team finds out that [[spoiler:Sam's beloved grandmother is due to die in two days.]]
* OlderThanTheyLook:
** Craig, Eliza, and Sanjay all look like they're barely out of college, but they all lived and died hundreds of years ago.
** God's older siblings both look younger than him. His sister [[LittleMissAlmighty looks like a child]].
* OnlySaneMan: Craig's caution makes him this. While Eliza, Sanjay, and Rosie are prepared to go to drastic measures to achieve their goals, Craig advocates caution and avoiding as much collateral damage as possible.
* ThePeterPrinciple: Sanjay's situation evokes this somewhat. He was so good at answering prayers he got promoted to God's babysitter and spends all day solving the stupidest problems imaginable.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: In their quest to bring two people together, Craig and Eliza cause a great deal of havoc, including rupturing some poor guy's appendix, destroying a major airport in China, and crashing an oil tanker into the Galapagos Islands. {{Justified}}, as they only have two weeks to win, otherwise God will blow up the Earth and bring about even ''more'' death and destruction.
* RupturedAppendix: The angels usually turn to bursting people's appendixes when they're panicking and out of options. They become even more panicked if their target has already had their appendix removed.
* SkewedPriorities: God thinks that Eliza will care more about the fact that she'll be forced to eat a worm in front of her coworkers than about the fact that her losing the bet will cause an apocalypse. Her expression screams YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe. In fact, Craig puts the bigger priority in perspective: if the world ends because of Eliza, she will go down as the biggest mass murderer in divine history.
* SnipeHunt: In his former life, Craig was a caveman whose job was to keep watch for the "bog monster". As he thinks about it, it occurs to him that there probably never was a bog monster and the villagers just wanted to get rid of him.
* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Craig and Sanjay have a rivalry based on their approaches to miracles. Craig prefers tiny, carefully-engineered miracles that make as few waves as possible. Sanjay is more willing to take risks in order to create big miracles.
* ThisExplainsSoMuch: Sanjay says this when he hears another say that God can't read.
* TimedMission: Craig and Eliza have only two weeks to save Earth from destruction.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Eliza has pure intentions, but she causes more trouble by trying to help. In the first episode alone, she accidentally inflicts deadly typhoons while trying to answer a farmer's prayer for rain, which snowballs into her giving God the idea to blow the Earth up.
* WideEyedIdealist: Eliza comes to the Answered Prayers Department thinking that she can really make a difference. Craig quickly disabuses her of that notion.
* WhiteSheep: [[spoiler: God might not have created a perfect utopia like the rest of his family, but that's because he's the only member of his family that gave his creations free will.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dark Ages]]
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* AbdicateTheThrone: In the finale, [[spoiler: Chauncley renounces his claim to stay with Al, his father abandoned them, and all other relatives died in "Holiday", leaving Vexler in charge]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes: When the celebrity minstrel that Chauncley invited to perform for the peasants instead smugly refuses to perform for any low-class audience, Chauncley gets furious and forces him to.
* BigDamnKiss: In the finale, [[spoiler: Al and Chauncley share one after saving the town]].
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Maggie doesn't like apprenticing to be a nun because the pay is crap, there’s no upward job mobility, and they cut out your tongue after you take your vows.
* CannotSpitItOut: In "First Date" Al and Chauncley go to a astronomy lecture, but due to Chauncley's extreme inability to express his feelings, Al winds up dating the handsome astronomer who came to the village to give a talk.
* ChekhovsSkill: Subverted; in the A-plot in episode 3 ("Road Trip") it's established that Lord Vexler, the king's far more competent aide, speaks the native language of the tribe that he and Chauncley are visiting on a diplomatic mission. Chauncley insists that they must know English, and he's right, they do--but Lord Vexler overhears what he thinks is the enemy leader talking in his native language about how he's going to serve Chauncley poisoned wine. This misunderstanding ruins the treaty signing.
* CompetitionFreak: King Cragnor and his kin are very intent on proving their dominance. In fact, a series of pleasant party games turns into a three-way fight-to-the-death, to Chauncley's horror and disappointment.
