Review: In the magical 'Small Prophets,' tiny creatures grown in jars give a man long-sought answers

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Set us as preferred Mackenzie Crook, who wrote and directed “Detectorists,” a gorgeous pastoral comedy about hobbyist hunters seeking Saxon gold in southwest England, has a new series, “Small Prophets,” premiering Wednesday on Apple TV.Set mainly around a suburban cul-de-sac, a retirement home and a “DIY store” (think Home Depot), it’s a different sort of series and yet very much expressive of Crook’s sensibility and interests — friendship, love, memory and the more mysterious world that informs the ordinary one.

It’s meditative, melancholy, sweet and funny.And also involves a sort of treasure hunt and some digging in the ground.Pearce Quigley, who played Danebury Metal Detecting Club member Russell in “Detectorists” stars as Michael Sleep, whose life has been on pause since his girlfriend, Clea, disappeared on Christmas Eve seven years earlier.

For five of those, he’s been working at the Tool Box, amusing himself by idly messing with customers.Standing before a 20-foot wall of bright blue buckets, he tells one, facing the wrong way, that they don’t carry buckets, that they’re old-fashioned and no one uses them anymore.

He confuses another by asking, “Why would we sell six screws in a biodegradable paper bag when if we only sell them in polyurethane tubs of 500, the customer is forced to buying much more of them? Making us much more money.” But he will also build a birdhouse, on site, for a woman who wants one.In the break room, he begins a friendship with equally bored but sociable co-worker Kasey (Lauren Patel) after she asks him whether his beard itches.

This will form the spine of the story, and in a way its point.Over the objections of officious ineffectual manager Gordon (Crook, sporting the world’s saddest ponytail), he regularly leaves work to answer a call from the retirement hom...