The Good Place

It's hard to believe that The Good Place is Jameela Jamil's first acting role, because the facial expressions she does at the very end of the episode are just perfect.

I love how this seemingly innocuous comedy takes the Big Good to the Big Bad and then the Token Evil Teammate within like, episodes. It's got some good storytelling.

Part of what makes the show so great is that it always blows up the status quo way sooner than anyone expects it to.

This system continues to prove to be incredibly unfair. The French go to The Bad Place automatically.

Yeah. Assuming that Michael wasn't making stuff up for a book report he cared nothing about... There's pretty much no justification for that. The system is broken.

Also, it make the the Jasonet shipper in me, but I wonder if the issue with Janet is that she's experiencing jealously even though she's not supposed to feel anything. Then again, odds are she doesn't remember ever liking Jason.

It's probably because she's been reset way more often than she's supposed to be and theoretically, she's way ahead of the curve in terms of Janet development, and she keeps getting asked to do things that a Janet isn't supposed to be able to do.

Yeah, that detail seemingly both confirming the point system and apparently indicating that all French people were damned was messed up. It's funny and of course the French are an Acceptable Target, but still off-putting because we'd like to think that the point system, to the extent it really exists, makes sense and is relatively lenient. Similarly, we are given to understand that intent matters, and Valjean stole bread for a completely admirable reason. Maybe it's like he got negative points for that and positive points for sacrificing to care for his family, but it doesn't seem fair/make sense that you would get negative points regardless of intent, if the system was based on an idea that intent matters.

I was also going to say that I wouldn't have thought Victor Hugo would deserve damnation for anything, since the only negative I had known about him was some womanizing. However, with the caveat that it was a joke and not to be taken seriously, as per The Other Wiki, the womanizing was much more extreme than I had understood and more seriously, he was at least at one point in his life, a supporter of really brutal methods of colonialism.

Re Janet, I hope it isn't jealousy so much as a conflict with that "ride or die" protocol of prioritizing her relationship with Jason/Jason's happiness. Because I'd expect that Janet's attitude/programming is fundamentallyy about loving all people, even if she progressed to love Jason slightly more than everyone else. So, I'm not sure why she would be jealous of/angry at Tahani if Jason was happy.

edited 20th Oct '17 3:08:08 PM by Hodor2

I think the point is that the system is broken to the point of ludicrousness and beyond. Even ignoring Micheal, Chidi’s speculated that immortal beings can’t comprehend human ethics because they will live longer than any consequences. Perhaps the beings that set up this system worked off the belief that humans inherently suck (short and pointless lives, gross biology, etc.) and never had to face consequences and grow up, resulting in a system that punishes whatever annoys the angels or powers that be or whatever and only rewards people whose good actions have a wide enough impact over a long enough time to be appreciated by immensely powerful immortals.

In my opinion, any system where "tortured for all eternity" is a fate that's given to anyone is a deeply messed up, and we already knew that they were consigning most of the human race to that, so some added capriciousness doesn't really phase me much.

A lot of people assumed that the arbitrary nature of points was something Michael made up. It's very clear at this point that he was reporting it accurately.

Last season, we saw a flashback to Michael in the Bad Place offices, where he had no reason to lie about anything. There they made it pretty clear that the Good Place/Bad Place system is real, that the Bad Place is intended as a realm of horrible and eternal torture, and that our four not-great-but-not-horrible humans had been assigned there. Why would you expect the afterlife selection process to be fair or just after hearing all that?

I highly suspect that the way michael talked about the real good place, that the good place doesn't get to take everyone. They want to, but the bad place is actively fighting to take on as many people as they can.

Hence the point system might be arbitrary to skew in directions for small things, as a strategy on both sides.

Needs must we get the perspective of a Good Place denizen other than Janet.

She’s an A.I., he’s a demon; can they make it together in this crazy world?

I'm wondering how long Derek's gonna stick around. And what his status is in the afterlife. He's not a Janet, he's not a human, and even if he did qualify as the latter, he hasn't lived any mortal lives, and thus has no points to calculate.

Considering he can pop in and out in the same way Janet can, he's most likely not a human. I do hope he becomes part of the cast, though - I'm sure Schur won't stuff him under the rug once he's been introduced.

Does this count as a Bottle Episode? I realized partway through that they only used 3 sets and stuck with the main cast (aside from the two scenes in the Bad Place office).

It kind of violates the spirit of a Bottle Episode, though, which are generally meant to save money, given all the CGI they used here.

It definitely felt like a bottle episode, though, until rooms started disappearing. My favorite part about the most recent few episodes has been how they used standard sitcom plots, but made them have drastic effects on reality itself. The juxtaposition of petty jealousy and apocalypse-level plots is hilarious.

Also, RE: post 139 Together, they fight crime.

edited 9th Dec '17 10:13:33 AM by HBomb

Agreed. I also kinda love that a fantasy-based sitcom has one of the best examinations of artifcial intelligence on television.

Bump. New episodes resume tonight. Episode name "Leap to Faith".

I have season 1 on DVD. I went in knowing the twist but it was still good enough to fool me, and my mom was completely blindsided XD

The more I listen to the credits music the more sinister it gets. (It'd also make a great ringtone if I could find it anywhere.)

"You're not a demon, you're a jerk."

Mindy got her cocaine! And an only slightly deformed sex robot!

I'm so happy for her!

Michael is such a Magnificent Bastard.

"We got all four clues you left us!"

"Oh that's great. I mean, I actually left you more than 1200 clues because of how primitive your brains are but I'm so glad you got enough to figure it out"

I really hope Ted Danson gets an award or three for his performance, he is an extraordinary actor.

I updated the recap page if anyone wants to trope the latest episode.