Not bad. The scenes with Simone were the stand-out best parts of the episode, but the increasing Jason-Derek rivalry and douchebag Brent both seem to have a lot of potential. It’s a pity we didn’t get someone specifically for Jason though, (although I expect Derek will fulfill that role), and maybe Brent is not here for Eleanor, but to test the limits of Janet.
I’m really curious to see where this goes. Eleanor began her journey of improvement by realizing she didn’t belong in the good place, and the new crop seem to totally lack any incentive to change. Maintaining balance while adding three new major characters -four if you count Derek-is going to be difficult. I’d really love to see the new group slowly evolve into team cockroach 2.0, but that means putting the main cast in the background. Whatever they have in store, I’m looking forward to it.
They didn’t show any of the intake interviews with the humans, where Eleanor would go over all the wonderful things they did(n’t) do before they died. Of course, in the original group, neither Chidi nor Tahani needed a different backstory. But it would be amusing to see what she came up with for Brent.
I like knowing this is the last season. They either make something of it or don’t, but whatever it will be will happen now, no cliff hanger to end it, nobody having a baby, and a show like this doesn’t need to be wrapped up in any logical or fulfilling manner.
So as long as Jason is stupid, as long as Janet has stealthy snark and is occasionally evil, as long as the rest keep doing what they’ve been doing, then I’ll enjoy the rest of this show.
Some good laughs in the season premiere, but as a whole, it felt kind of… scattershot. Previously, the writers have done an excellent job of making this high-concept and increasingly complex premise coherent and comprehensible. This episode seemed to lack some of that focus.
One question: Why doesn’t Simone recognize anybody from when she was alive? I’m sure they explained it last season, but I don’t remember.
It’s been pointed out elsewhere on the internet- I’m not going to take credit for the theory- that Michael went into the train- but was it Michael who came out? The recap helpfully reminded us that the bad place has a Michael suit, and the whole fake human gambit was a bit clumsy… maybe deliberately so…
Michael went on the train with Janet, so a switch would have had to fool Janet as well. Not sure the Bad Place is up to that.
On the podcast it was pointed out that the only thing that boring Linda asked was if there was a fitness center - a hint that Linda was really demon Chris, who was always ripping off his shirt and heading to the gym in the first reboot (kind of like how he can only think of asking for a peppermint while acting as Linda).
That’s not a criticism. The look on Eleanor’s face when she left Chidi in his study was heartbreaking (and great acting). It reminds me of the evolution of Terry Pratchett, who moved to deal with more serious issues beyond the jokes.
There were still amusing bits and very funny lines, but the show has evolved and gained even more depth.
Is it just me, or was there something odd about the appearance of the show. Can’t really describe it well, but it looked more like the lighting/colors/whatever of a sit-com from the 80s/90s than from modern cameras.
Bad Janet was terrible at impersonating Good Janet. However, it’s possible that the Bad Place have learned, and killed a Bad Janet over and over again in order to get it to evolve into something better.
Would need to be a sufficiently evolved Janet to be able to run the test neighborhood. Don’t think that one fresh from the warehouse would work. Plus it would need to be a Bad Janet to keep the secret, and those have a tendency to literally melt down if they try to be nice.
I bet a Bad Janet does a lot more than just beg for her life when faced with a reboot…
Well she remembers Chidi, but only as another lecturer at the university so it seems that all of Simone’s memories after Eleanor arrived were wiped. Which means it’s possible she lived for several decades afterwards thanks to Jeremy Bearimy.
It could just be a red herring.
Speaking of Janet running the neighborhood, is it just me or is she getting overwhelmed? Janets are designed to run neighborhoods filled with hundreds of humans and simultaneously fulfill their requests so given that there are only 7 humans one would think this neighborhood would be easier to run. Of course managing the fake humans (who hopefully we’ll see interact with the real humans instead of just running around in the background), some of whom were created by Derek might be draining her. Or it could just be that now that she’s evolved self-awareness and emotions she’s experiencing stress for the first time.
We still really don’t know how the Good Place works or what it’s actually like. It’s possible that every Good Place resident has their own Janet. And yeah, she did say that running all the fake humans is a huge stress to her system.
I’m not going back to watch the episode so am just spitballing, but I’m guessing she may have seen the name “Chidi Abagonye”(sp?) in lists of professors etc. Her actual interactions with that man are removed, but things like casually seeing his name in lists are not.