* ConMan: Dr. Goodman in "Help Wanted" first comes across as an intelligent man, but he doesn't actually understand medicine himself, and most of his procedures involve genital amputation. When his reputation is blown, he ends up skipping town to become an Italian architect.
* DarkAgeEurope: The season's setting, and it's a very stereotypical example. Even their higher education is comically sparse and ignorant. Most people live in a harsh, filthy environment with constant war and brutal punishment for even trivial offenses.
* DeliberateInjuryGambit: Chauncley tries to impress his father in the first episode of the season by going off to war with his enemies, but quickly gets cold feet and ends up faking an injury from the Shitshovelers' runaway shit cart.
* TheDungAges: The season is set during a dirty and ignorant pastiche of the medieval age.
* TheElitesJumpShip: The astronomer who romances Alexandra Shitshoveler seems like a free-spirited bohemian at first, but when the peasants are attacked, he shows no empathy towards them at all.
* GreekChorus: Lampshaded quite well with a minstrel who annoys Prince Chauncley with a song that's essentially running commentary on his bad date.
* HeelRealization: When Lower Muckford is besieged in the GrandFinale, Alexandra tries to escape with her family, but so many other villagers (most of which had mocked her in the past) try to hitch a ride with her that their cart breaks down and they all end up captured. When the invaders then decide to SpareAMessenger, they realize they were (literally) a burden and unanimously decide it should be Alex, though she meets up with Chauncley and helps save everyone in the end.
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: In regards to character's surnames, which come from their families' professions. So, Ted Carpenter is a carpenter and Mary Baker is a baker. [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Wesley Pervert, meanwhile, does "stuff"]]. Alexandra Shitshoveler seems destined to be a shit shoveler like her father, but she dreams of bigger things.
* IAmWhatIAm: Wesley Pervert says this word-for-word in the season finale when [[spoiler:Chauncley and Al catch him watching them kiss]].
* IncestIsRelative: Mary Baker quickly ends up engaged to her own brother, mainly due to a lack of other options.
* IgnoredEpiphany: The King makes a breakthrough with his therapist and seems to be improving his relationship with Chauncley, but reveals he burned down the therapist's hut when she charged him for a full hour after only 50 minutes. At the end of the episode he admits to never growing or changing before strangling a servant to death for telling him they're out of cherries.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Eddie actually says "it'll never catch on" when confronted with the idea that the peasantry might poop in a hole, instead of just pooping on the floor and paying Eddie and Alexandra to come shovel it up.
* JockDadNerdSon: Prince Chauncley is a sensitive soul while his father and all his forebears are all blood-thirsty despots.
* MatchCut: In "Holiday", from Al holding the bottle of wine that her obnoxious Uncle Bert brought, to a different bottle of wine being uncorked in the palace.
* MedievalMorons: Alexandra learns a mere three "facts" at the university (the Earth is flat, the Devil is real, the sun is crazy) before graduating.
* MisplacedAccent: Most characters speak in their actors' natural accents, resulting in a mishmash that emphasizes the season's fictional European setting.
* MissingMom: Al's mom is mentioned to be dead in the first episode.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The kingdom is ruled by King Cragnoor the Heartless.
* NastyParty: Chauncley's side of the "Holiday" episode ends this way, as [[spoiler:Cragnoor kills all their relatives, as he planned, to consolidate his power]].
* NewTechnologyIsEvil: Alexandra tries to use her intelligence to make her father's job easier, but he at first refuses to accept any change, even though the old ways are intentionally more laborious and painful. He does become more accepting by the end of the first episode, however, after they're both honest about their feelings to each other.
* NoodleIncident: The prince does such a bad job at shoveling manure that every time he does it, houses and carts combust in flames. We're not shown how this improbable series of events happen; they always cut past it.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: The season is set in Medieval Europe, but no attempt was made to come up with a singular accent for the fictional kingdom. Instead, everyone just uses their natural accents[[note]]the only real exception being Geraldine Viswanathan (Australian), who keeps the American accent she used in Season 1[[/note]] to create a comedic mishmash.
