The Good Place (Season 2)

This show is like a Moral Philosophy for Dummies book, it brings up a lot of good points and moments of discussion and thought on a unique premise and approach, but packages it in a prime time format that has a lot of potential to break some barriers and do something unique, but still uses those pesky contrivances because its leaning into the usual audience of NBC sitcoms. Mostly good, but doesn't quite make the level of great. And when I say for Dummies, I include myself in that because I still really enjoy this show.

On a side note, I'm also watching Good Omens at the same time as this show and it is fun imagining that there is a "Good" Universe with the possibility of Ted Danson and David Tennant being demon friends and I'm all for it.

Important relevant note before I start, this review is going to delve into some spoilers of Season 1 so if you haven't seen Season 1 yet, I'm not sure why you're reading this. You've been warned.

So jumping right into the recap from Season 1, something I didn't spoil in the first review is that Jianyu (played by Manny Jacinto) is actually a Florida Man by the name of Jason and he dumb. The end of the season  revealed that Michael (played by Ted Danson) is actually a demon and the main characters, Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, (played by Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, and Jameela Jamil) and Jason are all actually in The Bad Place.

The whole first season was an elaborate plot by Michael to innovate torture in the bad place through humans torturing each other. The other residents of the fake Good Place, including the "real" Eleanor Shellstrop, actually a demon played Vicki (played by Tiya Sircar) were all demons acting as residents meant to push the four humans into their own torture.

Michael quickly erases their memories but his boss, Shawn (played by Marc Evan Jackson) tells him that he won't get a third attempt at this new way of torture. And then Michael continues to erase their memory multiple times in an attempt to try and get this version of his Fake Good Place to be successful. However, every time, Eleanor and the humans figure out his plot.

Eventually after about 800 iterations, in order to hide his failings, Michael has to team up with the humans with a promise that he'll try to get them to the actual Good Place if they can help him keep his secret of his test failing.

One of the conditions though is that Michael needs to sit in on the moral philosophy classes being taught by Chidi with the intention that he himself will learn to become good.

Also D'Arcy Carden returns as the all knowing program Janet and while Michael needs to erase her memory (kill her) every time they restart the fake Good Place, she becomes more cognizant and there are some aspects about her personality and programming that change that I have... thoughts on.

One of the main issues I think I have with this season, and the show in general, is that it's pretty hap hazard with it's romances. On one hand, I'm cool with that because the show is dealing with the afterlife and non-human entities, its kind of making fun of the whole concept of romance. But on the other hand, I'm not totally convinced the show is that self aware.

What's more likely is that the show is falling into the same conventions of other prime time shows where they introduce a small group of characters and those characters just pair up.

And it wouldn't be such a big deal if they didn't seem to be right on the verge of dealing with romantic relationships in a really unique way. The first season didn't really commit to any real romantic relationships, but the second season is starting to ship couples and because romance was such a non-issue in the previous season, it's all kind of a mess. Chidi was into T'hani in the first season and that's no where to be seen. Jason was married to Janet but that was erased from their memories and initially wasn't a thing but then it became one randomly to create what really seemed like a throwaway plot line and a way to bring in Jason Mantzoukas (which usually I'm all for, but I'll talk about him later). Then there's the thing with Chidi and Eleanor which is a thing, then its not. Then only Eleanor is into Chidi and he's not and I was convinced for a second that he wasn't, but then he suddenly has feelings for her. While it has the opportunity to be profound or unique, I get the feeling its more shipping people on the seat of the writer's pants, especially when simple platonic friendship between these characters just seems more likely.

And then there's Jason...

Jason is by far, the worst character of the show. His personality is, he's dumb. I know they're trying to sell him as a lovable dumb dude, but I really don't feel like he adds anything to the story or the show because that's the joke. He's the dumb guy. And yeah, sometimes it gets a laugh, but it's like the fork pun. If you continuously lay up the joke about Blake Bortles and the fact that he's from Florida, eventually it's not going to be funny. I am all for making fun of Florida, but eventually it loses the cleverness and it just feels lazy.

