History Fridge / TheGoodPlace

* On various aspects of the show. Such as [[spoiler: why the show creator mentions talking to the creator of Lost. Why a sitcom only has 13-season which is far more typical of dramas, even with the modern practice of a short test season. Why he had mentioned that the show was heavily plotted out.]]

** Another important rule for Janet - [[spoiler: she's not allowed to answer any questions about the Bad Place. At first, it seems like a minor quirk designed to stop residents worrying too much about the other side of their peaceful afterlife; in retrospect, it's a necessary bit of reprogramming by Michael to stop anyone accidentally stumbling across the truth.]]

* Consider the disasters that we were told happened as a result of Eleanor's selfish behavior: She stole shrimp, so shrimp fell from the sky. She cracked a joke about Ariana Grande, so Ariana Grande started playing in the neighborhoods. She shirked garbage duty and garbage fell from the sky. She smashed up cake, so a sinkhole opened. Notice: TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers. The first three results were all obviously linked to some action that Eleanor took, but it's hard to see how destroying cake relates to a sinkhole opening. TheReveal that [[spoiler: Michael was really orchestrating the disasters]] clears up the seeming inconsistently: [[spoiler: He was just doing whatever would cause the most problems for the main four. By establishing the pattern, Michael just made Eleanor believe she was behind it.]]

* Consider the disasters that we were told happened as a result of Eleanor's selfish behavior: She stole shrimp, so shrimp fell from the sky. She cracked a joke about Ariana Grande, so Ariana Grande started playing in the neighborhoods. She shirked garbage duty and garbage fell from the sky. She smashed up cake, so a sinkhole opened. Notice: TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheothers. The first three results were all obviously linked to some action that Eleanor took, but it's hard to see how destroying cake relates to a sinkhole opening. TheReveal that [[spoiler: Michael was really orchestrating the disasters]] clears up the seeming inconsistently: [[spoiler: He was just doing whatever would cause the most problems for the main four. By establishing the pattern, Michael just made Eleanor believe she was behind it.]]

* Consider the disasters that were told happened as a result of Eleanor's selfish behavior: She stole shrimp, so shrimp fell from the sky. She cracked a joke about Ariana Grande, so Ariana Grande started playing in the neighborhoods. She shirked garbage duty and garbage fell from the sky. She smashed up cake, so a sinkhole opened. Notice: TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheothers. The first three results were all obviously linked to some action that Eleanor took, but it's hard to see how destroying cake relates to a sinkhole opening. TheReveal that [[spoiler: Michael was really orchestrating the disasters]] clears up the seeming inconsistently: [[spoiler: He was just doing whatever would cause the most problems for the main four. By establishing the pattern, Michael just made Eleanor believe she was behind it.]]

* In a somewhat humorous example, a lot of reviewers/commentators (i.e. on the AV Club) joked about the prominence of frozen yogurt in the Good Place, since as Michael himself notes, it's something that is more popular than actually liked. This detail seemed emblematic of the Good Place having a lot of HellOfAHeaven qualities. However, all of the frozen yogurt makes even more sense [[spoiler: as the kind of thing you would find in a Hell "pretending" to be Heaven- it's the same kind of idea as that old Got Milk commercial where Hell has delicious chocolte cookies but no milk]].

** Jianyu [[spoiler:is not a Taiwanese monk but a Filipino-American wannabe DJ named Jason Mendoza. He is an extremely sociable person who loves hanging out with others. In the neighborhood, however, he is given the ultimate man cave but is forced to keep it a secret and stay silent in order to prevent others from learning that he doesn't belong.]]
* Connected to the above bullet, as we see from Trevor, Bad Place denizens/staff engage in the kind of behavior that would get someone sent there in the first place (i.e. telling women to smile more; taking off his shoes and socks in public). So, it makes sense that the Bad Place would deliberately [[spoiler: confuse ethnicity and act like Asian cultures are interchangeable/force Jason into stereotypical behavior]], because those are also behaviors that would rack up Bad Place points.

** Jianyu [[spoiler:is not a Taiwanese monk but a Filipino-American wannabe DJ named Jason Mendoza. He is an extremely sociable person who loves hanging out with others. In the neighborhood, however, he is given the ultimate man cave but is forced to keep it a secret and stay silent in order to prevent others from learning that he doesn't belong.]]

* Mid-episode brilliance with [[spoiler: Mindy and her welcome video. There's a reason the Good Place spokesperson isn't Michael. Similarly, Michael saying that he'll have to murder Janet which, in hindsight, something out of character for a Good Place person.]]

* Mid-episode brilliance with [[spoiler: Mindy and her welcome video. There's a reason the Good Place spokesperson isn't Michael.]]

* Janet's inability to talk about people's search history. [[spoiler: It will inevitable become useful after TheReveal that they're really in the bad place as it will prevent Michael from simply asking Janet about the four. And as a legitimate Good Place being, she has powers that will likely prove useful.]]

* Janet's inability to talk about people's search history. [[[spoiler: It will inevitable become useful after TheReveal that they're really in the bad place as it will prevent Michael from simply asking Janet about the four. And as a legitimate Good Place being, she has powers that will likely prove useful.]]

* ''Only'' after seeing the season one finale, think about the 'fridge horror' on Jianyu: [[spoiler: It's funny when Eleanor outlines everyone's tortures and Jason chimes in about no one getting to see his man-cave, but think of it. The gregarious, outgoing party animal was ''forced into the role of a silent monk, which he had to keep up 24/7.'' Being forced to play Jianyu forever is ''indeed'' Jason's perfect torture and it's as good as everyone else's. Since Michael made up everything as a Bad Place engineer, ''there is no real Jianyu to have to imitate.'' It is indeed his sentence, his hell.]]

* Chidi is someone who has hurt people despite his tremendously good intentions, while Tahani is someone who has helped so many people, but with impure intentions. The fact that both [[spoiler:end up in The Bad Place illustrates that The Good Place takes account both intentions and consequences]].

* Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason are the only residents of Neighborhood 12358W who have had flashbacks to their life on Earth. This makes sense considering [[spoiler:they're the only humans in the Neighborhood.]]

** Eleanor [[spoiler:is an arch-cynic who believes that no one does anything without a hidden[=/=]self-serving agenda and, while living, only looked out for herself at the expense of others. Within the neighborhood, she is surrounded by people who are apparently completely altruistic and is forced to try and pretend to be one herself although it goes against her very nature.]]

** Tahani [[spoiler:is an extremely insecure person who only does things in the hopes of receiving validation from others. Every grand gesture she tries to make in the neighborhood, however, ends up a disaster and she "accidentally" learns that she has the second-lowest score among the residents, causing her to try even harder and fail even more.]]