"They could have stretched this out and didn't" is a recurrent theme for the Good Place and something I truly appreciate about it. Season 2 is a big example of it, though I would argue the first big instance is when Eleanor reveals her identity in the mid-season finale of season 1. A different show would have made that the season finale. Mike Schur went "no, we all know it's inevitable she'll be found out, let's do it and move on". The show never lets itself stay in a known or predictable place for long.
I really appreciate how Season 1 feels like it's going through the strokes as well. It follows almost a perfect formula of how a show like that would happen, just to flip it on it's head and defy almost everything. It's hard to get through Season 1 the first time through and it's a bold choice as well but that payoff just does not stop once you see it through.
@@NrettG Yeah, I almost abandoned the show before that scene because I thought I had figured out the whole premise and wasn't too enamored about the idea of watching season after season of variations over the same concept. There are so many formulaic shows and movies these days so it was easy to believe a show, that initially presents itself with a formulaic premise, actually also is one. Luckily, this scene enticed me enough to finish the season and ultimately fall absolutely in love with the show.
Listen to the podcast. Mike Schur says, on multiple episodes, that a main story goal for them was "beat the audience to the punch" and "get to it sooner than later". I feel like they did a good job at that.
there is always big turning point every mid season episode and every season finale. mid-season one- Eleanor turning herself in. End of season one- finding out they were in the bad place all along and getting reset. mid-season 2- the town being demolished. end of season two, going back to earth. mid season three- they die again and Micheal finds out that nobody is getting into the good place. end of season 3- new experiment begins and Chidi loses his memory. mid season four- the experiment ends. end of season four- the door to end their existence. come to think of it, there's also usually a turning point around three episodes into the season. season one-Jason revealing himself to Elanor. season two- the group teaming up with Micheal. season three- the group fining out about the afterlife.
This show could have easily had 7-8 seasons but it didn’t and that’s what makes it amazing. It never over stayed its welcome and I really appreciate that
I have wondered how it would have worked if they went for a 5th season. stretching the actual good place out to fill it. Ultimately it might have been better to wrap that up in two episodes though.
I love 'The Good Place' and it's one of my favourite shows of all time but I still think this show should have ended after Season 2 cause that was really an perfect series finale. I still enjoyed the later seasons, though.
@@everythingisawesome2903 While it COULD have ended there, I truly do believe that seasons 3 and 4 are necessary to complete the character arcs and truly explore the philosophy of the show.
Yeah, it's still crazy to me how this show starts radically changing its main premise every 4 to 6 episodes starting with season 2. If you want to describe the show to a new person you can only describe the premise of the first episode, you can't get into the ways the show evolves later.
Exactly! You can’t even mention that it includes one of (if not the) biggest twists of all time because then the person you’re recommending it to will be on the lookout! Really the best way to sell it is the first episode premise, Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, and Michael Schur’s resume.
THIS"! I've had such trouble trying to get people to watch the show because I can only describe the first season and then tell them it gets better. But usually they're like 'I dunno, it doesn't sound like my cup of tea' and I'm just left sitting there like NO IT'S REALLY GOOD THERE'S JUST A LOT OF TWISTS
My absolute favorite episode is the one where they go to the bad place proper for the first time and Tahani does an American accent the whole time it's so funny
For me the episode that changed everything was S1E7 when Eleanor admits being in the "Good Place" by mistake. A lesser show could have milked the idea of Eleanor hiding for couple of seasons easily, but here it happens halfway of the first! It turned a series I enjoyed good enough to a great one, one I could trust to not be afraid to make big swings.
At that point, I knew the writers had their foot to the floor, but I don't think just how fast they wanted to go was clear until S2E1. Man, what a great show.
I heard somewhere that they specifically wanted to write it in a way that the plot keeps moving on / finishing conflicts and starting new stuff before the viewer expects it and honestly? They did forking* great because that's exactly how this show felt
That’s what I thought the video was gonna be about. I also think making Eleanor be the one to admit it rather than just getting caught also plays into what the show is all about
That was the moment where I went from thinking I had the whole premise figured out and seriously considering abandoning it, to feeling it suddenly started to get interesting. Of course, the finale blew me away and I was forever hooked.
@@rachelripstra1839Same! I was so skeptical with this show because I thought it’d get repetitive and milk the concept. Instead it rocketed forwards when we least expected it. So good!
A great observation. Also, S2 Ep1is probably the strongest episode in the whole show... and probably also one of the most expensive to have made, with all of the 5 second throw away moments.
At least they got a chance to reuse the hideous striped outfits! During the second episode of the podcast they had the costume designer on as one of the guests and she talked about how they had to have that fabric custom-made and then make each one of the outfits!
@@JNDReacts Oh, okay. I couldn't remember the specific episode, but my favorite one was definitely when he figured it out and Michael seemed to take it as a personal insult.
Dude it's one of my favorite episode of television out there. The idea of Season 1 being a slog just for them to go "Yeah that's the point, here's the other attempts" was genius.
Personally I wish more people talked about S1E10 - Janet and Jason get married, Eleanor and Tahani bond, but most importantly - it’s the first time Eleanor realizes she’s in love. She’s an adorable goofball in her confession and it never gets referenced again. Even in later seasons when Eleanore finds out they got together in past reboots, she never gets to see the first time it happened. We do. So pure ❤️
I think they don’t reference it to show that they actually can be platonic. I feel like they genuinely were just friends in season 1, but season 2 is when things changed
I’ve always felt that one of the biggest moments in the show was at the end of ep 24 when they’re trying to escape through the portals to go see the judge and Michael is short one pin. When he decides to send Eleanor and says he figured out the trolley problem. I’ve always felt that moment was huge because we see Micheal truly start to become human as he sacrifices himself to save the others. Gets me every time.
yes this episode was when it really clicked for me, specifically Ted Danson was brilliant in this episode "Jason figured it out. Jason! oh yeah this is a new low"
I only watched the first season because I had nothing else to do over Summer Break and BAM, one of the best shows hands down. Excellent writing from start to what is in my opiniom, best series finale!
ME TOO ! The ending was even worse. I cried like a baby and was thinking what forking journey did I take ?? I wanted some good laugh about a girl being in heaven stealing a saint's spot and fooling every one. Not having that life crisis about wanting to die in heaven 😭
it's cool how many times the direction of the show changes, first its the s1 plot of eleanor trying to pretend that she belongs in the good place, then its what you described in this video of the gang getting rebooted a discovering over and over again that they're in the bad place, then it's about the gang trying to pretend they're being tortured to keep michael's job and keep them out of the normal bad place, then it's about michael and the gang's quest to make it to the actual good place, then about the gang living on earth again trying to be better people and gain enough points to make it to the good place, then it's them trying to reform the broken points system through an experiment by recreating the s1 bad place with new people, then it's about them creating a new afterlife system while finally living in the good place, then it ends with them fixing the good place by creating an end to it. it's like 8 shows all wrapped into one and you never could have guessed the direction it would take next
I love this, Michael Shur showed that shooting an entire season only after you have wrote the next one allows to absolutely wild plot progressions without milking them for an entire season just to fill your paycheck while you try to figure out the rest of the shoe on the spot. It's revolutionary for the entire industry
No, he showed that is _possible_ to make up a great show from season to season. Usually it is a _terrible_ idea. Look at how Mork and Mindy ended, or Happy Days, or "LOST" or Ronald D. Moore's version of "Battlestar Galactica."
