Did anyone catch this? There’s a two-parter on Hulu.
Very short synposis: Kristen Bell dies and goes to “The Good Place,” where Ted Danson is in charge. But then things start going sideways.
I really enjoyed it. It’s funny and different. I expect it won’t last more than a season and will end with pretty much every question unanswered.
edit: And of course I messed up the title. Self-reporting for change.
I really liked it. 
I found it amusing, though if each episode is going to end with a cod-liver-oil take-it-because-it’s-good-for-you lesson for the main character in how to be a better person, it’ll wear thin extremely fast.
Well, also that existence in “the good place” if it was running smoothly looks like it’d get boring fairly quickly. I cold see that being the overall premise, that some quantity of jerkhood is a necessary element to any society, on any plane of existence.
Even if everything were going perfectly, that one lady is already clearly irritated at her soul mate’s vow of silence. So it’s not all it’s cracked up to be right out of the gate.
My only real quibble is the math. As it turns out, everyone dies on the same day their soul mate dies. That’s…weird.
It was created by Mike Schur, of “Parks and Recreation” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”, so i was going to at least give it a chance. And it turns out I liked the first two episodes quite a bit. Like “The Last Man on Earth”, the concept seems like it would be hard to sustain, but it’s so different from anything else on network TV right now, which can be a good thing. I especially like Chidi and the Ted Danson character.
I really liked it and will keep watching. Kristen Bell was a really good choice for the main character, and I liked all the other people, especially the information woman.
I was wondering about how all that worked, maybe it’s some place out of time? Like she died 2 years ago and he died 19 years ago, but popped into the good place at the same time. Or it’s another indication of how it’s not actually as perfect as it should be.
There could be some really interesting world building as it goes on. I like a lot of the weird details so far, like her Icelandic minimalist house, and all the frozen yogurt places, and the apparent dog avatars. I hope we see some of the other neighborhoods. And I’m guessing at some point we find out what happened to the real Eleanor, if she’s actually not dead yet, or if she did go to the Bad Place.
Yeah, it reminded me of “The Last Man on Earth” in that it’s “high concept” and that each episode is a chapter in a long, evolving story, which makes it hard to judge how well the show works from just a couple of chapters.
It also reminded me a little of “My Name Is Earl,” in that the premise provides opportunities to explore the questions of What makes a good person, and How (or whether) someone can learn to become a good person. How well it manages to address those questions remains to be seen, but at least it’s interesting to see them try.
I thought it very good with plenty of funny moments. It probably works best on a weekly basis and not with two episodes in a row.
I do love the way they manage the swearing, especially “condescending bench.” (Though I think the character clearly is generally upbeat and pleasant, even if they way she expressing things is annoying."
As for how it all works, as the noted philosopher said, “it’s just a show/so sit back and relax.” The mechanics of it all are about as important as wondering if there are ants in afterlife: a bit of mental masturbation that ignores the big question for any sitcom: Does the show deliver laughs?
It doesn’t seem like there’s much chance of this particular Good Place neighborhood running smoothly in the near future, even if Eleanor (Kristen Bell) reformed overnight. We’ve been shown that Michael (Ted Danson) feels pressured to get things perfect on his first solo project, and we know he’s already made at least one significant mistake and isn’t handling it well. I mean, he kicked a dog into the sun!
I suspect that Eleanor’s presence is not the only error in the neighborhood, and perhaps not even the biggest one. As Ellis Dee noted, Tahani and her silent Buddhist monk soulmate don’t seem that well-matched, and Tahani is annoying enough that I’m wondering if her presence is actually another mistake. My current WAG is that she’s in the same situation as Eleanor and keeps bringing up “her” past accomplishments because she doesn’t want anyone to realize she’s not the person who’s supposed to be there.
IIRC the magical librarian lady also said the only thing she wasn’t allowed to tell them about was “The Bad Place”. Between that and Michael saying that Florence Nightingale, most artists, etc., are in “The Bad Place”, I have to wonder whether it is in fact that bad or if Eleanor and others in “The Good Place” are being misled. So I think there’s plenty of room for conflict in this setting, although of course it remains to be seen what the show manages to do with it all.
There is some discussion of the points system and some screenshots here. Tahani could be mistakenly in the Good Place, or she could have just unwittingly gamed the system. You get lots of points for hosting Syrian refugees and driving to out of state disaster areas and helping, it doesn’t say that you get more or less points depending on if you did that out of selflessness or for bragging rights. Bragging probably loses you points, but not much in comparison. Either way the show could go interesting ways with it.
Gave it a shot, but doubt I’ll watch again.
Didn’t hate it. Initial twist of KB there by mistake with her presence messing things up was clever, but I don’t see how it has legs. Entire village was too cute, other characters mostly annoying caricatures. Never been a big fan of TD after Cheers.
Stylistically reminded me of Pushing Daisies.
Whoeveer edited the title should have put “The Good Place” in quotation marks, so show that it the title of a work. This is an ongoing problem, it is often impossible to guess whether a thread is about a concept, or a work that has the title of a concept.
I don’t remember that being implied. Thing is, we can’t trust a lot about the Good Place - it’s already established that languages are instantly translated (and apparently lip movements also), so the entire thing could be brains in vats. There isn’t really a huge demand for frozen yogurt places in the afterlife, for example, but the main character likes them so that’s what she perceives. The other characters are seeing dispensaries for foods they like, and every time one of them says “Let’s go get a shawarma, soulmate” in Farsi, it’s simply being translated to “Let’s go get some empanadas, soulmate” in Spanish.
I enjoyed the first two episodes. Plenty of funny material and I’m intrigued by the world. Tahini definitely does seem to be ‘not as good’ as you would think, but as stated upthread could have ‘gamed the system’ or there is far more to the Good Place that we, or the inhabitants, know. I wonder if the Good Place is a waystation - kinda of a mini-rebirth / nicer purgatory place
My wager was that “the other place” wasn’t as bad as they fear. The simulfeed could have been a crowd responding to a sporting event or something. But I doubt I’l stick around to find out.
I liked the Senegalese guy (didn’t he say he was from Nigeria but went to school in Senegal?).
I think Tahani is going to blow up at her silent Buddhist monk soulmate at some point. And those two guys who were so very cheery, even while collecting garbage? Something’s going to piss them off at some point. So while the main character learns to be good, the others will learn how to be bad. Or at least will be able to express real emotions. Even the Ted Danson character kicked a dog.
They have to shake up the premise in a big way and soon. If Kristine Bell keeps screwing up heaven for everybody else, it’s a bad show. If she converts into a good person, the show ends. I have to hope a whole bunch of twists are coming in the next few episodes or there’s no reason for continuing to watch. Mostly, I’m betting that the real Shellstrop shows up. I couldn’t find any other Shellstrops on Google so that was a good name choice.
I like your idea that it’s a purgatory way station, and someone else’s idea that the bad place probably isn’t all that bad – they have all the art!! all the musicians!!!
Tahani really is a condescending bench. The main is, I laughed. Oh, and point system was funny…remaining loyal to the Cleveland Browns gets you more points, and rooting for the Yankees gets you closer to damnation? I’ll definitely keep watching for a while.
Schur is a very big Boston Red Sox fan, which explains the Yankees snub, and he is on a weekly podcast with sportswriter Joe Posnanski, who is a life-long Browns fan.
And I think the frozen yoghurt is just frozen yoghurt. Bell asked Michael what the deal with that was, and he just said that people really just like frozen yoghurt. He’d have said differently if it was like the language thing - what reason would there be to hide that?
“Yeah, well, who died and left Aristotle in charge of ethics?”
“Uh…Plato?!?”
