The Good Place

Eleanor might be able to pull off the "good deeds you never did" bit improvisationally. She just has to lie like nobody's business, and Chidi isn't around to have a problem with that.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 31st 2019 at 2:00:54 AM

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In theory if he really believes in himself, running a gossip blog could be spun as a good thing. Like, getting the truth out there, telling the people what they want to hear. And that's probably easier than the whole doppelganger plot.

"Being nice-ish isn't working, but proper torture might" could be an interesting moral dilemma, so I could see them trying more tame methods then having to decide whether to replicate the original fake Good Place more closely.

Edited by HalfFaust on Jan 31st 2019 at 2:56:39 AM

• Michael: Eleanor, this isn't going to work unless you devise scenarios to make Chidi miserable.
• Eleanor: But those abs!
• Michael: Those abs are going to the Bad Place if you don't torture them.

Basically what I expect one of the first conflicts of season four to be.

Also, an ironic echo (not the trope, just the words) moment of "Eleanor's been forking with us! This is the Bad Place" is pretty much obligatory at some point in the season, I think.

Possibly from Jason.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 1st 2019 at 8:21:26 AM

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Which, ironically, will be another lie, because it isn't the Good or Bad Place, it's Mindy's Medium Place.

So, something a friend of mine pointed out:

Jason is strangely a lot closer to his role as Jianyu than Eleanor is to real Eleanor. He's not literally a Buddhist Monk, but he is unexpectedly a fountain of wisdom. He shares his wisdoms not through simple lessons or preaching, but through the telling of stories that are meant to ease the listener into the moral conclusion.

He also can see things with more clarity than the others at times. Eleanor takes a whole season to arrive at the conclusion that the group is actually in the Bad Place, but Jason calls it right off the bat when he says this is a prank show. Jason knew that Michael was forking with them before Eleanor ever even considered it. He could tell because of the simplicity of his worldview; Jason doesn't get lost in the details of things, but instead cuts right to the heart of the matter.

Jason has an unexpected sage-like quality to him. He's just. Also. Florida Man.

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Well, Michael's explanation for how Jason supposedly took Jianyu's place was that they had the exact same IQ.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

The sage's IQ was really low because he stopped learning at a young age.

I point out that Elanor also had a great insight into the nature of everything in Episode One. Pretty much speculating that her parents were in the same situation she actually was in now.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

This doesn't seem like it will become a major plot point anytime soon, but I can't help but wonder if the people in the real good place are really happy. Admittedly, we haven't seen much of it, but if you consider that the people who would have any chance of getting into the good place would be the most selfless ones who dedicated their entire lives to helping others (and succeeded in doing so on a large scale)... could that sort of person really be happy with a pleasant but meaningless afterlife, with no ability to really be a force for good in the universe anymore?

Janets are supposedly programmed not to reveal any information about the Bad Place to people in the Good Place. There is likely a reason for that. How could genuinely good people enjoy their existence if they knew that most of humanity was being tortured for all eternity, sometimes for incredibly petty reasons? And knowing that there was absolutely nothing they could do about it? That nothing they ever did would ever mean anything? And the powers that be deliberately arranged it that way?

Did any of them try to overthrow the system? Try to escape? Start a rebellion? Did they succeed in getting the architects' attention and get subsequently sent to the Bad Place for their behaviour? Or were they repeatedly mindwiped, or placed in a kind of Lotus-Eater Machine to keep them placated and believing they were still doing something that mattered. Or, (if Michael's statement that Good Place architects don't live in their neighbourhoods is true), did their frustration go unnoticed, with only the Janets knowing what was happening?

I don't know how well the Janet-babies in the new "Good place" will work out for providing realistic background characters, but I had a thought that they could also use volunteers from the real Good Place. If you offered them a chance to help save souls that would otherwise be tortured, many would jump at the chance after centuries of doing nothing of consequence. A temporary memory wipe would be necessary to guarantee their secrecy, so they would just live their lives as new residents would while hopefully interacting positively with the "guests".

The only issue I can see is 500+ year old souls adapting to modern versions of the Good Place, but that could be part of the challenges for the guests as well.

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You know, a thought.

Know what could probably air in the Medium Place? Ted Danson's Becker.

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I did see a theory that the actual Good Place is a warzone as the humans are fighting the angels to try to change the system. While the angels don't seem concerned about anything like that, as you said, they might be unaware because they don't actually hang out in the neighborhoods.

So, I picked this series and watched the first episode.

By the way, I already know the fact that "The Good Place" is actually the Bad Place, Michael is Satan (I think?), and apparently everyone gets a second chance.

As a matter of fact, learning that twist actually made me watch this series, because holy shit that's some damn cool twist! I watched The Usual Suspects fully knowing the twist to begin with and still immensely enjoyed it anyway, so I should totally be fine.

And hoo boy! I've never seen any sitcom with this creative concept! In some way it kinda reminded me of Angel Beats!, another show that I enjoyed. Well, the first half at least.

Watching the first episode knowing that the place is Hell, it actually makes me pay attention to everything more.

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That's quite a lot of spoilers for right at the beginning but I did know the bad place twist too. It is a very interesting concept; it's pretty rare that a sitcom gives me worldbuilding questions.

I watched the first season as it aired, and immediately after the finale I had to go back and rewatch the whole thing, now with this new information in hand. I'd totally forgotten that, right in the first episode, Eleanor had already figured out the gist of Michael's plan, wondering if her parents are in the Bad Place and being used to torture each other.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

I mean to be fair, Jianyu technically figured it out first.

Watched up to ep 6.

My God, it's total shame that I never got to watch this show without any knowledge! Michael's almost every sentence is purely sinister.

Also, it's a shame that this is a Netflix original. If this was a weekly show, it would get people talking so much more, speculating and all.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

It’s not a Netflix original. It airs on NBC.

Goddamn, I feel like an idiot! That should've totally given me some negative points.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Over here it's weekly on Netflix anyway

Next thing you're gonna be telling me is that Breaking Bad isn't a Netflix original.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

Just a heads up, there is an episode in season 1 that features a bunch of Eleanor's negative-score actions assembled on a board.

Be sure to pause on that list. There are some killer gems.

My favorite is her enemies list. Seriously, I want to know what she did to give Neil De Grasse Tyson a one-sided hatred towards her. There is a story there.

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That's in season 3. It's a flashback to one of the loops.

I love all the little writing gags in the background in all the episodes. Almost any time you see something written it's gonna be a Freeze-Frame Bonus

The last thing you hear before an unstoppable juggernaut bisects you with a minigun.

No, it's in season 1. Shaun, posing as the Judge, brings it up during a conversation with Michael and the crew where they're trying to convince him that she deserves to remain in the Good Place. It's "The Judge"'s counterpoint: the point-by-point listing of how terrible Eleanor is.

Chidi notes that he's especially disturbed by "Started Fire in Mailbox to Get Mailman to Take Off His Shirt".

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 19th 2019 at 8:51:36 AM

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I choose to believe he's one of Eleanor's exes.

"God, he would not shut up about astronomy. I just wanted to date him because he knew Seth Mc Farland anyway."

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Feb 20th 2019 at 1:39:49 AM

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Finished season 1.

Shocking ending, and I loved Michael's evil laugh.

Surprisingly enough, I don't really feel that hooked enough to keep on watching.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.