Saturday, July 24, 2021

What I’m Watching: Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail

Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail: Season 3, Episode 2 “Fording the River” (B+)

I do appreciate that, three years in, this show is still finding new ways to send up both history and modernity and keeping it relatively fresh. Todd deciding to take the nearby ferry so that he wouldn’t get wet and not even considering the fact that he might be able to take something heavy along with him so that the rest of the group didn’t have to literally leave someone behind to die was just the beginning of the absurdity, and I enjoyed that they met a couple of hipster tourists there who were all about taking pictures without actually doing any of the activities portrayed in them. Leave it to Prudence to notice that the woman kept saying “hashtag” and other modern expressions, something explained by her husband as insanity as a result of being kicked in the head by a horse (or was it a horseshoe?). I also liked that Prudence’s departure meant that they no longer wanted to swing, and that Todd was informed that he would have been watching at best had she stayed. Prudence pushing him into the water after she saved Ezekiel from drowning was a great moment, and everyone being surprised by how strong she was underlines the demeaning misconceptions about female ability in the era (and now). Benny trying to figure out what game Ezekiel was running as he was drowning was entertaining, as was his eagerness to show Ezekiel that he didn’t have any good nature in him, like saving someone from a fire just to then rob and shoot him. But they are starting to get along, and that’s fun to see.

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