Anybody else watching? I’m about halfway through episode four.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, it’s basically impossible to talk about without spoilers. It’s alot like The Good Place that way. Also in that it’s an afterlife comedy, although a much different one. The slow pace is sometimes annoying, but my only real complaint so far is the afterlife/ghost dichotomy. It’s like they wanted to set it in the afterlife, but had written a bunch of ghost jokes, and so tried to do both. The result, the dead staying in an idyllic suburban neighborhood (like The Good Place) that is located on Earth but almost completely ignored by the living feels a bit like a cop-out.
Still, you have to love lines like “My shift is almost over, but I can get the assistant manager to mourn with you.”
My wife and I definitely enjoyed it… with some reservations. Spoilers for the entire series:
I feel like someone made a bet, saying “I bet I can make a show that’s a gruelingly honest depiction of the small routines and dishonesties that build up over the course of a relationship, but is ALSO a wacky afterlife comedy with ghosts”. And then they did. And they did a damn good job of it, all things considered. But… why?
I certainly wanted to find out more about the rules of their neighborhood, their limitations and powers, etc. Why was Maya Rudolph so good at ghost things? What caused the “real world” to be avoiding that neighborhood? Why were they the only two people who were still a couple in the afterlife? Etc. But because that wasn’t the kind of show it was (which is certainly reasonable), it just left me unsatisfied. If your story about a relationship takes place in present day Chicago, well, that’s fine, we can focus on the relationships, because we know how present day Chicago works. If it takes place in a super-interesting afterlife with weird rules and restrictions, then of course we’re going to want to find out more about them.
So, overall, definitely wroth seeing, definitely enjoyable, definitely well made, but nowhere near (imho) as good as The Good Place, which manages to merge afterlife hijinks and actual emotion and meaning in a much more overall satisfying way.
We’re up to episode three. It was probably risky of me to open this thread, but I think I survived without seeing too many spoilers.
I really loved the first two episodes. The third felt a bit flat and too slow even for me. I’m hoping a return to the style and pace of the first couple of episodes is in order.
I was underwhelmed…to me it came off as sort of a wanna-be The Good Place. Plus, for me, it’s too soon after Portlandia to see Fred paired up with someone other than Carrie Brownstein.
I binged on it all day. It was slow and maybe underwhelming but it held my attention. I liked where it was going. All the characters started growing on me. I don’t want to spoil it by saying anything else.
I didn’t think it was all like The Good Place other than being the afterlife.
We just finished episode 4 last night, and…I think we’re done. The “buying a new router” scene was the highlight of the four episodes, and the rest of it we spent waiting for the next funny bit.
The show takes a very long time to depict, in excruciating detail, how boring these two people are. And generally not in a clever way. The deal killer for me was (not a plot spoiler):
Spending what seemed like forever showing the couple discussing the best way to sit. Not in a quirky Seinfeld way, but literally “let’s discuss the best way to sit” as an activity.
Add to that an amazing number of “fucks” for a show rated TV-14 and supporting characters that are irritating, I’ve given up unless there is some reason to come back.
Granted, it’s still better than 80% of the stuff out there. It was clearly made with care - but I find it tedious, not funny.
The first two episodes were pleasant but slow but for whatever reason, Ep3 really cracked me up. I enjoy this show quite a bit but I am a fan of both Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph so I think that adds a lot to the appeal for me.
I generally liked the concept of the show, but I felt the execution was a little rough. It’s one of the few times I think more studio intervention could have helped. It’s like how an inside joke can seem hilarious, but those on the outside don’t get it. But I liked the philosophical aspect of the story and it was overall entertaining. If you go into it expecting “Meh”, you’ll probably like it.
I assumed it was meant to show just how deep and strong her anger and resentment at feeling trapped by Oscar ran.
I agree that the execution was less than artful but I still found myself entranced enough to binge the whole season in a night. I still don’t know how to feel about episode 6.
If there’s a season 2, I definitely want more development of the duality of Oceanside and Riverside, the emphasis on water sources and the weird old man. I hope they had more in mind for those things other than being weird for the sake of weird.
The show shares a lot of writers with The Good Place.
I’ve finished this now. On balance I think it was great, even with not liking episode 3. I felt the subsequent ones were a return to form and were funny again. I also appreciated the fairly unconventional structure (e.g. spending an entire episode with two different characters just to have Maya Rudolph’s character see them).
Agreed. It was a gentle comedy for the most part. Armisen has always had an odd humor style, but I thought the chemistry between the two of them was fine.
I just finished it last night. I guess I was underwhelmed. There were a few laugh out loud moments, some touching moments but as another poster said, too many details were left out. The teenager seeing his old crush was great. There needed to be more of those moments. The real estate episode was a waste of time, didn’t fit in at all. I wanted more explanation of Oceanside and who the Traveling Man was. I assume considering how it ended, there will be another season.
I binged on it yesterday and loved it. Great little show, really looking forward to S2.
One thing about the Andres & Sarah bit - did June watch their entire story play out? If so, does that mean, by the end of the episode, June has been in “Forever” for about 20, 30 years?
I think so. I seem to recall Andres and Sarah talking about the mold-ridden culdesac at the start of their relationship and that pre-dates June as a former.
At first, I was annoyed that the mechanics of the afterlife are never really explored, and seem inconsistent. As I think about it, it’s probably a good decision. The show is about characters and relationships, not about gaming the afterlife rules to solve problems. Also, not explaining things helps give a dreamlike quality to the story.
