The Good Place is an American fantasy comedy television series created by Michael Schur. The series premiered on September 19, 2016, on NBC.
The series focuses on Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), a woman who wakes up in the afterlife and is introduced by Michael (Ted Danson) to "The Good Place", a Heaven-like utopia he designed, in reward for her righteous life. She realizes that she was sent there by mistake and must hide her morally imperfect behavior and try to become a better person. William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto co-star as other residents of "The Good Place", together with D'Arcy Carden as Janet, an artificial being helping the inhabitants.
The Good Place has received positive reviews since its premiere, with many praising its performances, writing, originality, setting and tone, as well as its first-season finale's twist ending. On January 30, 2017, NBC renewed the series for a second season of 13 episodes, which premiered on Wednesday, September 20, 2017, with an hour-long premiere, before moving to its normal time slot Thursday at 8:30 pm, beginning September 28, 2017. On November 21, 2017, NBC renewed the series for a 13-episode third season.
Video The Good Place
Synopsis
Season 1
After she is struck by a collection of runaway shopping carts, pushed into traffic and run over by a truck, Eleanor Shellstrop (Bell) is welcomed into the afterlife by Michael (Danson), the facilitator and architect of Eleanor's new neighborhood in a "perfect utopia" called "The Good Place". When Michael tells Eleanor she made it into "The Good Place" as reward for her life of selfless devotion to helping others, she realizes she must have been mistaken for someone else. She also learns that each person in "The Good Place" has a soulmate with whom she or he is matched and (accordingly) with whom she or he will live for eternity.
Hoping to stay in The Good Place, Eleanor decides to hide her morally imperfect past behavior from everyone else, confessing only to her assigned soulmate, Chidi Anagonye (Harper), a university ethics professor. Chidi agrees to teach Eleanor to become a better person and avoid eternal torture in "The Bad Place". She also interacts closely with a particular group of other people in "The Good Place", notably Tahani Al-Jamil (Jamil), a wealthy philanthropist who dedicated her life to helping the poor and raised billions through charities, and Tahani's soulmate Jianyu Li (Jacinto), seemingly a silent Buddhist monk from Taiwan, who turns out to be Jason Mendoza, a misplaced DJ from Florida. Michael and the inhabitants are assisted by Janet (Carden), an artificial being in charge of helping and informing the inhabitants.
Each episode of the first season features flashbacks from one of the main characters and ends with a cliffhanger leading into the following episode. In the first-season finale's twist ending, Eleanor reveals that Michael is really a demon and that "The Good Place" is actually a new experimental form of "The Bad Place" that he has designed himself. Every resident there is also a demon, except for Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason, who are the only human inhabitants. They were placed together with the idea that they would torment each other. The plan backfires when they become friends and Eleanor realizes the truth.
Season 2
Michael erases their memories and attempts the experiment again, but Eleanor (and on one occasion, Jason) figures out the truth over and over again. Because it is disallowed by his supervisors, Michael is lying to them and pretending to still be on the second attempt, even though he wipes their memories and reboots them repeatedly, more than eight hundred times. As his demon colleagues also demand changes, one of them (Vicky) blackmails Michael, demanding he wipe the humans' memories and reset the neighborhood again, but putting her in charge and enacting all the demands of the other demons. Desperate to retain control and avoid "retirement" Michael offers to work with the foursome and not erase their memories if they agree to work with him. Eleanor reluctantly agrees (after Michael says he can get them to the real Good Place if they do so), but says that she will only do so if Michael agrees to join them for Chidi's ethics lessons. Since he has no choice, Michael agrees to join Chidi's ethics lessons. Due to multiple times having their memories erased, and also having Janet rebooted for each experiment, nobody except Michael remembers that Jason married Janet during a previous experiment. As a result, in a later experiment, Jason attempts to marry Tahani after sleeping with her and forgetting that he is already married to Janet. Eleanor, Chidi and Michael attempt to stop their seaside wedding, after sorting out the various ethical consequences of their actions. At the end of Episode 7 in Season 2, Shawn (Michael's boss), has unexpectedly returned to speak with Michael about how the experiment is going.
Maps The Good Place
Cast and characters
Main
- Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased saleswoman from Arizona who entered an afterlife utopia called "The Good Place" seemingly after being mistaken for a human rights lawyer by the same name. With the aid of her alleged soulmate, Chidi, she attempts to reform by learning about ethics, believing she still has a chance to earn a legitimate spot in The Good Place. Now that Eleanor knows about Michael's experiments and the memory wipes, Eleanor became the de facto leader in the group "Team Cockroach" after she makes a truce with Michael to keep Shawn from finding out about the reboots in exchange for helping the humans get to the Real Good Place.