But, this was not a Sitcom. One of the most important characteristics of a Sitcom is that the goal of the protagonists is to return to the point where they started, and return everything to normal, not for the characters to change and the setting to change. Every season of "The Good Place" ended with the main characters having changed from when the season began. 💡 👏👏👏👏
@@hefoughtabear118 Even within seasons it changes several times though. Things keep happening that change the entire trajectory. Season 3 is the best example. At first, the status quo is the humans learning to be better on Earth while Michael and Janet watch from afar. Then Michael and Janet get locked out of the afterlife and one of the demons shows up to drive a wedge between the humans. Then the humans find out about Michael and Janet and it ruins the experiment, and they decide to save other people instead. Then they uncover the fact that the points are rigged and have to convince the judge of this. Even at the very end, when it seems like a status quo for season 4 is being established, they throw in one more wrench by having Chidi wipe his memories. These changes happen so frequently that you can hardly call anything a status quo.
As someone who, whilst watching this show back in 2020, was going through an intense manic depressive episode, this is why it was such a hard thing to sit through. What I needed most in my life at the time was a semblance of status quo, of routine - and this existentialist show masquerading as a regular sitcom gave me everything but. Looking back, I can recognize how unique of a show this was for it. It’s a crucial aspect which sometimes works against it - but I don’t think I would want it any other way.
I originally wasn't big on the show and my wife got me into it, but hadn't seen past season 1, so we watched the first season together with her getting to see things I wouldn't notice yet, and then we reached this masterpiece together and it solidified it as one of my favorite shows
Honestly, I didn’t want to watch the show bc from every trailer I saw, I was like “that sounds more like Hell than Heaven tbh”, and then I heard that that was in fact the twist, and I immediately loved that a show was willing to do that, so I sat down and watched it, and now I love the show so much
I recently tried to convince my parents to watch the show (they tried back when it was first airing but gave up after a few episodes) and even spoiled the twist, but they still refused. I’m glad that it convinced you!
@@loreleimonn3220 The ending really ruined it for me. I always found it hard to imagine how they would manage to combine the concepts of human growth and change with the concept of an eternal afterlife, but was enjoying everything they were doing so far that I just went with it. But when I got to the end and found out they couldn't come up with a way to do it and just gave up with that lame cop-out ("let's just have people die in the afterlife too!") I was so disappointed that I haven't once felt compelled to rewatch a single episode. Sad really, it was a great show with great performances.
@@mylesleggette7520 I disagree tbh. I think it’s the inevitable conclusion. The point is that death is a necessary part of human change. Essentially, the afterlife becomes a place where one can achieve the actualization you wish without a ticking clock looming over you. You can finally pursue all that your heart desires, and then, when you’ve done so, you can end. I think it’s a perfect ending for the show’s ideas tbh
As tv addict for 45 years, I can honestly say the Good Place is one of the most well written, creative pieces of art I've ever seen on my tv screen. It deserves a spot with the all time great sitcoms and I hope it becomes a classic.
I had a blast watching this show, and then sobbed like a baby watching the final episode. My sudden emotional reaction to it came out of left field for me; I just realized while I was sitting there that it was over, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I sobbed for an hour after it was done. It was the last show my wife and I "enjoyed together" before we separated. The ending of the show was (still is) such a devastating metaphor for our marriage. It sucks being Chidi. It's so hard to be the one saying, "I love you, but I know that it's time to go." What's worse, she didn't understand why the show's ending hit me so hard, and I couldn't tell her. Just a gut-wrenching time.
Oh yeah - during Melbourne’s looooooong Covid lockdown I went down the good place rabbit hole with my wife and 2 young daughters - final ep; we wept together for an hour, sometimes stopping to giggle, blow our noses then back to sobbing… not exactly tears of devastation, more like after an intense philosophical awakening
Please, PLEASE do more videos on *The Good Place!!!!* It was definitely one of the greatest shows of all time. Nothing wasted. Perfectly acted, written, and directed.
What makes the Good Place so fantastic is that it embraces impermanence and endings in a popculture that has become obsessed with infinite shared universes. Star Wars, Star Trek or the various superhero universes aren't allowed to end, so they become these shapeless patternless patterns. Just noise where the sound have might, and might have once been, music. By embracing impermanence fearlessly by rushing through what lesser creators could have milked for years the Good Place became an antithesis to mainstream popculture. it's why it had to end the way it did, because anything else would have been hypocrisy. A stumble at the finish line.
this show (and particularly michael) is so important to me. part of it is i think luck, mike schur's idea of what an actual good place would be matches up with mine pretty much exactly, so it really-really worked for me, and michael's story is so beautiful and perfect and i love him so much. it's especially interesting now that i'm rewatching parks & rec, because i truly think this is mike schur's leftmost show. not just because they say "everything goes to the bad place because of capitalism", but immoral beings cannot create an afterlife for humans, because they fundamentally don't understand humanity - this sounds like the 1% to me.
The most interesting question the show posed to me was about Michael (a demon) wanting to be a good human. It reminded me of Star Trek, where you have androids, aliens, and technology that don't exist to reframe these questions
I loved that how Tahani changed from her single-focus-of-life (as in overshining Kamilah) she eventually was able to focus on literally everyone else - and that made her stay in afterlife rather than walking through that arch. its the best show out there and forever will be.
Definitely. Season 1 was great. The refusal to play into everyone's expectations for season 2 was genius. I was hooked so hard and then the entire show kept changing until the most stunning beautiful cathartic finale. Incredible.
I know plenty of people who have a show that they can rewatch over and over. The Good Place is that show for me. I love finding new TH-cam first watch channels and seeing their reaction to the entire series - what they figure out when, who their favorite characters are, and general commentary as they move along through the show's many stages. Thanks for creating content on it. I love identifying new layers of this fantastic and delicious onion of a show.
One of my favorite joys in all of existence is watching a reactor scoff and make fun of Eleanor when she says, “THIS is the Bad Place”… then seeing their faces contort and twist in confusion as the camera zooms in on Michael’s laugh. That pure, uncut, unadulterated “…wha???” they have…. *chef’s kiss*
The good place is one of the best shows ever made. And I don't know that we would still be talking about it if it went the route of "see how different it is this time, how will they figure it out?" Every episode or season. It keeps reinventing itself which is why it's so great (plus the awesome writing😂)
While I agree that it's a big part of what makes it great and stand out in the massive ocean of formulaic shows and movies, it could very well have gone terribly wrong and ended in an incoherent "anything goes" type of scenario. It's a massive credit to the skills of the writers that they managed to pull it off so amazingly well as they did.
1:50 Ok, before I go further in the video I’m gonna guess which episode you’re referring to. Season 3 Episode 10 “Janet(s)” where we learn that no one has gotten into the Good Place in 521 years. I’ve been watching TH-cam reactions to The Good Place recently, and every time one of them guesses someone recent who’s in the Good Place I just smirk like Season 1 finale MIchael and say, “Just you wait.” Like when I first started watching reactions I genuinely forgot how late in the series we find out that information because it’s one of the things about the show that just stuck with me. Particularly the scene from a later episode where the Judge learns how buying a tomato on Earth loses points. We learn that it actually was the almond milk all along!
I love that judge tomato episode as well. It's such a huge sucker punch that it opens your mind to "Oh shit, yeah that really is bad". Beforehand she sounded arrogant and still somewhat knowledgeable but just buying a fruit? Damn.