* OfficialCouple: Chauncley and Al, if the ending of "Holiday" and opening of "First Date" is any indication. [[spoiler:Made truly official in the finale]].
* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: The season ends with [[spoiler:Al and Chauncley riding a wagon to Paris, Chauncley having renounced the crown]].
* PlayingSick: This actually ends up saving the day in the GrandFinale. [[spoiler:The invaders sieging Lower Muckford are terrified of the plague, so by using some herbs to fake its effects, the villagers drive them all away.]]
* RoyalInbreeding: A small gag is made that Al can't tell if Chauncley sweats because he likes her or because his inbred body can't properly self-regulate its temperature.
* SecondActBreakup: In the episode "First Date", the prince has to compete with a handsome astronomer for Al's affection. He fails at every chance, eventually deciding to cut ties with her rather than keep trying, leading to the events of [[MultiPartEpisode the two-part season finale]] [[GrandFinale "Moving Out"]].
* StockScream: The Wilhelm Scream is heard offstage in the season finale, as Valdrogian arrows rain down on the village.
* TakeMeInstead: When King Cragnoor demands recompense for his son after his DeliberateInjuryGambit, Alexandra's father takes the blame to spare his daughter. Thankfully, the Prince calls the execution off in time.
* ThanksgivingEpisode: Despite the fact that it first aired in February, "Holiday" has Lower Murkford celebrating "Harvest Day", complete with a pageant about the extermination of the local people, and Al having to deal with her horribly obnoxious Uncle Bert coming over for holiday dinner.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Prince Chauncley doesn't want to disappoint King Cragnoor, but really doesn't have the killer instinct to impress his father.
* WhiteSheep: Chauncley, in comparison to his tyrannical father and ancestors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Oregon Trail]]
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* ActorAllusion: Not the first time Daniel Radcliff played [[Film/HarryPotter someone with an abusive childhood]].
* ActionGirl: Sheila, a female Blackfoot warrior, who's the fiercest among her band.
* AlwaysSecondBest: After already trying repeatedly to get Benny out of her life, Trig ends up chasing him all the way to the Blue Mountains to kill him because journalists keep calling her his successor rather than his superior.
* AmericanEagle: While on the trail, Zeke notices a bald eagle in the sky and excitedly points it out, only for Benny to shoot it out of the sky. After an off-screen "thud", Zeke indignantly says "You shot America!" Benny is unmoved and later eats the bird for supper.
* AnachronismStew: A lot of terms and concepts which weren't yet around in the 1840s come up, all {{played for laughs}} given that it's parodying Western TV shows.
* AnswerCut: Rev. Brown's desperate prayer in episode 1--"Please, Lord, send us a miracle"--is answered by Benny the Teen walking through the front door of the church and saying "Howdy!".
* AnythingThatMoves: Once in power, [[spoiler:Todd turns the governor's office into a bacchanal orgy. However, he overindulges to the point where it all becomes boring and he keeps seeking out new, perverted forms of pleasure]].
* ApatheticCitizens: The citizens of Oregon turn out to be this when [[spoiler:Prudence informs them of Todd and Trig's evil scheme to politically take over the town but they still get the majority vote]].
* AwfulWeddedLife: From the moment they're introduced, it's clear that Prudence and Todd do not have a good relationship, with [[UpperClassTwit Todd]] mainly using her to serve his own needs and making a fool of himself when he tries to act romantic.
* BadBadActing: Phaedra [[spoiler:trying to seduce Gorgeous Pete as a distraction in the season finale]]. Surprisingly, it works.
-->'''Phaedra''': [[spoiler:I would like to fornicate with you… for non-reproductive reasons!]]
* BadassLongcoat: "The Gunslinger" (Karan Soni) is dressed all in black with one heck of a cool long coat to complete the ensemble.
* BestialityIsDepraved: In TheTag of "Meet the Noonans", Todd tries and fails to convince the Noonans (who had been serving his every whim) to not part ways with the caravan by claiming he needs their moral guidance, as he's a sick-minded man that coveted his own mother and repeatedly made out with a dog.