- William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye, a deceased ethics professor who was born in Nigeria and raised in Senegal, supposed to be Eleanor's soulmate. Reluctantly, he had hope to meet a soulmate he could bond with, but soon discovers that he and Eleanor were meant to be soulmates because he was always there for her. He is the first person to learn her secret and begins teaching her about ethics to reform both her and Jason. He died on earth when an air conditioner fell on his head outside his apartment building. Chidi speaks French, but in this afterlife, his speech is translated into whatever languages people who listen to him speak; therefore, he appears to speak English to Eleanor and the audience.
- Jameela Jamil as Tahani Al-Jamil, a deceased, wealthy philanthropist who traveled extensively around the world. She was born in Pakistan, raised in England, and went to school in France. Tahani, whose full name means "Congratulations Beautiful," is a seemingly-good-natured soul with a cheerful and helpful attitude who was constantly overshadowed by her younger sister, Kamilah during her time on Earth. She died on Earth when a statue of her sister fell on her at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. She gradually learns the truth about Eleanor and Jason following Eleanor's arrival. Initially, Eleanor dislikes Tahani, finding her positive attitude, condescending manner, and her tendency to name drop obnoxious, but the two eventually become friends.
- D'Arcy Carden as Janet, a programmed guide who acts as the neighborhood's main source of information, analogous to an intelligent personal assistant. She is the 25th generation of "Janet" programs like her, dating back to a predecessor featuring a click-wheel. She has infinite knowledge of the universe, can provide residents anything they desire, and details everything of what is happening in the Good Place but does have some flaws. Since she is the only individual who came from a true Good Place (Michael admits to having stolen her in the season 1 finale), Janet is subject to numerous reboots; she pleads with whomever tries to push a red button that shuts her down not to kill her, even going as far as showing pictures (like an ultrasound of an unborn baby or showing off her "children") before she falls to the ground. These reboots give Janet increased abilities as well as programming capabilities that compel her to make humans happy, as she'll only answer to what the humans want her to do, including keeping their secrets to escaping the Bad Place. Janet is incompatible with lies and must tell the objective truth. In season 1, after she was rebooted the first time, Jason and Janet fell in love with each other and got married. Despite the fact Janet is not human, she and Jason attempted many times in vain to consummate their marriage, without success. It is revealed in season 2 that her feelings for Jason have intensified with each reboot. Also in season 2, as Janet becomes more self aware with each reboot, she realizes that the experimental created neighborhood may explode or implode due to her computer glitches, and she begs Michael to "kill" her and turn her into a marble. Demon Michael, after having attended so many of Chidi's lessons on ethics and philosophy, can not bring himself to permanently disable Janet, because Michael now considers Janet to be his best friend. Since Michael will not agree to permanently disable her and turn her into a marble, in order to pacify herself and avoid further earthquakes and the possible destruction of the neighborhood Janet creates a new boyfriend for herself. The boyfriend Janet creates is as anatomically incorrect as she is, with wind chimes for genitalia.
- Carden also plays "Bad Janet", Janet's counterpart from The Bad Place.
- Manny Jacinto as "Jianyu Li", a supposedly silent Buddhist monk from Taiwan and Tahani's soulmate. Eleanor discovers he is actually Jason Mendoza from Jacksonville, Florida, an amateur DJ, devoted Jacksonville Jaguars fan, and backup dancer who sold fake drugs to high school students. At first, Jason develops feelings for Janet because she is the only one who is nice to him but later forgot after they rebooted everybody's memories, but later ended up sleeping with Tahani in season 2.
- Ted Danson as Michael, the architect of The Good Place where Eleanor and her fellow humans reside. In the first-season finale, it is discovered that he is a Bad Place demon who constructed a fake "Good Place" to torture Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason. Unfortunately, he ends up repeatedly restarting his experiment due to Eleanor (and one time Jason) always figuring out that "The Good Place" is "The Bad Place," leading to his routine failure, as well as hiding the constant resets from Shawn in order to avoid "retirement". As part of a truce he makes with Eleanor so his failing project will not be exposed and a chance to reform his behavior, Michael agrees to let the humans keep their memories and help them get into the true Good Place as well as to take Chidi's ethics lessons.