What's even more mind-blowing about this revelation is that the logical conclusion must be that Mindy Saint-Claire is actually the best scoring person in all of those 521 years. I find that immensely hilarious. :D
Yep, that set up the remainder of the show beautifully. I had a feeling from the S1 finale to this reveal that Chidi didn’t actually belong there & that there would be a further explanation. I think I literally shouted “YES!” in my living room when he discovered it.
I agree 100%. I was also expecting that Season 2 was going to be a different version of Season 1. And then when it didn't, I was surprised. But then the episode 2 really made me blink, do a double take..."where the heck are they going with this??" I LOVE that! It is so rare that a show really surprises us like the Good Place did. And then they just kept doing it again and again... I never knew what was going to happen next... I loved that show.
I've always been almost hesitant to even call this show a SitCom, because I always thought that they were supposed to return to some kind of status quo. With pretty much all sitcoms I've ever watched, most people can usually jump into some season 3 episode and get the gist in a few minutes, while with this show you'd be absolutely lost. Season one is a bit like this, like you said. It's almost like they made a sitcom for one season and after that decided to create a whole different kind of show with only some remains of the genre in it. It's fuckin awesome
The episode that changed everything was S1E7, where Eleanor admits that she shouldn't be in the Good Place. You talk about what the show was at the start, and the entire show could have been just Eleanor trying to evade Michael. This episode is the one that broke the mold, that announced that this show was going to be different. I remember being astonished at what Eleanor did.
S1 finale was such a huge reveal and probably the most enjoyable plot twist out of any show at the time I had been watching but I was kind of wary when they reset the memory because I wasn't sure how they were supposed to follow the twist, especially since the characters were wiped clean. It was so important for s2 e1 to acknowledge and then totally toss out the "and then we inch along" plot like you mentioned other sitcoms do, or it would've been so stale. the good place was so unexpectedly creative and emotional for what could've been such a basic sitcom and I love it so much
I’m so glad a friend of mine convinced me to finish season 1 before season 2 started, and that I somehow managed to avoid having the season 1 finale spoiled! They asked if I watched the show and I told them I’d seen like half of the first season. All they said was that I needed to finish the season and that I wouldn’t be disappointed, and they were right!
to be honest, the scenes that stuck with me the most where eleanor's "i wanted that mom" speech and chidi's "waves return to the ocean" speech. neither where big reveals, neither where big moments. but holy s$!t, they stuck with me. both sound like they where written by someone throwing down all of the trauma, their feelings, their entire soul. and it hits so hard.
A lot of people I know thought it was too rushed but I thought it was paced beautifully and never overstayed. A very fun watch in my opinion would love to see the longer video on it.
Thanks for the video! I remember being absolutely floored at the beginning of season 2 when the show didn't just cycle a different story with the same outcome for the entire duration of the season. It hadn't occurred to me that there was any other route this story could take.
The start of Season 2 is my absolute favourite part of the show, and I'm so glad to see this brilliance being recognised. I'd have loved to watch every one of the reboots but Eleanor saying "hang on/wait a minute/ you know what/holy smokes - this is the bad place" is legit the best part of the show for me. While season 1 was fun, season 2 takes us on a much more exciting ride, getting deeper and closer to the philosophy of the show
And HUNDREDS of years take place in one or two episodes. I do wish they slowed down a little during either the reincarnation arc or after Chidi gets back because it feels so fast and then we are at the end
Agree completely. Looooved The Good Place. That every season was different from the season before, yet still felt true to it's creative core was one of the things that made so wonderful & unique. And yes the 2 episodes you highlighted, the finale of season 1 and it's reveal (that was such an OMG! moment, glad you put the spoiler at the beginning because anyone who's going to watch this show needs to experience that reveal completely fresh), and the first episode of season2 where we revisit the subsequent attempts to reset & each time the same thing happens, brilliant concept. Thanks for reminding me how much I loved this show & everyone in it.
This reminds me of your recent ananlysis of community- shows which commit to jumping the shark and reinventing thenselves will not only avoid becoing stale, but will avoid alienating their viewers, and ultimately end up with something more rewarding. Thanks for the essay!
This show felt like a thought experiment put to television and that is what made me fall in love with it. The conclusion of the thought experiment was so human as well. We all feel like this life wont be enough for us but in truth i feel like in the end we all decide it was. A true masterpiece of a show in my opinion.
Your points about what makes S2E1 so great, so groundbreaking, are also what makes it SO HARD for me to unconditionally recommend this show to everyone. I try to let people know that season one is essentially prologue, that it doesn’t hit its stride until season two. People are used to hearing, “Give it three or four episodes before making up your mind or quitting”… not “Commit to a whole season before making up your mind.”
We need more good place videos, someone as versed in writing as you can definitely explain a lot more of what we understood from just watching the show
I’ve seen all seasons of the show four times. Every year or two I end up binging it again. It’s like a course on practical moral philosophy yet somehow made it fascinating. No other show like it.
This is one of the best TV shows ever made. The writing is genius throughout and the comedy style is right up my alley, while many more dramatic scenes made me cry.
What a good video. I remember when I watched the second season, wondering what they were going to do. And the revelation and then list of resets really blew my mind. Where the Good Place goes is kind up surprising if you only know the first season, but it's also has such a clear path!!!
Its interesting how much you bring up Schur here as o always felt that the whole fake good place was a bit of meta commentary on tv writing itself with Micheal as the showrinner (and late Eleanor I guess)
I started the good place right when the first season released, and it took me some years to finally finish. Watching Ted Danson laugh evilly still gets me every time. I love the whole show though! I was ugly crying all through the final episode.
Dance Dance Resolution is definitely the episode I've watched the most, dozens of times, and it is so defining of The Good Place and just a unique and super fun episode in all of TV show history!
You know, the season 2 premiere is like the antithesis to this infamous arc in a popular anime. If you know the show named The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, there were a series of episodes known as the Endless Eight. These episodes were about how the main cast’s summer vacation has been looping for almost millennia. While the idea of it is interesting, the problem was that there was little variation in those 8 episodes that some people would just opt to just watch only the first and the last loop. Some scenes were even the same word for word, with the only difference being the camera angles and what the characters were wearing. In turn, it caused some of show’s good reputation to be lost from the audience. The Good Place shows that same fatigue of the main characters looping their experiences, but at the same time NOT inconveniencing the viewer from enjoying the story
Had the same feeling with the first season of Homeland. The cat and mouse game of Brody and Carrie after she learns the truth could have been an entire series. Instead they throw all of it in the trash, and turn the show into The Fugitive. So unexpected and refreshing.
It was this moment that I saw on twitter and it got me to watch the show - which I’m so grateful for. I wish I went into it without knowing this happened, but I’m still happy I watched it regardless.
Inn my opinion, the biggest turning point was partway through season 3 when they discover that nobody goes to Heaven. it calls into question whether the man characters deserved to be in the bad place at all given everybody goes to the bad place even ones who had the best intentions and did the best they could. Then the main characters stopped selfishly trying to find their own way to Heaven and started one a more selfless mission to get everyone else there. They even offered themselves up for eternal torture at one point to try and save the rest of humanity.
I agree with this 100%. I loved the first season, and started season two with the expectation that they would likely milk the "reset" for another whole season, as that's what I felt most other shows would do in similar circumstances. The Good Place is not most other shows and continued to astound me with it's swift yet smooth pacing, and willingness to seemingly write itself into corners, while having every outcome and continuation feel like a natural and earned progression.
