I view it as a challenge to guess what’s going to happen, even if I only manage to do so seconds before the reveal. For example, I figured out it was Good Janet right before she she took out Sean, literally 2 seconds before the reveal. But I still count that as a win. 
While waiting for the finale, are we ever going to meet Doug from the first episode? He is the guy in the picture in Michael’s old office who guessed most of what the good place is about and is from Calgary (like me, and just going by memory here). They made such a big deal about him, I was sure he would eventually be a character in the show.
And yet it never feels like the show is slow rolling the viewers or being cheap or lazy. The pacing is absolutely incredible.
Yes. In the first season, I actually thought a couple of times that the Good Place might be some sort of Hell, but Ted Danson had me fooled into thinking it was just mistakes and inexpereince.
Looks good. I wonder if we’ll get to see any examples of how this bizarre point system works in the other direction (ie audience baffling examples of people who made it to The Good Place).
Yep, which implies the Janets are made by a 3rd party (Gen?) to Good Place and Bad Place specifications.
I’m going with that and more: there is more to Gen than Judge. Gen as in Genesis, as the beginning that always has been, that birthed it all, the closest this show will get to The Creator, the ultimate third party to give specifications. Of course Tahani passed the test more than she would have by merely passing by the door. She faced and came to terms with her parents and her wish to be good enough for them, embraced eating a Cheeto and shagging a Floridian, to their faces! That was the demon she had always needed to face. There is no higher score for her than saying “I’m sorry we didn’t have a better relationship, and I wish you all the best.” to her parents. Jason? Refusing to play made no sense to show his growth or “goodness” He’s dimwitted and willing to do stupid things because he isn’t smart enough to have a moral compass. His realization of what was going on by the end of his game was huge growth for him. Chidi? Not getting his I admit but really “bad” based on paralysis by analysis? He at least decided.
Gen knows what’s what and knows that these four do not belong in the Bad Place. And I suspect she knew that Good Janet and Michael were about to show. All knowing.
Good Janet is not this show’s God, as some have suggested, but Gen will be shown to be. OTOH Janet and her growth, her becoming the most advanced Janet ever, a Good Janet who can love, be jealous, be loyal, exceed her design specifications, be much much more than just not-a-robot … will play a bigger role in the final twist than Michael does.
And I am also betting that there will some joke about the symbolic meaning of the burrito … but I haven’t figured out what it is yet. 
Maybe the old joke, “Make me one with everything”…
I had a wild thought the other night, and I’m almost certainly wrong, but.
As yet, we have no confirmed God/Creator/whatever. What if that being were actually molding our four - singly or collectively - as a replacement? People who have a deep knowledge of human frailty, but who have been uplifted into their higher selves.
Or, slightly more likely, something’s looking for replacement angels - same idea, less lofty end.
Most likely, I think, all involved are in some sort of purgatory - again, they are being molded into being better people, fit to ascend from purgatory to heaven. (Yes, even Michael)
Just some thoughts off the top of my head.
Well, Gen was dousing that burrito in “Envy” sauce, which is one of the seven deadly sins…
Could God make a burrito so large that even he could not eat it?
These creatures (not just the demons but the judge and the glimpse of the ‘angels’ we’ve seen) really do seem fascinated by humanity and human culture. They even cosplay as humans at work. It’s obviously an optional affectation since we’ve seen a few monsters in regular monster form.
We’ve been predicting that this is all for Michael’s benefit, but what if it’s for the benefit of all the demons?
Even the judge seemed surprised (more than surprised, but nonplussed) to find Jason meditating with his back to the television. That was clearly unexpected.
So now my current prediction is that Season 3 will be about some sort of civil war between the demons as Michael’s rebellion ripples through the Bad Place.
Well, perhaps, though under that interpretation it’s odd that Gen said she hadn’t had a case to judge in thirty years. You’d think that a deity with so much interest in humans would have found situations requiring judgments on a continual basis.
Of course it’s also possible that the show creator is going for something more akin to the religious-cosmology proposed in Albert Brooks’ 1991 movie Defending Your Life. In that film there was no deity as such; instead, there were more-advanced entities and less-advanced entities. The entire thing, apparently, was based on the EST concept that the most important thing in life is overcoming one’s fears.
I don’t see that (the overarching importance of fear) as being Michael Schur’s message in The Good Place. But it’s still possible that he’s bypassing our “God and Devil” expectations by positing a deity-less afterlife.
Episode: “Somewhere Else”
“…Where Everyone Knows your name, and they’re always glad you came…”
Not a bad way to reboot the concept, seeing how they interact in the real world, have to wait a long time to see how J+T meet up with C+E in the “real world.”
That was…strange.
I figured this was coming, because I couldn’t imagine (though I’m weak in that department) any other setting available.
I’m having a hard time fanwanking-away the fact that Chidi Ana…conda’s native language is French (S1E1), but he speaks perfectly standard American English. In Australia. In the “good” place, it was explained away as a feature of said place, where everyone spoke their native language and the listener heard their native tongue.
My fanwank is that they’re not back on real earth, they’re in another “…place” so the rules about understanding each other’s language stay in effect.
Yeah, it seems like a ‘pocket universe’ for the push test and not the actual Earth itself.
Also, Michael kept saying they’d all improved but I don’t see it:
Eleanor: definitely, massive changes in character and empathy
Chidi: 82 minutes to choose a hat aside, has become a lot more decisive, especially when his friends fates are on the line
Tahani: meh, has learned to laugh at herself and relax a bit, but still quite self absorbed.
Jason: ??? Nothing as far as I can see. Still reacts fondly to mentions of his dirtbag hijinks, still defaults to his dirtbag persona. How has Jason improved at all?
Thanks, Crybaby Boobie, that helps.
I agree particularly about Jason; in one of the last scenes in the judge’s chambers someone mentioned that he worked at throwing (cans?) at flamingos, and he piped up and said he got pretty good at it, with no hint of remorse.
Jason seems to be more willing to do things to help others - such as beating the Jags on Madden 18.