The only bad thing about the release (finally) of the television series MIRACLES on DVD is that it becomes all the more apparent how criminally short-sighted ABC was giving such a raw deal to this enigmatic and challenging series during its all too brief run on that network. Seeing the seven episodes that were never aired after said network played Russian roulette with the series’ time slot is to see why a little more patience, not to mention vision, would have garnered it a cult franchise to contend with. Darker than “Angel” and less flippant, as it was oft wont to be, than “Buffy the Vampire Slayer, both of which “Miracles” executive producer David Greenwalt was associated with, “Miracles” had an originality and a fearlessness that is still sorely missed.
The lurking menace of the pilot rears its head in subsequent, mostly unaired episodes, as does the backstory of Paul Callen (Skeet Ulrich), the ex-investigator of miracles for the Catholic Church whose personal journey provides the series framework. Civil War ghosts are not what they seem, a case of re-incarnation takes some unexpected turns, and a glimpse by the passengers of a jet that winks in and out of existence of what may or may not be the divine takes on deeply personal significance. It’s all interspersed with theological and philosophical discussions about what it all means and, in once case, a perfectly delightful moment as a mother tries to explain to her two kids what a glitch in the time-space continuum means to them. That last, of course, is in one of the seven episodes that ABC chose not to air.
Ulrich evokes a boyish charm and a hopeful innocence that survived becoming existentially tired of delivering bad news to believers when their signs from God they didn’t pan out. The descriptions of same involve a cornucopia of wonderfully esoteric information about how to make a statue weep blood, or, as in the pilot, the role apricot orchards play in making saints. Paul finds a niche with the Sodalitas Querito, or rather is all but conscripted into this occult investigation outfit by its founder, ex-Harvard professor, Alva Keel, (a charismatic Angus McFadyen) with able assistance from single-mother and ex-cop Evelyn Santos (Marisa Ramirez), who has a bullet in her head and a last name that can’t help but evokes sanctity. One’s even tempted to read “even keel” into the name of her boss. It’s one of the reasons I love this show.
There is a nicely wary quality to Paul’s relationship with Keel, a secretive curmudgeon with a black and biting wit, and a more tender one with Santos, both of which were just starting to get some traction before the show got the axe. The former features in “The Ghost”. That episode, boasting some particularly stylish direction, is the best example of how “Miracles” intelligently teases audience assumptions, slyly tossing in twists along what seems to be a well-worth path only to arrive at an entirely new and refreshingly unexpected place. In all the episodes dreams and reality, conscious and sub-conscious, are constantly in play. This show was never afraid to explore the darkness, either within its characters, or by doing things like plunging a needle through a corpse’s eyeball in that wonderful pilot. The final episode “Paul is Dead” brings it all home with several disconcerting revelations designed, as series creator Richard Hatem explains in the commentary track, to either leave a cliff-hanger or to wrap up the story line, though not entirely. That would not have been true to the spirit of the enterprise, which preferred mystery to cold hard facts.
That particular commentary track spends a lot of time thanking the fans who tried to save the series and whose work helped the DVD release to happen, which is a nice touch. Hatem and Greewalt also share terrific plot lines that would have been included in a second season, confirming, once again, what ABC deprived itself and us of.
There are a few episodes that are less than wondrous. “Mother’s Daughter” never quite gets past the gimmickiness of its Amishness, and Keel’s sudden attraction to the title character in “Saint Debbie” seems forced. Still, my only serious quibble about this set is that one of the twists from the pilot episode is given away in the menu animations. When I first saw it during its original broadcast, it was like a jolt. For those catching this intriguing series on DVD, it’s too bad. Then again, at least they’re able to catch it.
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