I remember having the same thought while watching the start of season 2. The show just kept rebooting itself so fast! I couldn't believe how often they decided to jump ahead. It really kept me engaged and so excited to see what they would do next. LOVE this show.
ugh I just discovered this show and binged the first two seasons. I was completely on board with the "this is heaven and she has to hide" theme even though I already knew the ending. Two hours ago I blackmailed my bf into watching the first episode with me and the first thing he says during episode 1 when Michael is showing Eleanor around before the welcome video is "I don't know, there's something wrong, everything looks so fake"
@@PillarofGarbage nah, it's the first one. if he had seen spoilers online he would have said "oh, I know which one this is... isn't this the one where she is actually in hell?" He _is_ very perceptive and at the same time manages to have an almost Jason like ability to say idiotic things. He is unable to "look" smart. If it happens it happens, if he tries he fails
@@AugustRx he knew something was wrong in the first 2 minutes and kept listing all the clues about why everything was not as good as the good place should have been. I spent days defending Tahani and telling him she did a lot of good things just to try and get him to enjoy episode 13. It didn't work, he understood everything by episode 11.
I honestly never considered this perspective before, that it was possible that they would just go slow with reboot 2 (or 3 for that matter). I did watch the beginning of season 2 minutes after finishing season 1 on netflix, so I don't know that I had time to consider that possibility. But it feels so natural that everything just begins going off the rails in the beginning of season 2, it works so well. Please start working on that big chonker, I love Good Place content. One of my top 3 shows of all time, and #1 comedy.
I always thought it interesting that the show came up with an afterlife that was quantum levels better than anything any world religion has ever come up with. If there is an afterlife, I hope its like the one that the group invented at the end of the show.
That’s what kept me interested in this show even when it got kind of boring, cause between the reveal between that being the real bad place and then the subsequent return to real world and everything always kept me guessing where the show was going
One thing that changes everything for the characters we already know, in a way that lot of people seem not to address when they discuss it, is the reveal that literally no one has gotten to the good place to since about 1492 AD. A lot of fans learn that but maintain the idea that the original four still deserved to go to the Bad Place. But everything we know about the moral system is based on what Michael told them in the first couple of seasons, but we've learned that Michael didn't actually know any of this and he was either making it up as torture or was mistaken, as he didn't know there were issues with the points system. For all we know, correctly calculated, Chidi and Tahani deserved to go to the Good Place for their theoretical and practical contributions to society. The idea that Chidi made people so miserable he went to the Bad Place, or the idea that Tahani was so selfishly motivated that she went to the Bad Place, has no basis after that reveal.
It's my contention that The Good Place is the perfect show. Four seasons, tight, no extraneous fluff, no bad shows and it arrives where it wants to and ends on the right note. I've binge watched the entire series at least 3 times since the first new episode airings were watched.
Yes, this is why I love the Good Place and think it's the best sitcom (if it qualifies as one, some contest this). It's genuinely groundbreaking and I hope more shows dare to do the same!!
I definitely remember being surprised how Season 2 started off. I was entirely expecting a repeat of season 1 with a few changed variables. (I also love the "THIS is the Bad Place" montage. Just so much to infer from each clip yet so many questions. 😆)
Fantastic analysis, POG. As a massive Good Place fan, a lot of what you're saying makes complete sense. Also, the part where Jason figures it out is legit hilarious!
It's Jeremy Bearimy isn't it? Edit: Okay so it wasn't Jeremy Bearimy BUT Jeremy Bearing is a good way to look at the Good Place because it is infinitely rewatchable. Honestly, season 1 just felt like a warm up before the show started sprinting ahead in season 2 onward. There are no boring moments. I can pick ANY episode, I can sometimes even watch it in reverse order and still love it.
I remember ending season one and wondering how the crew are going to work this out again in the new season, only to be surprised they speedrun it all and it was so much better for it
I agree what makes the good place so great is that theres no way to know for sure what could be happening in the next episode. It all just gets even better when you rewatch it and see how every single twist made sense, from Michael laughing to himself in the corner at times in season 1 to seeing how he set everyone up for misery
I remember watching season 2 pilot(s) being super stressed for the characters, having just watched the finale of season 1. Certainly one of the best episodes in all of sitcom history, in context.
I actually made my ma watch the show and she asked me if they were just going to keep rebooting and that was all the show was going to be, and I'm so so glad that they chose not to do that
The greatest moment of anguish, from any character in the history of cinematography, has to be "Jason figured it out?!"
When Eleanor says "Because I wanted that mom" caught me up short and made me cry.
@@auldthymer That episode blew my mind so much and really sticks to the moral of the show: shitty people can change.
@@auldthymer what really hit me was seconds later. "That means she could change, and that... I wasn't worth changing for."
That one hurt.
He actually did figure out it first. He said they were on a prank show early on in the show.
Even when Eleanor laid it all out and told the guys her epiphany, I was still skeptical, only until Michael laughed.
That really changed things.
nah, i figured it out it would be the bad place before Eleonor did. It was kinda obvious, it was everything they didn't like
@@irissupercoolsy
Well, it's not like the twist was a new idea.
@@irissupercoolsy so what did you think Chidi did to go to the bad place
@@keysburntgucci9016 i didn't think that far, but I knew it must be the actual bad place
@@irissupercoolsy then let's say you had a strong hunch but you weren't 100% convinced
"They could have stretched this out and didn't" is a recurrent theme for the Good Place and something I truly appreciate about it. Season 2 is a big example of it, though I would argue the first big instance is when Eleanor reveals her identity in the mid-season finale of season 1. A different show would have made that the season finale. Mike Schur went "no, we all know it's inevitable she'll be found out, let's do it and move on". The show never lets itself stay in a known or predictable place for long.
I really appreciate how Season 1 feels like it's going through the strokes as well. It follows almost a perfect formula of how a show like that would happen, just to flip it on it's head and defy almost everything. It's hard to get through Season 1 the first time through and it's a bold choice as well but that payoff just does not stop once you see it through.
@@NrettG Yeah, I almost abandoned the show before that scene because I thought I had figured out the whole premise and wasn't too enamored about the idea of watching season after season of variations over the same concept. There are so many formulaic shows and movies these days so it was easy to believe a show, that initially presents itself with a formulaic premise, actually also is one. Luckily, this scene enticed me enough to finish the season and ultimately fall absolutely in love with the show.
Listen to the podcast. Mike Schur says, on multiple episodes, that a main story goal for them was "beat the audience to the punch" and "get to it sooner than later". I feel like they did a good job at that.
there is always big turning point every mid season episode and every season finale. mid-season one- Eleanor turning herself in. End of season one- finding out they were in the bad place all along and getting reset. mid-season 2- the town being demolished. end of season two, going back to earth. mid season three- they die again and Micheal finds out that nobody is getting into the good place. end of season 3- new experiment begins and Chidi loses his memory. mid season four- the experiment ends. end of season four- the door to end their existence. come to think of it, there's also usually a turning point around three episodes into the season. season one-Jason revealing himself to Elanor. season two- the group teaming up with Micheal. season three- the group fining out about the afterlife.
