The Good Place on NBC

i feel like this show lost the plot story-wise somewhere ... after season 2?

correct

still really enjoyed the most recent two episodes of this season, it was nice to feel like there were stakes again

yeah this last season (and change) has mostly been a drag on the conceptual level

yes and yes. it's out of gas but not so out of gas i'm not willing to give it about two or three more hours of my time.

the jokes are still good, so that helps.

i am curious to see their answer to why humanity should continue if human society is unable to produce good people and only removing ppl from society and prodding them to be better by angelic consorts works

chassidis has good answers to this question imho fwiw first that to do good in this world (which includes the society into which we're born) is a very difficult task and so we should celebrate every act of good that is done even when compromised (if nothing else in the inevitable consent we all give to the status quo through participation in it) and second that the purpose of creation is to repair a flawed world and so you shouldn't worry about earning points in the world to come anyway the whole purpose of creation is to labor in this world. or in a general sense Rabbi Tarfon taught: "It is not your responsibility to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but you are not free to desist from it either" (Pirkai, Avos 2:16).

what's the closest we have to a chassidic tv comedy iyo

lol idk i'd have to think about it but my first impulse was to say neon genesis evangelion which def shares some themes and also prominently features a sefirah tree in its opening credits

https://evangelion.fandom.com/wiki/Tree_of_Life?file=Sephirot.png

oops sorry if big

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/evangelion/images/d/db/Sephirot.png

oh that's not a comedy tho (sometimes...)

conveniently enough that is a show i have recently thought 'i should watch that' ty

lj you should definitely watch eva

i feel like i've posted this before

the funerals last week were great

Very empire records I thought

Hoping the show becomes Universalist propaganda.

Tahani does not suck

she's a little one note

she's written that way

yes it's a criticism of the writing lol

looks like they are heading towards purgatory for everyone. kant would approve.

only two episodes left, right?

chidi was missed, I wondered if this overlapped with the filming of Midsommar at all

Have found this season a little flat, after getting used to them constantly reworking the surroundings in previous seasons, and a lot of the jokes haven’t really worked for me. Still it’s very likable, and Jason’s “that’s how I got my nickname” gag a couple episodes back was perfectly delivered.

Still 6 more episodes, aren't there? Still enjoying it, but it's become a bit enervated.

this week's episode was crazy good

Agreed. Chidi at peace may turn out to be my favorite Chidi.

funny I found this one felt like a giant retreading waste of time lol

Yeah me too, I feel like the show is floundering and has lost its emotional center at this point. But the jokes are still good!

I'm just glad the Dougie Jones Chidi finally woke back up as the supercharged Dale Cooper Chidi.

CHIDILUV

it was literally retreading old ground but new unseen corners of that ground, through a specific (and one of the show’s most well-written) character’s perspective. it kinda reconnected me to the show emotionally even though nothing really happened with the plot (which i no longer care about anyway). also as i’ve stated upthread i find eleanor/chidi boring but sometimes the writers convince me, this episode was one of those times

This is the first time I've found Chidi and Eleanor's relationship at all convincing, so for that alone I liked it.

it was literally retreading old ground but new unseen corners of that ground, through a specific (and one of the show’s most well-written) character’s perspective

I felt like the reason it was unseen was that they were rewriting the character in ways that didn't really match what we've seen before, that's exactly what gave me that floundering feeling -- that and "bad janets are good now."

they were rewriting the character in ways that didn't really match what we've seen before

did not feel this at all

This whole "there must be AN ANSWER if only I think hard enough!" thing was completely out of the blue and is foreign to the entire tradition of philosophy Chidi is supposed up till now to have devoted his life to.

ok i definitely get that but idk in the experience it felt true to his character regardless

i know it's antithetical but "there must be an answer if only i think hard enough" just seemed to be anxiety stretched out into a full sentence to me. i can still feel that way even if i'm familiar with the idea that the opposite is true (not that this is how the show necessarily depicted it lol)

I don't know, I think it makes sense as an origin story for all his dithering. I mean, yeah, he considers a lot of possible approaches to everything, but that's not the same as thinking there are multiple answers to everything. What's unhealthy about Chidi's approach to the world is that he feels compelled to make the right decision and can't bring himself to make any decision at all in case it's the wrong one, and that seems compatible with what we saw in this episode, I think.

i haven't caught up on this show in a long time so idk context but 'there must be an answer if only i think hard enough' sounds TOTALLY on-character for a philosopher in ANY context sooooo

loved this ep!

i think part of why this season fell flat was the dearth of Eleanor/Chidi interactions - not even romantically, but just the way they play off each other seemed to generate great moments, not just together but also with the group & splitting the two them off into separate plot roles felt like a bit of a missstep

but i didnt realize it until i saw this new ep

gah so this is on a break until January

Wish Netflix would show that somehow.

It's trolling me by saying 'NEW EPISODE' under it

A great big gap in the schedule will really help the already knackered pacing of this last series.

Mike Schur and the show's philosophy consultant, Pamela Hieronymi, are on the latest episode of the Ezra Klein Show podcast: https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2019/12/10/21002589/the-ezra-klein-show-mike-schur-the-good-place-moral-philosophy

(I haven't listened yet.)

great big gap in the schedule

It has done this every year, but this time there are going to be more episodes in the second calendar year than last season, so the pace should be improved if anything

I know it's done it each year, but this series has been unusually baggy, which having an extra episode is unlikely to improve. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of time and affection for this show which is better than almost every other comedy on TV, I'm just disappointed in it this year.

you have a right

Found it baggy and disappointing last year too

But it’s still fine

The common denominator in Schur shows seems to be that, the nicer a character gets, the less interesting s/he becomes

Andre Braugher seems to be the exception. Ted Danson’s still great in this, but he seemed to have more fun as the bad guy

So you all know this came back?

thing that irrationally annoyed me: Timothy Olyphant guesting as "Timothy Olyphant" even though he was clearly meant to be in character as Raylan Givens