* BetterThanABareBulb: "White Savior" lampshades and mocks how Hollywood typically treats Native issues as window dressing to a story about [[MightyWhitey a White man coming to save an oppressed tribe]] and having a romance with TheChiefsDaughter while he's at it. Instead, Benny is regarded as TheLoad, makes things worse for the Blackfeet, and gets punched when he tries to kiss Sheila.
* BringMyBrownPants: When the bear shows up in "Hunting Party", Todd remarks to Rev. Brown that it was a bad day for him to wear velvet underwear. [[DontExplainTheJoke Because he just shat his velvet underwear]].
* TheCaligula: [[spoiler: Once Todd becomes Governor of Oregon, he starts dressing up as the Roman Emperor and have orgies in his house, while the town plunges into chaos and ruin]].
* CastingGag: Creator/TimMeadows plays Jedidiah, a character who claims God is speaking directly to him. That’s exactly what happened to his character, Dave Shelby, in the first season (though Dave was mostly confused about the situation and didn’t claim to be a prophet like Jedidiah).
** In season one, Creator/SteveBuscemi played God. Here his character Benny pretends to be God in "Stranded" [[spoiler:to stop everyone else from eating each other.]]
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Ezekiel and Prudence [[spoiler:eventually hook up and have incredibly loud sex]], but neither of their spouses clue in; [[spoiler:Todd thinks that Prudence's cries of "Oh God" are part of her Bible study, while Ezekiel's wife catching them without clothes after they out-ambush Trig was to make them more stealthy]].
* CorruptPolitician: Todd, upon reaching Oregon [[spoiler:with Trig's crew, schemes to become governor of the state and lets Trig steal, pollute, and commit whatever other crimes she wants in order to stay in power while doing as little actual work as necessary]].
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: TheTag for "Hunting Party" has Rev. Brown give a eulogy for Lionel, [[BlackDudeDiesFirst the black member of the hunting party that died trying to divert the bear and an unexpected second bear]], and his wife wants to know how he spent his final moments. He was not only eaten by the two bears like a hotdog, the bears played with his corpse like a volleyball, and then placed his head in what Rev. Brown can only call a "bear cannon". The grieving widow, while openly weeping, wants ''more details''.
** [[spoiler: [[AssholeVictim Todd]] also gets one in the season finale, [[GroinAttack having his dick shot off by a cannon]] and [[TorsoWithAView leaving a hole in its place.]]]]
* DarkestHour: "Over the Mountain" ends with Ezekiel hated by the entire camp after [[spoiler:confessing to adultery]], all of the caravan's supplies trashed, and Todd [[spoiler:& Trig kidnapping Prudence]].
* ADayInTheLimelight: "White Savior" focuses entirely on Benny, with the rest of the regular cast only appearing in the pre-credits sequence and stinger.
* DeceptiveDisciple: In "Hunting Party", Benny admits to Prudence that he used to have an adopted daughter named Trig that ended up being a better bandit than him and betrayed him.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: The first half of the season sets up The Gunslinger as the main threat to Benny and the caravan, but after [[DeceptiveDisciple Trig]] shows up and tries to kill him with a SandNecktie, she becomes the greater threat while The Gunslinger survives and befriends the main cast.
* DramaticGunCock: The Gunslinger does this in episode 4 when drawing against Benny in the tavern...only to have his gun taken by the perky hostess, because "This is a no-shooting establishment after 6 pm."
* DrunkOnMilk: Ezekiel gets so trashed on snake oil that he dresses up as a woman and sings "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" in front of the whole bar, then grabs Prudence's breasts...only to be told by the SnakeOilSalesman that snake oil is "completely fake".
* EasyEvangelism: Benny goes from comically racist toward the Blackfeet (plus all Indigenous people) to coming around by a single talk with Sheila into championing their cause (but ends up taking a "white savior" role as a result, greatly annoying them). It's {{played for laughs}}, likely parodying ''Film/DancesWithWolves'', among other depictions.