This show could have easily had 7-8 seasons but it didn’t and that’s what makes it amazing. It never over stayed its welcome and I really appreciate that
I have wondered how it would have worked if they went for a 5th season. stretching the actual good place out to fill it. Ultimately it might have been better to wrap that up in two episodes though.
I love 'The Good Place' and it's one of my favourite shows of all time but I still think this show should have ended after Season 2 cause that was really an perfect series finale. I still enjoyed the later seasons, though.
@@everythingisawesome2903 While it COULD have ended there, I truly do believe that seasons 3 and 4 are necessary to complete the character arcs and truly explore the philosophy of the show.
I love that about The Good Place. So many shows start out good, but they go on and stretch plots to a point where I lose interest.
I think they ended it perfectly though. In the end, you feel like you didn't need more because it was time to just accept nothing more.
Yeah, it's still crazy to me how this show starts radically changing its main premise every 4 to 6 episodes starting with season 2. If you want to describe the show to a new person you can only describe the premise of the first episode, you can't get into the ways the show evolves later.
Exactly! You can’t even mention that it includes one of (if not the) biggest twists of all time because then the person you’re recommending it to will be on the lookout!
Really the best way to sell it is the first episode premise, Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, and Michael Schur’s resume.
A group of people navigating the afterlife.
I say it's about learning to be a good person lol
@@RHKang-hl3ps I just say it is a sitcom about the philosophy of ethics.
THIS"! I've had such trouble trying to get people to watch the show because I can only describe the first season and then tell them it gets better. But usually they're like 'I dunno, it doesn't sound like my cup of tea' and I'm just left sitting there like NO IT'S REALLY GOOD THERE'S JUST A LOT OF TWISTS
My absolute favorite episode is the one where they go to the bad place proper for the first time and Tahani does an American accent the whole time it's so funny
Rhonda Mumps is a treasure. She once raw dogged the great John Wayne himself 😌👌🏼
And she name drops John Wayne, then Eleanor says, *"Wow, Tahani even name drops in hell."* 😆 🤣 😂
Rhonda 😂
that episode is easily top 5
For me the episode that changed everything was S1E7 when Eleanor admits being in the "Good Place" by mistake. A lesser show could have milked the idea of Eleanor hiding for couple of seasons easily, but here it happens halfway of the first! It turned a series I enjoyed good enough to a great one, one I could trust to not be afraid to make big swings.
At that point, I knew the writers had their foot to the floor, but I don't think just how fast they wanted to go was clear until S2E1. Man, what a great show.
I heard somewhere that they specifically wanted to write it in a way that the plot keeps moving on / finishing conflicts and starting new stuff before the viewer expects it and honestly? They did forking* great because that's exactly how this show felt
That’s what I thought the video was gonna be about. I also think making Eleanor be the one to admit it rather than just getting caught also plays into what the show is all about
That was the moment where I went from thinking I had the whole premise figured out and seriously considering abandoning it, to feeling it suddenly started to get interesting. Of course, the finale blew me away and I was forever hooked.
@@rachelripstra1839Same! I was so skeptical with this show because I thought it’d get repetitive and milk the concept. Instead it rocketed forwards when we least expected it. So good!
A great observation. Also, S2 Ep1is probably the strongest episode in the whole show... and probably also one of the most expensive to have made, with all of the 5 second throw away moments.
At least they got a chance to reuse the hideous striped outfits! During the second episode of the podcast they had the costume designer on as one of the guests and she talked about how they had to have that fabric custom-made and then make each one of the outfits!
The sound of utter defeat when Jason figures it out is priceless.
@@wvu05 I think that was actually episode 2 or 3, depending on how you count the long episode. Anyway, the one titled Dance Dance Resolution.
@@JNDReacts Oh, okay. I couldn't remember the specific episode, but my favorite one was definitely when he figured it out and Michael seemed to take it as a personal insult.
Dude it's one of my favorite episode of television out there. The idea of Season 1 being a slog just for them to go "Yeah that's the point, here's the other attempts" was genius.
Personally I wish more people talked about S1E10 - Janet and Jason get married, Eleanor and Tahani bond, but most importantly - it’s the first time Eleanor realizes she’s in love. She’s an adorable goofball in her confession and it never gets referenced again. Even in later seasons when Eleanore finds out they got together in past reboots, she never gets to see the first time it happened. We do. So pure ❤️
I think they don’t reference it to show that they actually can be platonic. I feel like they genuinely were just friends in season 1, but season 2 is when things changed
Yes she does. Michael gave them all their memories back.
So S2E4 and 6 both let her see herself falling in love.
Who's to say that actually was the first time? What if Michael was also rebooted along with everyone else?
I’ve always felt that one of the biggest moments in the show was at the end of ep 24 when they’re trying to escape through the portals to go see the judge and Michael is short one pin. When he decides to send Eleanor and says he figured out the trolley problem. I’ve always felt that moment was huge because we see Micheal truly start to become human as he sacrifices himself to save the others. Gets me every time.
yes this episode was when it really clicked for me, specifically Ted Danson was brilliant in this episode
"Jason figured it out. Jason! oh yeah this is a new low"
I only watched the first season because I had nothing else to do over Summer Break and BAM, one of the best shows hands down. Excellent writing from start to what is in my opiniom, best series finale!
ted danson is great in this show. his goofy evil laugh when eleanor figures it out is so perfect too
Honestly, I didn't even expect that plot twist. I never knew a sitcom could do that 💀
ME TOO ! The ending was even worse. I cried like a baby and was thinking what forking journey did I take ?? I wanted some good laugh about a girl being in heaven stealing a saint's spot and fooling every one. Not having that life crisis about wanting to die in heaven 😭
it's cool how many times the direction of the show changes, first its the s1 plot of eleanor trying to pretend that she belongs in the good place, then its what you described in this video of the gang getting rebooted a discovering over and over again that they're in the bad place, then it's about the gang trying to pretend they're being tortured to keep michael's job and keep them out of the normal bad place, then it's about michael and the gang's quest to make it to the actual good place, then about the gang living on earth again trying to be better people and gain enough points to make it to the good place, then it's them trying to reform the broken points system through an experiment by recreating the s1 bad place with new people, then it's about them creating a new afterlife system while finally living in the good place, then it ends with them fixing the good place by creating an end to it. it's like 8 shows all wrapped into one and you never could have guessed the direction it would take next
And it never really feels unnatural or uncanny... like all plots are very finely welded together
I had non idea what to expect form the finale until the episode right before it
I love this, Michael Shur showed that shooting an entire season only after you have wrote the next one allows to absolutely wild plot progressions without milking them for an entire season just to fill your paycheck while you try to figure out the rest of the shoe on the spot. It's revolutionary for the entire industry
No, he showed that is _possible_ to make up a great show from season to season.
Usually it is a _terrible_ idea.
Look at how Mork and Mindy ended, or Happy Days, or "LOST" or Ronald D. Moore's version of "Battlestar Galactica."
I never thought a sitcom could do such a mind-blowing twist in such a perfect way. This show is something else. ❤❤
But, this was not a Sitcom.
One of the most important characteristics of a Sitcom is that the goal of the protagonists is to return to the point where they started, and return everything to normal, not for the characters to change and the setting to change.
Every season of "The Good Place" ended with the main characters having changed from when the season began. 💡
👏👏👏👏
I’ve always said one of the most impressive things about this show is its refusal to have a status quo
Technically it does have a status quo it just changes every season.
@@hefoughtabear118 Even within seasons it changes several times though. Things keep happening that change the entire trajectory.
