The Good Place on NBC

That throwaway line about Janet having all the knowledge of the universe is a little ominous

Looking forward to malfunctioning Janet being replaced by Bad Janet.

is janet glitching out of jealousy?

I thought this too.

I can't remember why Michael is supposed to be learning ethics. I don't really care, obviously. Even if it's just to pass the time, that's fine. But I forget the reason they gave.

The knowledge that they're in the bad place has loosened Eleanor up in a really good way. The fact that she and Michael have so much in common, and that she can be more her funny, crappy self around Chidi, is a comedy bonus.

feel like janet is some form of god/higher power

I can't remember why Michael is supposed to be learning ethics. I don't really care, obviously. Even if it's just to pass the time, that's fine. But I forget the reason they gave.

Iirc, Michael wanted the humans' help to outsmart Vicky and Sean and keep all five of them from facing infinite 'real' torture, also suggesting that he might be able to get them all into the actual good place. Tahani and Chidi wanted to go along with the plan because it was their best chance to improve and actually become as good as they had thought they were. Eleanor agreed eventually but only on the condition that Michael also study ethics so that they would all become better and deserve the good place.

(Btw, imago, I'm rewatching s1 with the philosopher so I obv do think it's still worth watching after you know what happens.)

feel like janet is some form of god/higher power

I think it was the first episode of this season where Michael said he stole her from the actual good place, so it could just be she's malfunctioning due to being in the bad place.

It would be difficult to reconcile Janet having all the knowledge in the universe yet learning each restart. I guess maybe in some 'being a bat' sense? My rl person to talk about this show thought very early that Janet would develop a subliminal jealousy, so maybe she's right.

Decent piece in The Atlantic by an ethicict about what this show accomplishes with the topic and how deftly it saved the most famous ethics problem until its second season.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/how-the-good-place-goes-beyond-the-trolley-problem/543393/

imo Janet has knowledge in the sense that she’s like a library or database, and can spew out facts. all the restarts have made her cognitive capabilities higher functioning, to the extent she’s able to use that knowledge to do work that requires interpretation

I mean, maybe Janet could become jealous now that she can interpret things and seems to be developing a sense of self

season one Janet was basically Siri

i think all the reboots must be doing something to her. plus, all the interaction she's had with the four main characters. she probably doesn't have to interact much with the demons there. regular janets never get rebooted at all. didn't they say it was the first time a janet had been killed?

Janet would develop a subliminal jealousy

Databases and even highly advanced AIs aren't conscious, in the way I am and I believe you are.

what if she’s been interpreting books on jealousy as part of becoming a therapist

also if this is a abrahamic good place, she could be a seraphim, just sayin

or rather, of the seraphim

xp: Then somewhere in its "circuitry" it may have a model of how jealous people behave. There's been no indication Janet experiences emotions. The whole Jason/Janet "romance" of S1 hinged on how she was motivated to please, but felt nothing. Her "fail safe" pleas for mercy as anyone reached for the reset button were also explicitly explained as a ruse.

Nah, still think Janet is malfunctioning so that Vicky will be forced to bring in a Bad Janet. Maybe cross its wires to force it to emulate a Good Janet.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/8751842a9a7ba74524cb06e498ca6c1d/tumblr_ok25wy412i1udh64ho4_500.gif

I think part of the joy of this show is that it makes the kind of universe-building we're supposed to do in sci-fi or fantasy shows redundant: it doesn't really matter how closely we follow what we're told about the rules of this universe because at any point the universe can be completely turned on its head. What matters then is that the actions we've seen happen in the series so far can be read as plausible in the context of the new explanation for the universe. Janet is a good example - we were told that good Janet was stolen, but there's no particular reason to assume that there won't be a totally different explanation of the nature of Janet coming along at some point, which we can believe and build our understanding around until another explanation comes along.

This makes wild speculation more fun. The question is whether we can expect a once-and-for-all resolution at some point (eg turns out this is *actually* some kind of purgatorial process all these characters have to go through before they can be admitted to a Good Place), or whether that would turn out to be disappointingly glib and implausible, like finding out who gossip girl was. They can keep flipping the universe for as long as its fun, I suppose.