* EroticDream: A very silly one in episode 4, when Ezekiel has an erotic dream about seeing Prudence's...ankle.
* FaceHeelTurn: Todd has this [[spoiler:after he finds out about Prudence's affair with Ezekiel. To get revenge on Ezekiel, he teams up with Trig to strand everyone on the mountain and kidnaps Prudence]].
* FeetFirstIntroduction: The Gunslinger is introduced with his boots and spurs hitting the ground as he jumps off a horse.
* FlatEarthAtheist: Prudence comically disbelieves that anything miraculous is going on when clear divine wrath starts raining down over [[spoiler:her and Zeke having an affair]] (i.e. a lightning bolt from the clear blue sky, a kid possessed by Satan etc.).
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Todd is the only one to stick up for Trig's rep as a bandit in "Over the Mountain". Suffice it to say, he then [[spoiler:teams up with her to screw over everyone else once the affair between Ezekiel and Prudence is revealed]].
* FullyClothedNudity: Zeke has a dream where he gets to see Prudence's bare ankle and reacts as if he saw her undressed.
* GodIsDispleased: Almost immediately after Ezekiel starts to think that [[spoiler:his adultery with Prudence]] is actually a good thing, the caravan is beset with spontaneous combustion, demonic possession, lightning strikes, earthquakes, and other plagues. It all stops as suddenly as it starts when Ezekiel [[spoiler:publicly confesses his sins, unfortunately referring to Prudence as a temptress and a harlot in the process]].
* GoKartingWithBowser: When Benny the Teen and the Gunslinger cross paths in Branchwater they sit together in the town's saloon and mope about how gentrification ruined what had once been a debauched hellhole. The Gunslinger later cheerfully hangs out with Benny on the Fourth of July, as the federal holiday is a mandated day off according to union rules. And when it's time to cross the Blue Mountains, Benny and Ezekiel actually rescue the Gunslinger (who's now more focused on Trig) from dehydration and let him join the caravan.
* GildedCage: A literal example. [[spoiler:Once they get to Oregon, Todd keeps Prudence]] in an actual golden cage.
* GunsAkimbo: Prudence and Benny both wield guns akimbo in episode 3, "Hunting Party", when he's teaching her how to be an outlaw, and they rob some fur trappers. Then the Gunslinger comes out of the trappers' cabin wearing a fur coat, and he wields guns akimbo as well.
* HairstyleInertia: Trig wears her hair plaited in two braids as a girl in Benny's flashbacks and in the present day.
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Rev. Brown's childhood involved growing up in a British orphanage where the headmistress beat him with a shovel and fed him shoe leather, and he had to dance naked for pennies. "And pennies can really hurt."
* HollywoodMirage: "Over the Mountain" starts with Ezekiel mistaking sand for an oasis, soon after followed by the caravan finding the Gunslinger, who thinks he's at a pool party.
* HollywoodNatives: The Blackfeet in "White Savior" dress in the usual BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins, but most of the tropes related to this are parodied, along with nearly every Native American cliché imaginable.
* IgnoredEpiphany: At the Blue Mountains, after Ezekiel [[spoiler:confesses to adultery]], Todd wonders if he [[spoiler:should've been a better husband]]...but Trig, who's currently the caravan's captive after a failed ambush, instead convinces him to [[spoiler:get revenge by setting her free, joining her bandits, kidnapping his own wife, and causing all the caravan's wagons to careen off a cliff]]. Additionally, before [[spoiler:Todd and Trig abandon the others]], Benny makes one final plea to Trig that he never meant to hurt her and she's clearly superior to him, but Trig only hesitates a moment before leaving them to die.
* ImAHumanitarian: When the gang gets stuck in the snowy mountains in "Stranded", they eat a member of their party who's just died. They really enjoy it.
* ImmigrantPatriotism: A plot point in "Independence Rock". Ezekiel the British orphan loves America for the new opportunity it gave him. This creates friction with his new wife Phaedra, the religious fanatic who disapproves of patriotic fervor as being un-Godly.
* TheImmodestOrgasm: [[spoiler:Ezekiel and Prudence]] both get very loud while having sex.