Season 3 is the best example. At first, the status quo is the humans learning to be better on Earth while Michael and Janet watch from afar. Then Michael and Janet get locked out of the afterlife and one of the demons shows up to drive a wedge between the humans. Then the humans find out about Michael and Janet and it ruins the experiment, and they decide to save other people instead. Then they uncover the fact that the points are rigged and have to convince the judge of this.
Even at the very end, when it seems like a status quo for season 4 is being established, they throw in one more wrench by having Chidi wipe his memories. These changes happen so frequently that you can hardly call anything a status quo.
There's no status quo except for one. The theme.
As someone who, whilst watching this show back in 2020, was going through an intense manic depressive episode, this is why it was such a hard thing to sit through. What I needed most in my life at the time was a semblance of status quo, of routine - and this existentialist show masquerading as a regular sitcom gave me everything but.
Looking back, I can recognize how unique of a show this was for it. It’s a crucial aspect which sometimes works against it - but I don’t think I would want it any other way.
I originally wasn't big on the show and my wife got me into it, but hadn't seen past season 1, so we watched the first season together with her getting to see things I wouldn't notice yet, and then we reached this masterpiece together and it solidified it as one of my favorite shows
Honestly, I didn’t want to watch the show bc from every trailer I saw, I was like “that sounds more like Hell than Heaven tbh”, and then I heard that that was in fact the twist, and I immediately loved that a show was willing to do that, so I sat down and watched it, and now I love the show so much
I recently tried to convince my parents to watch the show (they tried back when it was first airing but gave up after a few episodes) and even spoiled the twist, but they still refused. I’m glad that it convinced you!
@@JNDReacts damn. Honestly, it’s an incredibly underrated show. Sadly a lot of people seem to have kinda just written it off
@@loreleimonn3220 The ending really ruined it for me. I always found it hard to imagine how they would manage to combine the concepts of human growth and change with the concept of an eternal afterlife, but was enjoying everything they were doing so far that I just went with it. But when I got to the end and found out they couldn't come up with a way to do it and just gave up with that lame cop-out ("let's just have people die in the afterlife too!") I was so disappointed that I haven't once felt compelled to rewatch a single episode. Sad really, it was a great show with great performances.
@@mylesleggette7520 I disagree tbh. I think it’s the inevitable conclusion. The point is that death is a necessary part of human change. Essentially, the afterlife becomes a place where one can achieve the actualization you wish without a ticking clock looming over you. You can finally pursue all that your heart desires, and then, when you’ve done so, you can end. I think it’s a perfect ending for the show’s ideas tbh
@@mylesleggette7520 what would you rather have the ending be?
I remember being shocked at how they burned through potential plot that first ep of S2! Made me nervous. Loved his frustration when JASON guessed!
Me toooo
As tv addict for 45 years, I can honestly say the Good Place is one of the most well written, creative pieces of art I've ever seen on my tv screen. It deserves a spot with the all time great sitcoms and I hope it becomes a classic.
This show really does spend its whole run priming your for how fleeting the dynamics you take for granted are.
I had a blast watching this show, and then sobbed like a baby watching the final episode. My sudden emotional reaction to it came out of left field for me; I just realized while I was sitting there that it was over, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I sobbed for an hour after it was done.
It was the last show my wife and I "enjoyed together" before we separated. The ending of the show was (still is) such a devastating metaphor for our marriage. It sucks being Chidi. It's so hard to be the one saying, "I love you, but I know that it's time to go."
What's worse, she didn't understand why the show's ending hit me so hard, and I couldn't tell her. Just a gut-wrenching time.
Oh yeah - during Melbourne’s looooooong Covid lockdown I went down the good place rabbit hole with my wife and 2 young daughters - final ep; we wept together for an hour, sometimes stopping to giggle, blow our noses then back to sobbing… not exactly tears of devastation, more like after an intense philosophical awakening
Please, PLEASE do more videos on *The Good Place!!!!* It was definitely one of the greatest shows of all time. Nothing wasted. Perfectly acted, written, and directed.
What makes the Good Place so fantastic is that it embraces impermanence and endings in a popculture that has become obsessed with infinite shared universes. Star Wars, Star Trek or the various superhero universes aren't allowed to end, so they become these shapeless patternless patterns. Just noise where the sound have might, and might have once been, music. By embracing impermanence fearlessly by rushing through what lesser creators could have milked for years the Good Place became an antithesis to mainstream popculture. it's why it had to end the way it did, because anything else would have been hypocrisy. A stumble at the finish line.
Well said!
❤
this show (and particularly michael) is so important to me. part of it is i think luck, mike schur's idea of what an actual good place would be matches up with mine pretty much exactly, so it really-really worked for me, and michael's story is so beautiful and perfect and i love him so much.
it's especially interesting now that i'm rewatching parks & rec, because i truly think this is mike schur's leftmost show. not just because they say "everything goes to the bad place because of capitalism", but immoral beings cannot create an afterlife for humans, because they fundamentally don't understand humanity - this sounds like the 1% to me.
The most interesting question the show posed to me was about Michael (a demon) wanting to be a good human. It reminded me of Star Trek, where you have androids, aliens, and technology that don't exist to reframe these questions
Really good observation!
I loved that how Tahani changed from her single-focus-of-life (as in overshining Kamilah) she eventually was able to focus on literally everyone else - and that made her stay in afterlife rather than walking through that arch.
its the best show out there and forever will be.
Definitely. Season 1 was great. The refusal to play into everyone's expectations for season 2 was genius. I was hooked so hard and then the entire show kept changing until the most stunning beautiful cathartic finale. Incredible.
I know plenty of people who have a show that they can rewatch over and over. The Good Place is that show for me. I love finding new TH-cam first watch channels and seeing their reaction to the entire series - what they figure out when, who their favorite characters are, and general commentary as they move along through the show's many stages.
Thanks for creating content on it. I love identifying new layers of this fantastic and delicious onion of a show.
One of my favorite joys in all of existence is watching a reactor scoff and make fun of Eleanor when she says, “THIS is the Bad Place”… then seeing their faces contort and twist in confusion as the camera zooms in on Michael’s laugh. That pure, uncut, unadulterated “…wha???” they have…. *chef’s kiss*
yes! rewatching this show never gets old because it’s so dynamic and fun!!
The good place is one of the best shows ever made. And I don't know that we would still be talking about it if it went the route of "see how different it is this time, how will they figure it out?"
Every episode or season. It keeps reinventing itself which is why it's so great (plus the awesome writing😂)
Holy Shirt! You're right.
They could have made into Gilligan's Island -- great show, buy it never made me cry. The choice to aim bigger was awesome.
While I agree that it's a big part of what makes it great and stand out in the massive ocean of formulaic shows and movies, it could very well have gone terribly wrong and ended in an incoherent "anything goes" type of scenario. It's a massive credit to the skills of the writers that they managed to pull it off so amazingly well as they did.
1:50 Ok, before I go further in the video I’m gonna guess which episode you’re referring to.
Season 3 Episode 10 “Janet(s)” where we learn that no one has gotten into the Good Place in 521 years.
I’ve been watching TH-cam reactions to The Good Place recently, and every time one of them guesses someone recent who’s in the Good Place I just smirk like Season 1 finale MIchael and say, “Just you wait.” Like when I first started watching reactions I genuinely forgot how late in the series we find out that information because it’s one of the things about the show that just stuck with me. Particularly the scene from a later episode where the Judge learns how buying a tomato on Earth loses points.
