November 7, 2018
By Allison Chaput and Emily Ma
If you’re someone who loves shrimp, utilitarianism, cliff hangers, nerdy humor, or Kristen Bell, you’ll love The Good Place. Actually, scratch that. Everyone should love The Good Place, a witty, metaphysical sitcom that premiered on NBC in September of 2016 to overwhelmingly positive reviews.
The show’s third season is currently in the works, but to prevent spoilers, we’ll focus on the first season. We meet the four main characters—Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jianyu—right after they have all died.
Good news — they’ve made it to “The Good Place,” a nondenominational heaven for people who lived primarily selfless lives. But minor spoiler alert—Eleanor is not supposed to be there. There’s been a mistake and it’s up to Chidi, an ethics professor and Eleanor's soulmate, to make Eleanor a better person so she isn’t discovered by human-loving “Good Place” architect, Michael, and sent to the “Bad Place”.
The Good Place will make you laugh, make you think, and make you pay attention as it blazes through ethical dilemmas, twists, and fast-paced word play. Rather than spin its wheels, The Good Place moves each episode forward, avoiding the interesting premise trap that seems to bamboozle other promising shows.
Some of the most interesting elements of the show originate from the post-mortem character development we witness the characters undergo. It is especially rewarding to watch Eleanor move from selfishness and frustration to understanding—a process made even more believable by Kristen Bell (Eleanor) and William Jackson Harper (Chidi), compelling actors with phenomenal chemistry. Even Janet, an all knowing non-human non-robot non-girl database, is given the ability to develop empathy and compassion.
Although the humor is occasionally raunchy and the pacing can get off balance, The Good Place is what we all need right now: an uplifting comedy to remind us that humans are quirky, clever, kind, and endlessly capable of self improvement. Each episode will leave you with a smile, and a question: “What the fork just happened?”
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