* InstantlyProvenWrong: After both of their spouses are shown ComicallyMissingThePoint, Ezekiel remarks that maybe [[spoiler:his and Prudence's relationship]] ''isn't'' as sinful as he thought. Immediately, an ox is struck by lightning, and plagues beset the camp.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Trig, after trying repeatedly to kill Benny and the others, gets to make up with Benny and ride off into the sunset to commit more crimes in the end.]]
* LaserGuidedKarma: In "Hunting Party", Todd mocks Rev. Brown for showing remorse upon dealing a killing blow to a docile buffalo, calling him a buffalo-lover and humping the beast's corpse. They're then immediately attacked by a hostile bear.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In the first scene of Season 3's first episode, Rev. Brown is burying a victim of cholera. He says to the crowd "Everyone stay six feet apart," then says "Oh good, nobody's doing it." Season 3 was produced during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, in which similar advice was given (and ignored by a vocal minority).
* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: When [[DeceptiveDisciple Benny's daughter Trig]] shows up in "Meet the Noonans" and Benny decides to reconnect with her, it quickly turns out that her betrayal was less about cutting him out of the profits and more that the ways they wanted to run the gang clashed horribly, with Benny preferring a flair for drama that was more harmful than beneficial (but made the gang more enthusiastic).
* ManipulativeBastard: Trig is known to deceive people to get what she wants. She uses Benny to learn everything she needs from him before backstabbing him and becoming an outlaw herself. [[spoiler: Trig would eventually manipulate Todd into freeing her, while manipulating the people into voting for Todd when he runs for Governor]].
* TheMagicPokerEquation: Lampooned in episode 4 when Todd, playing poker and clearly way out of his depth with some dangerous characters, lays down four aces...and loses to a guy with ''five'' aces. And a guy with twelve aces.
* MightyWhitey: The episode appropriately titled "White Savior" has Benny attempt to become a hero to a Native American tribe.
* ModestyBedsheet: After [[spoiler:Prudence and Ezekiel]] are done having sex in "Over the Mountain", when they collapse back on the bed the bedsheet is around his waist but tucked securely under her armpits.
* MythologyGag: When the gang is dining on human flesh in "Stranded", Ezekiel says God has abandoned him. Benny says "I'm sure he's just busy with work. You know, probably building a new kind of planet, or designing a new kind of giraffe." In the first season Steve Buscemi played {{God}} and one of the {{Running Gag}}s was about his lack of skill in designing a planet.
* NoNameGiven: The Gunslinger, the bounty hunter chasing after Benny the Teen doesn't give out his name, with Benny only addressing him as "Dingus". In episode 4 an old acquaintance actually calls him "Bounty hunter with no name".
* NoodleIncident: The Gunslinger simply reappears on Benny's trail in "Independence Rock", with no explanation of how he escaped from his SandNecktie in the previous episode, "Meet the Noonans".
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: With "Over the Mountain" ending with the caravan's supplies trashed, "Stranded" has them trapped during a blizzard and arguing over who to eat, with Benny attempting to cook himself to repay them for their kindness.
* ParodyReligion: In "Meet the Noonans" the wagon party...meets the Noonans, a religious group also on the trail west. The Noonans are an obvious BlandNameProduct version of the LDS Church aka Mormons, what with their leader Jedediah's claims to talk directly to God, the identical dress of male and female members (and particularly the women with their neck-to-ankle dresses and upswept hair), and specifically that they're headed west in the 1840s (the real Mormons migrated to Utah in 1846).
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: No one bats an eye at interracial marriage, adoption and White people happily follow a Black man who claims he's a prophet, while in the real US of the 1840s these things would be highly controversial at best (along with very rare). Of course, the series isn't really claiming to be accurate, more parodying Western films and TV shows.
* PreMortemOneLiner: Prudence gets one in the season finale.
-->'''Prudence''': [[spoiler: Hey, Todd? I want a divorce. (''shoots him at close-range with a cannon'')]]
* SandNecktie: At Benny's insistence his old gang, now run by Trig, does this to execute the Gunslinger in "Meet the Noonans".