I think I am in some sort of purgatory that does not allow me to watch this show. Tried watching on nbc.com with various browsers and inevitably some of the ads won't load and the whole thing crashes. Finally got a friend's Hulu password, tried to watch via PS4 and it would only play a couple seconds at a time before buffering. Admittedly I have shitty internet, but other services were working fine. :/

i forgot who it turned out gossip girl was. was it georgina?

Clearly it's Tahani.

https://tvrecappersanonymous.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/laughing-dan.gif

lol

Finally got a friend's Hulu password, tried to watch via PS4 and it would only play a couple seconds at a time before buffering. Admittedly I have shitty internet, but other services were working fine.

watching this season via Hulu and it takes at least an hour to get through each 19-minute episode with buffering, seizing up on ads, and crashing altogether

hulu apps are all pretty shitty in my experience (on ps4, appletv, and roku). maybe if you pay for NO commercials.

Glad it's not just me

it works fine if you pay for it outright.

I haven't had any trouble? I've been streaming off the NBC site on a Macbook Pro. I did watch the last one on Hulu, actually.

Also streaming off NBC on a Macbook Pro -- sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's glitchy as hell.

Oh, recalling now that I got a lot of glitches one day and wondered if the directors were doing something really avant-garde with jump cuts.

Ha. I realized that sometimes it would work after restarting the app, and either run perfectly or be unwatchable. So now I'm all caught up! I was a little sad on Mindy's behalf that she didn't get her giant bag of cocaine.

Also I had the same reaction as Maura, that Janet is glitching out due to jealousy that is unfamiliar and unprocessed.

We've been watching this as a family and I think we have one episode left in season one (I know I've missed an ep or two). Last night my wife and I finally figured out what was throwing us off, and we think it's just that we've been both spoiled by high-budget, very cinematic cable dramas and, perhaps, jaded by the fake documentary format, and this is just the opposite of both of those things. Very bright and over lit, not cinematic, the characters default broad (esp.Jason and Tahani), looks like it's shot in a back corner of Disneyland and feels like it has laugh track beats built in (just in case). And yet we really like Bell, Harper (who my kids recognized from nu-Electric Company) and Danson, and the whole enterprise is so charming and good natured (if only fitfully funny) that we don't mind watching it. I suppose that's all one can really ask of a network sitcom.

There's a nu Electric Company??

The mockumentary format never made sense for most of the sitcoms that use it. Worked for UK Office.

I know it's not really the point you were making Josh but I just imagined a gritty cable style version of TGP and oh man it was not pleasant

There's a nu Electric Company??

Lin-Manuel Miranda was on it. He did a super-embarrassing rap about silent E being a ninja.

sadly nu-electric company sucks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvTv6KzLczQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HZwkdx29gg

dying at Janet's reactions to the basketball

also LMM's Electric Company appearances have pretty much ruined my ability to enjoy his Broadway work

So it's not all bad, then.

i think hamilton is like Cats to me. i get why its popular but it ain't for me. the songs seem as hokey as an electric company rap. but maybe i am still getting over the school talent shows i had to sit through for two years where i heard basically the whole musical. hamilton AND adele kinda ruined for me.

I've seen Hamilton twice and loved it both times, even more the second time, so ymmv.

And yet we really like Bell, Harper (who my kids recognized from nu-Electric Company) and Danson, and the whole enterprise is so charming and good natured (if only fitfully funny) that we don't mind watching it. I suppose that's all one can really ask of a network sitcom.

I couldn't disagree more, I think The Good Place is leagues better-written, is intellectually deeper, and has more laughs than any high-gloss prestige cable comedy I can think of. I guess maybe The Comeback was better-written and Party Down had more laughs (though PD wasn't on a prestige network iirc!) I watch it and I'm like "I can't believe I'm watching NBC."

Party Down was on Starz, which is in the limbo between prestige and second-tier premium channel that gives you enjoyable trash

The Carmichael Show and Superstore are at or near the same level, both are (or recently were, in the case of TCS) on NBC

Just for Party Down, The Girlfriend Experience and Spartacus, Starz is fine by me.

I could only think of the latter when I was trying to remember what I'd watched on Starz, but agreed on TGE

Starz also showed Torchwood: Miracle Day, which started out great. (I'm pretending the ending didn't happen.)

How the heck did that end up on Starz?