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Siskoid
The first season of The Good Place starts with a big mistake. Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) arrives in "heaven" (or the Good Place) despite having been a horrible person. Now, she has to hide that fact and play along lest she be sent to the "Bad Place". Ted Danson is the wide-eyed angel who acts as caretaker, the other main characters being her neighbors, her assigned soul mate, and the Good Place's walking, talking database. Usually, a high concept show, especially one built like a sitcom, would eventually expend its good will and run out of fuel. The Good Place smartly takes the world it's built around its fantastical concept, and allows various twists, turns and revelations to change the status quo every few episodes (correctly identified as "chapters" of a longer story). Keep you finger on the freeze frame too, the tally of people's sins and accomplishments goes by too quickly to catch all the jokes. Amusing and full of surprises, a good twist on the "horrible person tries to change" TV trope.
The Good Place ended its first season with everything topsy-turvy. Season 2 had me think it couldn't recover in the first couple of episodes as the focus switched to the immortal denizens of the "Good Place". Previous revelations mean we can see their POV a much as that of the human souls now, and wouldn't you know it, the show soon got back on track with some pretty clever narrative conceits and the addition of an extra "hero" as well. And by the end, we've gone through a couple more show-destroying twists and though I could see where Season 3 might go (and still be interesting and funny), but it went somewhere else entirely! Look, is there another sitcom out there that wrings this much comedy out of the study of ethics? It's pretty remarkable. At 12 episodes, it almost goes by too fast...
The Good Place keeps destroying its status quo, building a new one, and destroying that one as well, every few episodes, all while plunging into ethical philosophy. It may just be one of the bravest television shows ever. Season 3 is no different. If we've seen "Heaven" and "Hell" in past seasons, this one largely takes place on Earth. A little less of the absurdist visuals perhaps, but the humor resides in the characters anyway, and I often found myself laughing out loud. Towards the end there, I thought I knew how it would end, and indeed, thought this was a fine third and final chapter of the story. But no, when I would have zigged, the show zags, and zags AGAIN. What?! There's just no way to keep one step ahead of this one. Season 3 uses its shifting planes to include a number of fun guest-stars, not only the semi-regular Maya Rudolph, but also Adam Scott, Stephen Merchant, Nicole Byer, and others. Keep it coming, Fremulon!
Season 4:It's time to save humanity's collective soul and fix the afterlife, yo. The Good Place Season 4, as has been true of the three previous seasons, manages to surprise and delight by never feeling too attached to its status quo. At several points, I thought "how can there be more episodes after this?", but there always were. Until the last, triple-sized chapter of the story, of course, which gave every character their final fate and gave off strong Six Feet Under vibes. That's a compliment. I bawled. What a strange series this was. Full of surreal imagery and silly jokes, and yet replete with legit philosophy and social commentary, continually pulling the rug out from under the characters and the audience and yet, still becoming a hit. Even more wondrous is the fact that it allowed itself to end on its own terms, and despite its success not eke out more seasons with ever diminishing returns. At 53 episodes, I believe this will will remain one of the most original and perfect little gems the half-hour sitcom format has ever given us. 6 years 4 months ago -
selimgonen
I started watching it as a hostage in a social situation. When I saw its plot, I immediately thought it as a cliche.
Boy I was wrong.
(The comment by Siskoid sums it up well) 1 year 5 months ago