The Good Place on NBC

haha i hadn't read the entire thread when i posted: if i had, i might well have muffled that particular personal-reaction truthbomb a bit

tahani is def my least favorite

Just realized yesterday that Janet is the same actress who plays the female Soulstice trainer on Broad City.

O
M
G

you’re right!!!

indeed - and in further broad city crossover, the guy who plays the "I'm going to the gym" character in s2 of this is also in an episode of s1 of broad city as a bisexual hunk who's terrible at improv

one of the things i really (disproportionately) love about this show is the way janet appears and disappears. they have a cgi budget, they could magic her in and out of frame with some crazy wonky effect, but they chose to use jump cuts instead. it fits so much better with the show's pacing and comedy timing.

so so true, i don't understand how this move is still so funny every single time

her exclamations upon appearing are delightful

I think the series has tremendously improved by trading in the "Will Eleanor learn to be better person?" narrative with "Will Eleanor remember to bring Mindy coke next time?"

I find that pov pretty hard to understand tbh.

Afaict, it would be more accurate to say that the show has traded in "Will Eleanor learn to be a better person?" for "Will all four humans and Michael learn to be better?" (with a side of "Will Eleanor and Chidi finally get together?").

bringing Mindy coke is more important because she’s stuck in limbo with us viewers

you are all 8’s

ugh ted danson is amazing

bringing Mindy coke is more important because she’s stuck in limbo with us viewers

Ha, well, I am open to the idea that would be an improvement if it were the primary narrative focus. I just don't think it's what the series has done.

*that it would be ... if this were

oh it’s a sideline and running joke I am fully committed to

love how they introduced the will-they-or-won’t-they thing and immediately showed us the unexpected one in the next episode

eleanor losing it over the toothbrushes and crying into a plunger was great

Lol, both otm.

the condemned four stumbling into redemption, with the strategic flashbacks, makes me think another shoe is going to drop

guys what if this is the test to see if they get into heaven by saving ted danson
a'la albert brooks' Defending Your Life
which everyone who loves this show who hasn't seen should go watch IMMEDIATELY

otm

also O_O

i like it

Mindy is actually God pulling a gag

i'm afraid they've kinda painted themselves into a corner where every season now is gonna have to have a shylamanian TWIST just to keep the game afoot
Season Five: it turns out the whole experience is an acid trip jason's having at a Marshmello concert.... OR IS IT?!?!?!?!?!1111??!?!?!

mike schur talks about that a little bit in this interview:
http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/the-good-place-michael-schur-season-2-premiere-interview.html

I thought you guys did such a great job with the first season. I really didn’t see that ending coming at all. Now that you’ve done a big twist, do you feel the pressure of people expecting more?

Yeah, I do. It’s a double-edged sword, right? I think the reason we pulled off the twist in the first season without a lot of people guessing is because nobody was expecting it. Now we’re in a situation where everyone’s expecting it and so the double-edged sword is, do you try to come up with one big twist that’s as shocking? Or do you not do that and risk betraying the DNA of the show?

The show threw everything up in the air and blew up the whole world at the end of the first season and that’s a little bit why people like it, I think. Or at least some people like it for that reason. So you want to honor that. You don’t want to suddenly make it a totally different show, but at the same time, part of the reason why they liked it is that they didn’t know it was going to happen. If you play right into their hands and do another big twist, that might be the least shocking thing you could do.

It’s very odd. A lot of this is very simple and straightforward and probably doesn’t need to be explained by me, but I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’m in this brand-new world. People who work in this space, who work in science-fiction shows and genre shows and speculative fiction, they would listen to me talking right now and they would be so bored they could barely keep their eyes open. This is what they deal with all the time. For me, it’s all new and interesting and exciting. It’s like an interesting intellectual puzzle to try to work through.

that's interesting. They really are gonna have to stick the landing this season or they're gonna shoo away their core audience.

maybe. but the cast is so good i think even if they didnt quite stick the landing ppl would come back - it’s the benefit of it being primarily a comedy
the story helps, but it’s not why you stay

I don't think they have to blow up the world of the show more than once, tbh. Lost did this with the flashing forward/"We have to go back!" thing and the show still worked after that (though the ending stunk).

It's kind of remarkable to me that anyone could like this show and be into the show and yet has not yet seen Defending Your Life.

My family and I have watched about half of the first season, and I love the cast enough that I don't mind that I almost never laugh. Apparently, without seeking out spoilers, I learned it's about to get really good though, maybe by episode 6?

I find that pov pretty hard to understand tbh.

Eleanor's growth as an ethical being is overdetermined (of course she's going to learn to be more selfless), but the route from where she starts to where she ends is kind of unconvincing, self-abnegating, and not all that funny IMO. But when her lessons get reset, we're liberated from those constraints so that we can indulge and embrace in her crapitude.

I recommended it to one of the bar staff in my local. She liked it, but now every time I see her I get subjected to complaints about having to wait for another episode.

I loved Parks & Rec, and I absolutely adore Ted Danson, but I watched the first two episodes of this and I thought it was really, really dumb. Giant killer lady bugs or whatever? Ugh. Should I stick with this?

Like I said, I've seen maybe the first five episodes of season one and haven't found it funny (just like season one of Parks & Rec, too), and in fact it almost plays like it should have a laugh track but doesn't. But apparently it gets much better in the back half, or so says my daughter.

Yes Evan you should stick with it!

No, everyone talking itt about how much they like it and enjoy the characters and find the writing clever and the jokes hilarious are lying to each other to trick you Evan

man tough crowd

i don't remember a big change in quality midway through s1, so maybe you just are dumb and don't like it

I haven't seen like 2/3 of the NBC sitcom shows and I think it's pretty funny.

lol wasn't questioning that people love the shit out of this show. They obviously do. But as a person who hates that fake-y, candy-colored, internet-baiting Community aesthetic I'm just wondering if I'd be able to enjoy it, too

All I can say is if you think giant killer ladybugs or whatever are dumb, then you're exactly on the same page as the writers. The Good Place? More like this place sucks!

If the cheesy cg was what put you off, there was a lot more of that in the first couple of episodes than in most later episodes, iirc (although there's often still at least a couple of seconds per episode of people flying or whatever)

i don't remember a big change in quality midway through s1

I don't recall this either. The qualities that I like were present from the first episode. Community is one of my favourite shows of all time, at least for the first two seasons, so maybe not your thing.

The last episode had unicorn rides iirc.

Maybe it's not a change in quality I've read about so much as a twist or something else that shifts the show? I'm thinking of this AVClub review headline for I think episode 6 or 7 of the first season: "The Good Place leaps into the unknown—and greatness." I haven't read the review for fear of spoilers, but iirc it was this headline that caught my eye when I was wondering whether or not to watch it. And then then season 2 premiere headline, also intriguing: "The Good Place continues its peerless sleight-of-hand in its two-part season premiere." Peeking at that sort of praise in my periphery made me invested in keeping surprises surprises and seeking the show out when I had time to pay attention. Hence my surprise that the first 5 or 6 episodes of season one have been just sort of OK for me, but also why I intend to stick with it (whereas with most shows, if I'm halfway through season one and not digging it I usually jump ship).

The last one was the first I've really enjoyed this season. They've got themselves out of that narrative corner by now but it took at least an episode too many to get there.

how can you watch several episodes of this without your bullshit detector going off, repeatedly, and at progressively louder volumes?!?

how can you participate in this thread when you're avoiding spoilers?

lol

I keep wondering if people posting they haven't noticed a plot twist have actually read the entire thread and think the subtext being referred to is the main premise, and they keep waiting for the real twist to come in