The Good Place (Season 3)

So on one hand I feel like my reviews of The Good Place are going to end up saying much of the same thing from my previous reviews and I'm having a little bit of a hard time trying to find the purpose. On the other hand, I'll only have to do this once more when Season 4 is totally complete so I guess I don't really mind, especially since its the only consistent TV show I've been watching and completing with relative ease (We will eventually get that Good Omens review).

I will give Season 3 of The Good Place credit, they do know how to change up the environments, the situations, and create for some interesting television with this still pretty unique concept... at least starting off...

In Season 3 of The Good Place, the four humans originally sent to the Bad Place are stil on their journey to get to The Good Place, having been sent back to Earth in a test to see if they would eventually be good people and earn enough points to take their place in this world's heaven.

Eleanor having tried to be good and struggling to do so on her own, eventually finds Chidi (with the help of Michael sneaking away to earth). The two of them with Chidi's new girlfriend Simone (played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste) start a study of people who experienced near-death experiences and that brings the four humans back together.

The purpose is for Michael and Janet to observe their behavior and see if they grow together to become better people like they did in the afterlife.

And that's the plot for a little bit, and then it kind of spirals off into a couple of different things with different circumstances and scenarios, eventually bringing them all together in some wacky afterlife shenanigans.

On one hand, this format is good. This time around, there is no doubt that these core 6, Eleanor, Chidi, T'Hani, Jason, Michael, and Janet are all on the same side and they're all working together to get to The Good Place. And I've always appreciated the show's ability to avoid you getting to comfortable. The minute you think the premise of the show is just going to be one thing, they switch it up and bring you into new worlds and more comedy ensues.

However, I think there are signs that the show is starting to lose that balance of switching things up for the sake of switching things up and progressing the plot. I think I'll figure out how they make that balance work in Season 4 because that is going to be the final season, so I'm going to put a pin in that for now.

It's a very similar conflict that I've had with this show the entire time. The actors are good, the scenarios they bring up are funny, and I have a good time. But when I reflect on the entire season, there are for sure parts that I realize, never went anywhere.

For example, they have a plot line that they realize that they are not going to the Good Place, but they want to "try" and make sure their loved ones do. While an interesting concept that does lead to some funny stuff (minus the Jason and Donkey Dug stuff... I still think Jason is the worst character), and some admittedly heartfelt moments by Kristen Bell, this plot line doesn't go anywhere. It's important to the characters and I'll give it credit for that, but in review it feels like a filler episode and kind of stalls the progression of the plot.

Now again, its not all bad. Sometimes the show stalls the plot a little bit to show off some interesting parts of the world this show has built.

I think the episode where all the humans are forced to go into Janet's void was a great episode. It furthered the plot, built up the character development, and all while having D'Arcy Carden play all of them. I didn't think that was going to work initially but it did... really well..

It's not really that I think there are good episodes and bad episodes of The Good Place, I just think in every season, I could probably go back and point out which episodes really didn't mean anything in the long run and which ones will be remembered. "The Ballad of Donkey Doug" and "Fractured Inheritance"are filler episodes. "Janet(s)" and "Jeremy Bearimy" were good episodes. The plot mainly moves with the first and final few episodes, but it is kind of weird that despite the fact that there are only 10 episodes in this season, it still felt like it could have been condensed into a mini series.

Because when the show is drawn out for too long, some of the same issues I've mentioned before start to show their heads.

The romances are still kind of weird. They've finally committed to Stan-ing Eleanor and Chidi, which is good. But even that feels off and not totally committed to at times. It's like they want it to be a will they won't they when I think most audiences would just rather have them say they will and be done with it. (when I say most audiences, I think I more mean me).

They also commit... I think to Jason and Janet, which was weird when it first happened because Janet was an unaware robot figure. Having them get together and they're both really into it kind of feels problematic and weird to me.

And that's my problem with the relationships in this movie. They don't seem to really mean much because they come and go whenever the plot needs them to. They're either problematic and confusing, or they rush head first into them because they use flashbacks to figure out that they've fallen in love before and that means they obviously need to fall in love again. There is a moment where Chidi is trying to reconcile the fact that the romance happened to another version of himself which could be interesting, especially if he didn't share those feelings, but they quickly cop out to, that's him being indecisive about his feelings and clearly he loves Eleanor so they're immediately going to have sex and call each other boyfriend and girlfriend in the next episode.

It's like the show wants to be creative instead of falling into the pairing up romance formula, but the need to "Stan" a relationship just overrides any creative way of dealing with that conflict. Instead it's annoying to me and I'd rather they just pick a side instead of half ass doing something creative.

The themes and philosophy of the show, while somewhat interesting, remain pretty basic and almost forced as if they're the moral at the end of a kids show. Philosophic theories are name dropped in the same way Marvel name drops super hero references in their movies and it never feels really profound, just the philosophy lesson of the week.

However, as I might have mentioned in previous season reviews, it is a unique premise for a show and I do like a show about moral philosophy, even a slightly basic one. The philosophy lessons are digestible for mainstream audiences interested in watching a comedy and not a philosophy lecture so I will give it a pass for entertainment sake.

As I might have mentioned in the past, the draw of this show is the heart behind it. We've spent enough time with these characters, watched them grow, and at this point, most audiences just want to see them happy.

I think a lot of it goes back to Ted Danson in my opinion because he's just lovable, even for being a demon but he really does a good job.

But everyone else does a really good job. T'Hani gets a good episode about her and her sister (even though it feels like a filler episode) and while the romance between Eleanor and Chidi feels kind of rushed and forced, it still gives the feels.

Again, the outlier is Jason but with the exception of one episode, he's mainly in the background for comedic effect and his moments in the show clip by pretty fast. I think the show started to realize that if they weren't going to really do much with his character besides just rag on Florida for the billionth time, they should maybe limit his role.

The fourth season of The Good Place is said to be the last season and given the set up for the fourth season, I'm kind of glad they're making that choice.

It's not a bad set up, it just feels like they're going back to the basics and not really exploring new elements of the afterlife as much as they probably could or did in the third season.

Now with how scattered this show is in general, I don't see that remaining the case for very long, but I wouldn't want this show to spiral downward. The third season, while scattered, does show how The Good Place has continued to be a unique premise for three very good seasons. It has the potential to really nail it in Season 4 and end its run on top. I like the quote from creator Michael Schur who said that they don't want to just tread water because the water is warm. I think its a bold move that isn't taken in TV very often and it really puts The Good Place up there as a really great run for a show... if the fourth season is good.

I'll withhold judgement until I watch the entire fourth season but that won't be for a while. So unlike the past week or so, you probably won't see a Good Place review for another few months.

Overall, if you've got this far into the show, you don't really need me to tell you to keep watching through Season 3. It still has some of the limitations I've mentioned in the past, but it's got a lot of heart and there's no doubt that they are having fun with this show. Continue to have fun and watch the third season of The Good Place.

Those are my thoughts on Season 3 of The Good Place. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

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