The Good Place on NBC

I cracked up when Jason disassembled the front wheel of his partner’s bike. I feel we were denied the horrible crash scene, but the implication was great

I want some more of Shawn retreating into his cocoon

Enjoyed the first couple but it feels like the writers have written themselves into a corner that might be quite difficult to get out of.

you have identified perhaps the primary pleasure of the show!

Once again it's the pernicious hand of the AV Club: as soon as a show gets good, you start to worry about it fucking up or burning out. There are TV reviewer tropes just as there are TV tropes.

i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu) at 8:05 30 Sep 17

....in the last episode it showed that they always end up In love with each other? What am I missing here?


**extremely nerd voice** Mindy said they had had sex 20 times over 8 sessions but only said they loved each other once.

Once again it's the pernicious hand of the AV Club: as soon as a show gets good, you start to worry about it fucking up or burning out.

It was good from the very first episode but pressing a consistent reset button so that the characters remember nothing from the first season is a difficult corner to get yourself out of, and they've spent two episodes trying to find a way out of it already.

They aren't making the show week to week you know. They have months of story meetings where they lay aaaaaaalllll this shit out

It will console none of you that Schur specifically consulted w/ Damon Lindelof to figure out how to (and how not to) navigate a high-concept series

Given Schur's track record, I'm fine with him doing a post-mortem on a popular series with its creator so he can avoid the same pitfalls.

"It was good from the very first episode but pressing a consistent reset button so that the characters remember nothing from the first season is a difficult corner to get yourself out of, and they've spent two episodes trying to find a way out of it already."

did you not see the end of the season 2 opener? they are not going to keep doing that.

Consulting with the guy who made The Leftovers seems pretty smart.

*I* thought it was a smart move but given the Lindelof hate elsewhere on the board (see the nu-Watchmen thread) I figured it might cause some concern

"i was reluctant to check this out because i thought it was by some pushing daisies people,"

no, that's the new Star Trek (or was until he quit; he also did American Gods and Hannibal, so I wouldn't hold Pushing Daisies against him)

please let Hannibal show up. Space Hannibal. maybe he’s the sous chef

I mean, on Star Trek. He should show up in The Good Place too, though

i mean, i liked pushing daisies (or maybe i liked anna friel), it just was a little suffocating and cloying

i finished s1

it's weird that this is such an LA show and the only Latino is a criminal with the moral and mental capacity of a 12-y.-o. whose innocent stupidity is played for laughs

i know it's churlish, as is noting there appear to be no gay people despite kb's luggy side

happy_shruggie.gif

I don't think anyone in the show is from anywhere near LA (Eleanor: Arizona; Chidi: Nigeria/Senegal; Tahani: UK; Jason: Florida)? Does "LA show" mean something more general? Also, I think Jason is Filipino-American; idk if that makes it better or not.

I thought Antonio and Gunner played a gay couple on the first season, too. Don't know if that counts.

*in

If anything makes me uncomfortable, I think it's that Jason's character might come close to being actually intellectually disabled at times but it is always played for laughs. I don't have a clear opinion about it yet, just a potential red flag.

the neighborhood is like a parody of LA suburbs i.e. all the frozen yogurt, sunshine etc, but it's true it's neither here nor there as far as my discomfort around that character goes.

i like the show! i just wish it could be a little braver about race (and gender and sexual identity)

There are four main human characters on the show, only one of whom (and arguably the least moral of them) is white. Two of the others are an African philosophy professor and a British Asian millionaire philanthropist, neither of which seem like stereotypical or insulting portrayals. I don't think it's statistically unrealistic that all four would be predominantly heterosexual. What am I missing?

the fact that the only latino is a borderline-retarded criminal

but yes i take your point

He's not Latino!

ha okay well i guess i am dumm sorry everyone

i think its cool that they went with unknowns for jason, tahani, and chidi. i looked them up and chidi and jason have done almost nothing! and tahani would only be known by people who watch british music chart shows on t.v. completely unknown here.

yeah, he's filipino on the show. and filipino/chinese in real life.

and even jason thinks that heaven is racist. he says so on the show.

i know jameela! we used to work together. here's a picture i took of her once. v proud of how it came out

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/640x360/p01pqps9.jpg

I think it's that Jason's character might come close to being actually intellectually disabled at times but it is always played for laughs

That's a bit heavy! I thought the character was a parody of a lamebro Youtuber / Viner type

Tracer: whoa!

The Jason character seems more culturally dumb to me than mentally challenged? I’ve known people who were actually book smart who come off more naive. I think he’s just... from Florida.

jameela and kristin bell are two of the most beautiful people on television, but I kind of like that the show doesn't really play up their beauty

Chidi is a well known NY stage actor

as soon as I read that, my first thought was "so what L&O episode was he on?"

one way back in 2010, looks like

lol

"Chidi is a well known NY stage actor"

which kinda means unknown. in t.v. terms.

i just think it's cool that they are not people who have been in 10 different awful people sitcoms.

I get a little bit of cognitive dissonance watching this show and realizing that Eleanor and Chidi, or at least the actors playing them, are my age. At least I'm not in hell.... I think.

xp he was also in High Maintenance!

I have to agree that people who regularly do (or have done) stage work are better at actual acting. Or at least I hold to that bias.

I liked him in Paterson too.

one more slightly dim filipino-american bro on a lighthearted-look-at-existential-dilemmas-focused primetime show and we'll officially have a trend (see also josh chan on CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND)

I like The Good Place a lot more as a show but tbf, at least in Crazy Ex-Gf, you also saw Josh's family (incl e.g. a doctor father iirc) and friends (incl a Filipino-American priest). But yeah, I was wondering if this is a Filipino-American stereotype I didn't really know about.

jason's friends from the old days show up briefly in flashbacks. crazy ex girlfriend does have a season and double the episode length on the good place...

I remember Jason's friends being similarly dumb but I could be forgetting. Second point is totally fair and I do think Good Place is mostly really good on race.

no one is arguing for unjust slandering of floridians I see

Yeah, it might be more of a Florida stereotype than anything.

It is 100% a Florida stereotype

you know you're in the bad place if your soulmate doesn't even know who blake bortles is