And this kind of falls into the limitations this show has. Overall, it has been so-so with selling us flawed characters that we come to love. The obvious glare is Jason but he kind of comes with the package and if he was the only issue, it wouldn't be an issue. Chidi and T'Hani, and especially Michael are probably the best examples of this flawed but lovable character arc because you understand why they are sent to the bad place, but they're not really bad people, or they are but you definitely see their growth. Janet is not really flawed but instead is becoming flawed and that's another point for creative use of characters. The issue still lies with Eleanor.

I still haven't bought this whole idea that Eleanor is a bad person. Maybe its just the fact that she's played by Kristen Bell because I'm sorry, have you seen the Kristen Bell Sloth video? How can you watch this without a smile of joy on your face?

I don't think its a matter of Kristen Bell playing a bad person, she was bad in Heroes and I didn't have much of an issue with it. But the issue is, in this she has to be the vehicle for the audience and instead of letting her do something almost evil like she did in Heroes (or have her have a unique character) they just have her do mean things with little to no explanation.

And even when they do explain it, like she had a rough childhood and she pushes people away because of it, her acts of being "bad" don't really match up with what a person like that would do. Eleanor needs to be affable while still pushing people away. Eventually, they sort of land on, "she's selfish and arrogant" but that eventually just turns into her saying that she's hot.

But her character is still likable for two reasons. One... it's Kristen Bell. Have you seen the Kristen Bell singing all the voices from Do you Want to Build a Snowman video? She is a delight! I'm only slightly joking. She's just likable and able to carry her own TV show.

But probably more relevant is the way she's written and the way she interacts with the other characters, especially Ted Danson.

I don't know how Kristen Bell and Ted Danson became such a fantastic duo, but it's definitely what's selling this show. Obviously their the big names, but its such an odd and unexpected pairing but I really like it.

I think the problem I have with this attempt at making flawed characters lovable is that the show isn't really allowed to go all the way down this creative rabbit hole and instead has to appeal to a general, prime time watching audience, but I can tell it wants to break out so badly.

Overall, the performances in the show are really good, even beyond Bell and Danson.

William Jackson Harper and Jameela Jamil are really funny and it definitely feels like they are an intricate part of the show. And I really like how they expanded on the universe that these people live in and had a lot of fun with the fantastical elements.

Again, I just don't feel like they went all the way that they could.

Take Janet for example. D'Arcy Carden does a really good job not only playing a multitude of takes on this character, but she made me feel for a program which is essentially The Matrix incarnate.

And there's even set up for some really funny stuff, like Janet dealing with getting over a guy and so she creates a new being in Derek (played by Jason Mantzoukas).

Now Derek could have been amazing... its Jason Mantzoukas! But instead he's really handcuffed by A) the fact that he's a guest star, but more importantly B) the show just didn't really expand what you could do with a cosmic interface creating a new person beyond him introducing himself to leaves and inanimate objects.

And that really breaks down the major problem I have with this show, it's got some great ideas. It feels like its heading towards something and I will say, the ending of Season 1 got me good. I think I probably should have seen it coming, but I'll admit, I didn't. There is definitely great writing behind this show, but it always feels like its hitting a ceiling at times.

I will give it credit that the writing, characters, and performances push hard against that ceiling and even move it a ways, but I never feel like the show is quite breaking any barriers and that its more confined by the network its on.

And is that a totally bad thing? No. If anything, it puts it at the top of the usual stuff that you see coming out of Networks like NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. It'll probably earn its place with shows like The Office, Parks and Rec, Brooklyn 99, Community, and others for just the unique premise and execution alone. But I just have a weird sense about this show that it could be more. It wants to be more. It's talking about interesting themes and asking interesting questions, but at the end of it, it just feels like I spent a night reading basic Philosophy articles on the internet. Good articles, but articles nonetheless. It feels very basic.

Now, I don't think the show needs to be more than basic. It could be, but it doesn't need to be and I'm not trying to insult anybody who thoroughly enjoys this show. I thoroughly enjoy this show. It gives me the feels and sometimes you don't need something super deep or groundbreaking to feel the feels.

Overall, The Good Place continues to have a really unique premise, great performances, and it really is on the high end of TV airing today. But that doesn't mean its above critique or could do more. If you haven't seen the second season, keep watching, it only continues to be good. If you haven't seen Season 1... well I'm sorry I spoiled it but have a good time watching it because I recommend you do.

What did you think of the second season of The Good Place? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should check out in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for Reading!