* SettlingTheFrontier: The plot of the season, as Rev. Brown and his people leave their dusty prairie village and head off to Oregon.
* ShoutOut: There are occasional references to ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', such as the party needing to choose between paying for a ferry or caulking their wagons and floating them to ford a river.
* SnakeOilSalesman: In episode 4 Ezekiel comes across a man who actually identifies himself as a SnakeOilSalesman and sells him some. IntoxicationEnsues. (Later Ezekiel finds out he was DrunkOnMilk.)
* StylisticSuck: This season recreates the slightly fuzzy look of shows broadcast on CRT televisions on top of replicating the grainy look of older shows shot on film.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Most of the season plays fast and loose with racial and gender issues that would have existed during the setting, but Trig eventually has to acknowledge that her quest for power is stymied by the fact that she's Black and female.
* SympatheticAdulterer: [[spoiler:Zeke and Prudence kiss at the end of “Independence Rock” despite both being married to other people. Both are sympathetic characters who have been friends for years, and their spouses are emotionally neglectful or abusive. However, once they have sex God at least ''[[BoltOfDivineRetribution does not]]'' approve.]]
* TakeThat: Prudence and Todd meet a vapid proto-{{Hipster}} couple who travel the country in search of superficial experiences while the wife spouts off meaningless terms like "Hashtag", "Yass Queen", and "Wagon Life" because she'd been kicked in the head by a horse.
* TemptingFate: In "Meet the Noonans", Prudence grouses about Rev. Brown's new love interest Phaedra but says "Whatever, it's not like they're getting married." This is immediately followed by the Noonan leader (Creator/TimMeadows) ringing a bell and announcing that Ezekiel and Phaedra will be getting married that afternoon.
* TestosteronePoisoning: "Hunting Party" has Rev. Brown, dismissed for his lack of "manliness", join the other men for a buffalo hunt everyone but him treats like an action-packed war campaign despite the docility of the beasts.
* "ThisIsThePartWhere we start drinking our pee," says Benny in the opening of "Over the Mountain" when they're stuck in a ThirstyDesert. Whether or not they drink pee remains unrevealed, as when the next scene starts they're out of the desert.
* ToiletHumor: Todd's attempt to have sex with Prudence in episode 1 comes to naught when he's hit by an attack of explosive diarrhea.
-->'''Todd''': Oh God, it's like the mighty Mississippi coming out of my ass!
* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: "Meet the Noonans" has Ezekiel, advised by Prudence to find a relationship when she doesn't reciprocate his feelings, quickly form an attachment with a member of the titular ParodyReligion. Prudence immediately detests the buzzkill and breaks them up by revealing Ezekiel's impurities, such as [[FelonyMisdemeanor his love of chocolate]], though [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy she brings them back together after seeing Ezekiel heartbroken]].
* UpperClassTwit: Todd is a wealthy gentleman who declines to exert himself in any way and expects Prudence to wait on him hand and foot at all hours.
* VideoCredits: Season 3 has video credits of the principals at the beginning of episodes, in a manner suggestive of an old-timey TV western like ''Bonanza''.
* VocalDissonance: The Gunslinger is a bounty hunter with a frightful appearance, but he speaks in a high-pitched, cheerful tone similar to that of a kindergarten teacher.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In "Hunting Party", Todd and Rev. Brown are trapped in a cave together by a bear, and Rev. Brown briefly considers taking a shot when Todd admits to having marital problems...but ultimately decides to instead help Todd put his emotions into words to make him and Prudence both happy.
* WildWest: The setting of the season, focusing on a caravan following the (eponymous) Oregon Trail.
* WouldHurtAChild: Trapped and with food supplies running low, the party decide they'll kill and eat the young Levi, reasoning he'd be the tenderest of the bunch.
[[/folder]]

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Mostly averted. Though the denomination isn’t specified, Ezekiel is a reverend, not a priest, and he is allowed to be married. That said, he does cross himself like a Catholic in “Over the Mountain.”