We learn that it actually was the almond milk all along!
1:59 Ah, well, that one’s good too!
I love that judge tomato episode as well. It's such a huge sucker punch that it opens your mind to "Oh shit, yeah that really is bad". Beforehand she sounded arrogant and still somewhat knowledgeable but just buying a fruit? Damn.
What's even more mind-blowing about this revelation is that the logical conclusion must be that Mindy Saint-Claire is actually the best scoring person in all of those 521 years. I find that immensely hilarious. :D
Yep, that set up the remainder of the show beautifully. I had a feeling from the S1 finale to this reveal that Chidi didn’t actually belong there & that there would be a further explanation. I think I literally shouted “YES!” in my living room when he discovered it.
I agree 100%. I was also expecting that Season 2 was going to be a different version of Season 1. And then when it didn't, I was surprised. But then the episode 2 really made me blink, do a double take..."where the heck are they going with this??" I LOVE that! It is so rare that a show really surprises us like the Good Place did. And then they just kept doing it again and again... I never knew what was going to happen next... I loved that show.
Ted Danson had three great revel moments. The First season reveal. The gang under the train reveal and the one where he solves the trolly problem.
I've always been almost hesitant to even call this show a SitCom, because I always thought that they were supposed to return to some kind of status quo. With pretty much all sitcoms I've ever watched, most people can usually jump into some season 3 episode and get the gist in a few minutes, while with this show you'd be absolutely lost. Season one is a bit like this, like you said. It's almost like they made a sitcom for one season and after that decided to create a whole different kind of show with only some remains of the genre in it.
It's fuckin awesome
The episode that changed everything was S1E7, where Eleanor admits that she shouldn't be in the Good Place. You talk about what the show was at the start, and the entire show could have been just Eleanor trying to evade Michael. This episode is the one that broke the mold, that announced that this show was going to be different. I remember being astonished at what Eleanor did.
S1 finale was such a huge reveal and probably the most enjoyable plot twist out of any show at the time I had been watching but I was kind of wary when they reset the memory because I wasn't sure how they were supposed to follow the twist, especially since the characters were wiped clean. It was so important for s2 e1 to acknowledge and then totally toss out the "and then we inch along" plot like you mentioned other sitcoms do, or it would've been so stale. the good place was so
unexpectedly creative and emotional for what could've been such a basic sitcom and I love it so much
I’m so glad a friend of mine convinced me to finish season 1 before season 2 started, and that I somehow managed to avoid having the season 1 finale spoiled! They asked if I watched the show and I told them I’d seen like half of the first season. All they said was that I needed to finish the season and that I wouldn’t be disappointed, and they were right!
It’s fascinating how characters changed so much and yet kept some level of essence all throughout the show
to be honest, the scenes that stuck with me the most where eleanor's "i wanted that mom" speech and chidi's "waves return to the ocean" speech. neither where big reveals, neither where big moments. but holy s$!t, they stuck with me. both sound like they where written by someone throwing down all of the trauma, their feelings, their entire soul. and it hits so hard.
A lot of people I know thought it was too rushed but I thought it was paced beautifully and never overstayed. A very fun watch in my opinion would love to see the longer video on it.
Thanks for the video! I remember being absolutely floored at the beginning of season 2 when the show didn't just cycle a different story with the same outcome for the entire duration of the season. It hadn't occurred to me that there was any other route this story could take.
7:33 I don't even need to hear the dialogue to have the tears start coming.
The start of Season 2 is my absolute favourite part of the show, and I'm so glad to see this brilliance being recognised. I'd have loved to watch every one of the reboots but Eleanor saying "hang on/wait a minute/ you know what/holy smokes - this is the bad place" is legit the best part of the show for me. While season 1 was fun, season 2 takes us on a much more exciting ride, getting deeper and closer to the philosophy of the show
And HUNDREDS of years take place in one or two episodes. I do wish they slowed down a little during either the reincarnation arc or after Chidi gets back because it feels so fast and then we are at the end
I rewatch The Good Place from start to finish every now and then. Jeremy Bearimy, baby.
Agree completely. Looooved The Good Place. That every season was different from the season before, yet still felt true to it's creative core was one of the things that made so wonderful & unique. And yes the 2 episodes you highlighted, the finale of season 1 and it's reveal (that was such an OMG! moment, glad you put the spoiler at the beginning because anyone who's going to watch this show needs to experience that reveal completely fresh), and the first episode of season2 where we revisit the subsequent attempts to reset & each time the same thing happens, brilliant concept. Thanks for reminding me how much I loved this show & everyone in it.
This reminds me of your recent ananlysis of community- shows which commit to jumping the shark and reinventing thenselves will not only avoid becoing stale, but will avoid alienating their viewers, and ultimately end up with something more rewarding. Thanks for the essay!
TGP was such an amazing show. Thanks for this essay.
i cant believe the entire show wasnt planned from the start, it felt so perfect
This show felt like a thought experiment put to television and that is what made me fall in love with it. The conclusion of the thought experiment was so human as well. We all feel like this life wont be enough for us but in truth i feel like in the end we all decide it was. A true masterpiece of a show in my opinion.
Your points about what makes S2E1 so great, so groundbreaking, are also what makes it SO HARD for me to unconditionally recommend this show to everyone. I try to let people know that season one is essentially prologue, that it doesn’t hit its stride until season two. People are used to hearing, “Give it three or four episodes before making up your mind or quitting”… not “Commit to a whole season before making up your mind.”
We need more good place videos, someone as versed in writing as you can definitely explain a lot more of what we understood from just watching the show
I’ve seen all seasons of the show four times. Every year or two I end up binging it again. It’s like a course on practical moral philosophy yet somehow made it fascinating. No other show like it.
This is one of the best TV shows ever made. The writing is genius throughout and the comedy style is right up my alley, while many more dramatic scenes made me cry.
What a good video. I remember when I watched the second season, wondering what they were going to do. And the revelation and then list of resets really blew my mind. Where the Good Place goes is kind up surprising if you only know the first season, but it's also has such a clear path!!!
Mine’s when Chidi said “it’s Anagonyen time” and and Anagonye’d all over the room and then shawn said “hehoo peanut”
The good place isn't just a series, it's art.
Its interesting how much you bring up Schur here as o always felt that the whole fake good place was a bit of meta commentary on tv writing itself with Micheal as the showrinner (and late Eleanor I guess)
I started the good place right when the first season released, and it took me some years to finally finish. Watching Ted Danson laugh evilly still gets me every time.
I love the whole show though! I was ugly crying all through the final episode.
I appreciated that they did this so much. I was excited for season 2 when I thought I knew where it was going. Then it got 10x better.
I would love to see more videos about this show, I just finished rewatching it for the fourth time
Dance Dance Resolution is definitely the episode I've watched the most, dozens of times, and it is so defining of The Good Place and just a unique and super fun episode in all of TV show history!
You know, the season 2 premiere is like the antithesis to this infamous arc in a popular anime. If you know the show named The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, there were a series of episodes known as the Endless Eight.
These episodes were about how the main cast’s summer vacation has been looping for almost millennia. While the idea of it is interesting, the problem was that there was little variation in those 8 episodes that some people would just opt to just watch only the first and the last loop. Some scenes were even the same word for word, with the only difference being the camera angles and what the characters were wearing. In turn, it caused some of show’s good reputation to be lost from the audience.
