Three Seasons in- The Good Place
Welcome! Everything is fine.
Spoilers, obviously.
I’ve enjoyed previous Michael Schur shows (Parks and Rec, Brooklyn 99) so it was inevitable I would eventually watch The Good Place. My wife, however, usually isn’t a fan of sit-coms. She’s seen a few episodes of those other ships, and similar ones (The Office, 30 Rock) and usually comes away amused by them. But never really likes them or wants to watch them. Comedies have generally been a me show.
For some reason, she seemed interested in this one. I dunno why but she wanted to watch it when I did. And then we were hooked. We picked up season one during the lull between season 2 ending and showing up on Netflix. Burned through it in a few days. Then my wife got us into the podcast. Those were fun too.
The show was nothing like I expected.
I enjoyed Parks and Rec and Brooklyn 99 both for their ridiculousness and surprising ability to avoid most of the usual sit-com tropes. Almost every time I started to groan at a standard set up the show would jink in another direction. The only real complaint I had was an inevitable one. The longer the shows went on, the more of a caricature the characters would become. That can be frustrating but is also kind of inevitable.
What I wasn’t prepared for was just how far from the original premise The Good Place would go and how fast it would get there. Parks and Rec’s final season serves as a template in a way. By the end that show was nothing like its original premise. But that took seven seasons. The Good Place got there in half a season. And then kept doing it.
It’s a show about getting learning to be good so you can stay in heaven, which you got into by mistake. It’s a show about being in hell and facing the worse torture, other people. It’s a show about trying to make a change in life. It’s a show about helping other people become better. It’s a show about proving how broken the universe’s moral compass is. By the end of season 3, in some ways we’re right back where we started but also lightyears away as well.
All of the other shows would have what you could call “heart”. You’re made to care about the characters and feel for their struggles. That’s the goal of any show. Where The Good Place stands out is it also has a thought.
The show makes you to laugh at the ridiculousness of the characters and the world. The show makes you cry as you witness Eleanor and Chidi forced to make the ultimate sacrifice for the universe. One must go on, remembering their love while the other forgets it ever happened. That’s gut-punching. And then it makes you think.
Most episodes do have a philosophical thought they revolve around. Sometimes its more obvious than others but never does it fall into afterschool special territory. You’re made to think about what is right and wrong and what life even means.
All in all, a great show. Sadly, we must wait another 9 or 10 months for more.
Also, Chidi is my spirit animal. Seriously, that guys inability to make a decision and his constant internal debate about what the “right” decision is quite familiar.
