The Good Place - A Good Show about the afterlife, redemption, morality and the innate goodness of people.

[Rick's Beef Wellington]

I think the Jason, the lawyer and the Janet are thee comedic highlights. The acress that plays Janet does a good job carrying half the show alongside Michael carrying the other half on their backs.

I don't disagree that the episodes in the last season with the boomer are dragged down by his inclusion, but I don't think they alone mean you should drop the final season as the finale is still really good.

The finale is not good, the solution is dumb, soulless, and whatever the opposite of life-affirming is. If they had come up with a way to solve the issue of the show after the first season it wouldn't have ended up being the "contenment makes you dumb and you should just kill yourself" message they gave us. I don't know if the writers changed or if it was just the times changing, but it made the whole story that came before it pointless.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

The finale is not good, the solution is dumb, soulless, and whatever the opposite of life-affirming is. If they had come up with a way to solve the issue of the show after the first season it wouldn't have ended up being the "contenment makes you dumb and you should just kill yourself" message they gave us. I don't know if the writers changed or if it was just the times changing, but it made the whole story that came before it pointless.

I think its a bit more complicated than that.

Spoiler: Finale Spoilers

The last episode takes place over 300.000 years of the characters doing everything the yever wanted. Its less that contentment makes you dumb and more that once you have done absolutely everything there is to do that you ever wanted, your soul is fulfilled and there's not reason to cling onto life out of fear of death despite the fact that you have nothing you want to do or that there is nothing left to do. Its more like the other side of those stories where the hero/antagonist/villain wants to live forever even when its pointless. Lots of cultures have stories about how mortals can't really handle immortality, so I don't think its that out of place.

I understand how it can be viewed as nihilism, but I didn't really see it that way and this is coming from someone who hates nihilism.

 

[>IMPLYING]

I think its a bit more complicated than that.

Spoiler: Finale Spoilers

The last episode takes place over 300.000 years of the characters doing everything the yever wanted. Its less that contentment makes you dumb and more that once you have done absolutely everything there is to do that you ever wanted, your soul is fulfilled and there's not reason to cling onto life out of fear of death despite the fact that you have nothing you want to do or that there is nothing left to do. Its more like the other side of those stories where the hero/antagonist/villain wants to live forever even when its pointless. Lots of cultures have stories about how mortals can't really handle immortality, so I don't think its that out of place.

I understand how it can be viewed as nihilism, but I didn't really see it that way and this is coming from someone who hates nihilism.

Because in theory, the same methodology that could make infinite torture maintain the same level of pain could also work in making you feel infinite enjoyment and happiness for all of eternity. I almost thought it'd end with that considering they showed time and time again that despite changing circumstances, altered memories, things always end up around about the same and they got to experience all those trials and tribulations afresh the first time with the same impact. I think with hell they explored the possibility of omnipotence when it came to torture, but with heaven it was essentially immortality + whatever you want and locked it in a purely human scope. They looked at the concept of the Experience Machine thought experiment and surmised heaven would be something like it. Which, if they ran with it, would be an interesting season in its own right because perhaps the good place does something similar and deprives people of the actual experience of gaining pleasure and just giving it to them directly, but I digress.

 

[khaine]

I think this show had an excellent premise, and I found the first two seasons fun. Three was okay, and four was a nose-dive to drivel. I think the problem was, the first couple of seasons blew through all of the interesting philosophy 101 concepts they thought of, and after that they were stuck.

I think also the writing room got worse, as they had a big focus on diversity.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

Because in theory, the same methodology that could make infinite torture maintain the same level of pain could also work in making you feel infinite enjoyment and happiness for all of eternity. I almost thought it'd end with that considering they showed time and time again that despite changing circumstances, altered memories, things always end up around about the same and they got to experience all those trials and tribulations afresh the first time with the same impact. I think with hell they explored the possibility of omnipotence when it came to torture, but with heaven it was essentially immortality + whatever you want and locked it in a purely human scope. They looked at the concept of the Experience Machine thought experiment and surmised heaven would be something like it. Which, if they ran with it, would be an interesting season in its own right because perhaps the good place does something similar and deprives people of the actual experience of gaining pleasure and just giving it to them directly, but I digress.

Don't they say that at one point humans aren't as affected by torture because it becomes mundane to them too after a thousand years? The experiment to fix that did fail after all.

If the only way to keep up both the pain and the pleasure is to just keep wiping everyone's memories then is that really a solution? If you essentially die at the end everytime its not really that much different than what they already came up with.

That said I'm not saying that annihilation is the only solution, but as far as endings go its not a completely awful one.

I do agree however, that they solved the issue of "too much happiness" rather fast, I thought there would be more episodes trying to solve that as well.

 

[naaaaiiiiillllll!!!]

OP made this thread because of Hazbin Hotel blowing up right? The demand for smart comedy set in the afterlife is way higher than I expected. Like HH and Vivzie’s “hell universe”, “The Good Place” starts out with a promising premise but declined into melodrama as it went on from what I heard (why does this happen with every afterlife show?).

 

[Chilson]

OP made this thread because of Hazbin Hotel blowing up right? The demand for smart comedy set in the afterlife is way higher than I expected. Like HH and Vivzie’s “hell universe”, “The Good Place” starts out with a promising premise but declined into melodrama as it went on from what I heard (why does this happen with every afterlife show?).

Because the premise doesn't have an endgame, which would make it a perfect setting for a more episodic series. But in the serialized hell we have found ourselves in the modern TV landscape hack writers need to drag out the narrative somehow and melodrama is the easiest/only way they know to do that.