The Good Place shows that same fatigue of the main characters looping their experiences, but at the same time NOT inconveniencing the viewer from enjoying the story
Still one of the best twists I’ve ever seen in a show
Way to demolish MY expectations with a legit banger of a video today of all days
Had the same feeling with the first season of Homeland. The cat and mouse game of Brody and Carrie after she learns the truth could have been an entire series. Instead they throw all of it in the trash, and turn the show into The Fugitive. So unexpected and refreshing.
It was this moment that I saw on twitter and it got me to watch the show - which I’m so grateful for. I wish I went into it without knowing this happened, but I’m still happy I watched it regardless.
Inn my opinion, the biggest turning point was partway through season 3 when they discover that nobody goes to Heaven. it calls into question whether the man characters deserved to be in the bad place at all given everybody goes to the bad place even ones who had the best intentions and did the best they could. Then the main characters stopped selfishly trying to find their own way to Heaven and started one a more selfless mission to get everyone else there. They even offered themselves up for eternal torture at one point to try and save the rest of humanity.
Love this - captures exactly what made this show special. And yes, please do the in-depth video, can’t wait to see that
YES. Season 2 was when I really fell in love with this show. Spot on video.
Micheal´s casting choice is truly a stroke of genius
Still my favorite line is "Jason figured it out?" And Michael just gets so dejected it's fantastic.
I agree with this 100%.
I loved the first season, and started season two with the expectation that they would likely milk the "reset" for another whole season, as that's what I felt most other shows would do in similar circumstances.
The Good Place is not most other shows and continued to astound me with it's swift yet smooth pacing, and willingness to seemingly write itself into corners, while having every outcome and continuation feel like a natural and earned progression.
I remember having the same thought while watching the start of season 2. The show just kept rebooting itself so fast! I couldn't believe how often they decided to jump ahead. It really kept me engaged and so excited to see what they would do next. LOVE this show.
The Good Place deserves as much in-depth analysis as you are capable of. It's one of the best shows ever!
ugh
I just discovered this show and binged the first two seasons.
I was completely on board with the "this is heaven and she has to hide" theme even though I already knew the ending.
Two hours ago I blackmailed my bf into watching the first episode with me and the first thing he says during episode 1 when Michael is showing Eleanor around before the welcome video is "I don't know, there's something wrong, everything looks so fake"
A perceptive one!
(Or he’s seen spoilers online and is trying to look smart…!)
@@PillarofGarbage nah, it's the first one.
if he had seen spoilers online he would have said "oh, I know which one this is... isn't this the one where she is actually in hell?"
He _is_ very perceptive and at the same time manages to have an almost Jason like ability to say idiotic things.
He is unable to "look" smart. If it happens it happens, if he tries he fails
@@wisteria3032 i thought the set was just a pillar of garbage bcoz on how uncomfortable everything felt
@@AugustRx he knew something was wrong in the first 2 minutes and kept listing all the clues about why everything was not as good as the good place should have been. I spent days defending Tahani and telling him she did a lot of good things just to try and get him to enjoy episode 13.
It didn't work, he understood everything by episode 11.
I honestly never considered this perspective before, that it was possible that they would just go slow with reboot 2 (or 3 for that matter). I did watch the beginning of season 2 minutes after finishing season 1 on netflix, so I don't know that I had time to consider that possibility. But it feels so natural that everything just begins going off the rails in the beginning of season 2, it works so well.
Please start working on that big chonker, I love Good Place content. One of my top 3 shows of all time, and #1 comedy.
The episode that changes everything is S2 E2, when the alliance is formed. Also, it has the best joke of the whole series. "Even Jason figure it out".
I always thought it interesting that the show came up with an afterlife that was quantum levels better than anything any world religion has ever come up with. If there is an afterlife, I hope its like the one that the group invented at the end of the show.
Michael's s1 Finale laugh is music to my ears
That’s what kept me interested in this show even when it got kind of boring, cause between the reveal between that being the real bad place and then the subsequent return to real world and everything always kept me guessing where the show was going
YES!! The way this show KEPT MOVING FORWARD in unexpected ways really struck me the first time I watched it through! Thanks for this great video :)
One thing that changes everything for the characters we already know, in a way that lot of people seem not to address when they discuss it, is the reveal that literally no one has gotten to the good place to since about 1492 AD. A lot of fans learn that but maintain the idea that the original four still deserved to go to the Bad Place. But everything we know about the moral system is based on what Michael told them in the first couple of seasons, but we've learned that Michael didn't actually know any of this and he was either making it up as torture or was mistaken, as he didn't know there were issues with the points system. For all we know, correctly calculated, Chidi and Tahani deserved to go to the Good Place for their theoretical and practical contributions to society. The idea that Chidi made people so miserable he went to the Bad Place, or the idea that Tahani was so selfishly motivated that she went to the Bad Place, has no basis after that reveal.
They just jumped the shark right away. What the hell. And somehow it works.
ill watch any good place video essay honestly
It's my contention that The Good Place is the perfect show. Four seasons, tight, no extraneous fluff, no bad shows and it arrives where it wants to and ends on the right note. I've binge watched the entire series at least 3 times since the first new episode airings were watched.
Yes, this is why I love the Good Place and think it's the best sitcom (if it qualifies as one, some contest this). It's genuinely groundbreaking and I hope more shows dare to do the same!!
My favorite episode was the one they all go to Janet's void and D'Arcy Carden plays all the characters
I definitely remember being surprised how Season 2 started off. I was entirely expecting a repeat of season 1 with a few changed variables. (I also love the "THIS is the Bad Place" montage. Just so much to infer from each clip yet so many questions. 😆)
Fantastic analysis, POG. As a massive Good Place fan, a lot of what you're saying makes complete sense. Also, the part where Jason figures it out is legit hilarious!
It's Jeremy Bearimy isn't it?
Edit: Okay so it wasn't Jeremy Bearimy BUT Jeremy Bearing is a good way to look at the Good Place because it is infinitely rewatchable. Honestly, season 1 just felt like a warm up before the show started sprinting ahead in season 2 onward. There are no boring moments. I can pick ANY episode, I can sometimes even watch it in reverse order and still love it.
I'd say it's the best work I've ever seen out of Ted Danson. He was so brilliant in this series
I respect nothing more than a show that gets in, does an excellent job, and gets out.
I remember ending season one and wondering how the crew are going to work this out again in the new season, only to be surprised they speedrun it all and it was so much better for it
I agree what makes the good place so great is that theres no way to know for sure what could be happening in the next episode. It all just gets even better when you rewatch it and see how every single twist made sense, from Michael laughing to himself in the corner at times in season 1 to seeing how he set everyone up for misery
Great video thanks! I felt like the "no one gets in anymore" was also an amazing twist.
Please bless me with the big chonker video. Btw your previous video got me to rewatch the show and I’m already on season 3😅
Oh wow, good going!
i love the first line of the description! excellent choice
I remember watching season 2 pilot(s) being super stressed for the characters, having just watched the finale of season 1. Certainly one of the best episodes in all of sitcom history, in context.
"Jason? Jason figure it out? This hurts."
Time to rewatch this show again :)
I actually made my ma watch the show and she asked me if they were just going to keep rebooting and that was all the show was going to be, and I'm so so glad that they chose not to do that