 

[Rick's Beef Wellington]

Because the premise doesn't have an endgame, which would make it a perfect setting for a more episodic series. But in the serialized hell we have found ourselves in the modern TV landscape hack writers need to drag out the narrative somehow and melodrama is the easiest/only way they know to do that.

Great point, this could have been a cool anthology show like The Guest Book. Different main characters every episode or season.

Speaking of the afterlife genre, has anyone seen that dreck Amazon did one season of with Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph?

 

[Oilspill Battery]

OP made this thread because of Hazbin Hotel blowing up right? The demand for smart comedy set in the afterlife is way higher than I expected. Like HH and Vivzie’s “hell universe”, “The Good Place” starts out with a promising premise but declined into melodrama as it went on from what I heard (why does this happen with every afterlife show?).

I don't think it devolves into melodrama, there's a bit of it between chidi and eleanor but its more of a B plot, the A plot is fixed on the afterlife itself.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

It's okay but I stand by what people have said already, 2.5 good seasons, the rest below average or bad.

With that said I enjoyed the lead actress in Veronica Mars more.

 

[khaine]

I think the problem was, the first couple of seasons blew through all of the interesting philosophy 101 concepts they thought of, and after that they were stuck.

Those first couple of seasons were the gang learning something from philosophy about what it means to be good. After they moved on from that is where it fell flat on its face.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I watched a few episodes of it after my brother recommended it, I wasn't very impressed. Felt like the the usual hipster humour which sidesteps religion like the plague and uses philosophy to cope with its inability to justify its morals.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

Bumping this thread because I finally got around to watching the whole thing after however long it's been on my watchlist.

Seasons 1 and 2 were actually really well written seasons as of course there's the Season 1 thing, but then Season 2 goes full throttle into the story at a pace that would be considered several seasons of a modern TV show if they'd added a shitload of filler and bottle episodes. Season 3 it started to become far too fillery and bloated and by Season 4 the grubby little fingerprints were all over the show.

I'll give it props for having a definitive end, which automatically puts it above billions of TV shows that left on a cliffhanger around Season 3 and then didn't get renewed, but it's clear as day that the ending radically changed and they were treading water trying to fix it in the final season.

Also found it incredibly bizarre that the hell place guys were totally fine with the compromise of changing their entire torture system to mild torture so everyone would eventually loop enough to get to heaven regardless. So all your serial killers, child rapists etc. are all in endless loops to get better and not a single one of them is tortured for eternity as there's nothing too bad to go to hell for some fucking reason. It's actually funny how transparent they made it that literally everyone is capable of going to heaven except boomer misogynistic trash, oh junkies can still redeem themselves though.

Discovering that annoying person of lesser India is a lolcow too is the icing on the cake.

 

[Pokemon Conquistador]

I always thought the "A Nice Place to Visit" episode of the original Twilight Zone had the best "finding out heaven is really hell" twist.

Spoiler

Rocky, the main character, is stuck in Hell alone, with his demonic assistant "Pip" the only other real soul there with him. Everyone else appears to be an illusion there to serve Rocky's needs. Rocky is stuck in a world with no access to his friends/family or the ability to meet any other real people. That, perhaps, is the true punishment. Not just the fact that he lives in a world whose pleasures have diminishing returns, but the fact that he lives in an empty cage, with really no one, other than his tormentor, to talk to.

 

[the khat quaffer]

I hate this fucking show so goddamn much. I'm pretty much balls deep into it at this point at season 4 with 4 episodes left. I want those dozens of hours of my life back. Fuck this show. Only watched it cause of a friend.

It has a semi interesting premise, whether or not humans are redeemable and what their ultimate fate is. Okay, let's hear it.
The 4 humans, Eleanor et al., are awful, despicable, semi-nihilistic creatures - that could work...except they're just awful, obnoxious, repetitive and crucially, not funny. I want to kill every single one of them, especially Jason. There wasn't one second of screen time where I didn't want him to die violently. Tahani was obnoxious. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. SHUT up with the names. Places. Events. I DON'T WANNA KNOW ABOUT FAMOUS PEOPLE YOU'VE EDGED LITERAL CUNT WITH LEGS
Chiti, obnoxious liberal arts faggot. Philosophy is a waste of a major and daddy's money. Tragically he is the most tolerable.
And Eleanor. Jesus cunting Christ on a cracker. Pill-popping mormon dropout from Arizona. You're not funny and you probably smell.

Then there's Michael. Obnoxious bowtie-wearing faggot with striped socks that runs the Good Place. Wasn't funny one iota. There is nothing memorable about his performance. Yeah, Ted you really needed that paycheck didn't you.

I regularly forget what is happening after season 2. It seems like they latch onto an idea for a series arc then don't bother committing. The show refuses to take itself seriously, and that could work, except it expects you to care about the premise and the fate of its characters. Pick a lane.

The show is also hideous. The actors wear WAY too much makeup and they look filtered to fuck and back. Set pieces seem like they were mass produced off a conveyor belt. Season 1 was particularly egregious because of the abundance of jump cuts and one-note 'jokes' that never landed. I'm not crazy, right? Season 1 has so many awkward jump cuts, it reeks of over-editing. 4 seasons later they couldn't scare up a budget to make half-decent backdrop CGI (Jason & Michael going through the desert). This is barebones sophomoric level film making.

This show is 100% what you would get if you went to an AI prompt and said "give me 4 actors that are nihilistic assholes stuck in heaven trying to figure out what it means to be good."
I fucking hate this show. I hate every single character. I hate the set pieces, I hate the dialogue, I hate Ted, I hate the premise, I hate the jokes, I hate that I surrendered a few dozen hours of my life clock to this goddamn show.

This is without question the worst show I've ever seen.

addendum: janette is hot and i want to fuck her nose.