Recurring
- Tiya Sircar as the "real Eleanor Shellstrop", a human rights lawyer mistakenly sent to The Bad Place, who was killed trying to save Eleanor from a traffic accident, causing confusion because the two Eleanors were close to one another and died almost simultaneously. In the finale of season 1, she is revealed to be a demonic colleague of Michael's named Vicky Sengupta, who is part of the experiment. In season 2, in one of many reboots, Michael gives Vicky a significantly smaller role as Denise, a restaurant owner, to Vicky's dissatisfaction. After having to go through hundreds of Michael's failed attempts, Vicky blackmails him, saying he will reboot the neighborhood and blank the memories of the humans again, and put her in charge of the new neighborhood, saying that if he does not agree to her terms (and to meet the demands of the other demons, who all want something different out of this newest attempt), she will alert Shawn to her documentation of his many failures, and request that he initiate Michael's retirement. This makes Michael desperate enough to team up with the humans, whose memories he only pretends to blank.
- Adam Scott as Trevor. In season 1, he is portrayed as a sinister figure representing The Bad Place, sent upon Eleanor's true identity being revealed, vowing to take her with him. He leads an entourage of demons that parties endlessly and bullies Michael.
- Marc Evan Jackson as Shawn, an all-powerful Eternal Judge who decides on matters between the two realms. He is called in to hear Eleanor's fate. In the season 1 finale, his true nature was revealed: he is Michael's boss. He believes Michael will fail in his second attempt, and he makes it clear that Michael's failure in this regard will result in Michael's retirement, and that only one more chance will be given.
- Maribeth Monroe as Mindy St. Claire, the only resident of The Medium Place, a neutral plane of existence between The Good Place and The Bad Place. She is a former corporate lawyer, cocaine addict, and is somewhat sexually depraved, as evidenced by the fact that she has taped and kept track of times when Eleanor and Chidi shared intimacy during their repeated visits. Regarding those visits, she told a reluctant and disbelieving Eleanor that she (Eleanor) and Chidi have been romantically linked for a long time, even though it may seem to Eleanor as if she and Chidi just met. Because of her location and existence, Mindy is a real person and not subjected to the experimental nature in which both places are being run. It is implied that Mindy died in the 1980s as evidenced in her environmental surroundings (such as having a TV set with recordable VHS tapes which enabled her to record one of the sex tapes over Cannonball Run 2; she also has a People magazine cover featuring Pierce Brosnan that she keeps reading).
- Jason Mantzoukas as Derek Hoffstettler, an artificial "rebound guy" that Janet creates to get over Jason.
Episodes
Production
Development and casting
NBC issued a press release on August 13, 2015, announcing it had given the then untitled show a 13-episode order based purely on a pitch by Michael Schur. On January 12, 2016, it was announced that Kristen Bell and Ted Danson had been cast in the lead roles for the series. The first synopsis of the show was also released, stating that the show was set to revolve around Eleanor designing her own self-improvement course with Michael acting as her guide - although the afterlife element had always been a part of the series, as Kristen Bell has stated she was aware of the first-season finale twist when she signed onto the show.
William Jackson Harper was cast as Chris on February 11, 2016, though the character was renamed Chidi. Jameela Jamil was cast as Tessa on February 25, 2016, and her character was renamed Tahani. On March 3, 2016, Manny Jacinto was revealed to have been cast as a "sweet and good-natured Jason" whose "dream is to make a living as a DJ in Southern Florida." On March 14, 2016, D'Arcy Carden was cast in the final series regular role as Janet Della-Denunzio, a violin salesperson with a checkered past - though the character was completely reworked, she retained her original first name in the series.
The final premise for the show, including the afterlife element, was ultimately announced on May 15, 2016, when NBC announced its schedule for the 2016-17 TV season.
Filming
According to Schur, the premise and idea was to include religious elements into the series after doing research on various faiths and groups, but he decided to scrap the plans, instead going for a concept that included all faiths that was diverse and free of religious views. "I stopped doing research because I realized it's about versions of ethical behavior, not religious salvation," he says. "The show isn't taking a side, the people who are there are from every country and religion." Schur also points out that the setting (shot in San Marino, California's Huntington Gardens) already had the feeling of a pastiche of different cultures, stating that the neighborhoods will feature people who are part of nondenominational and interdenominational backgrounds that interact with each other regardless of religion.
The series' setting and premises, as well as the serialized cliffhangers were modeled on Lost, a favorite of Schur. One of the first people he called when he developed the series was Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. "I took him to lunch and said, 'We're going to play a game [of] 'Is this anything?'" He then added "I imagine this going in the Lost way," with cliffhangers and future storylines".
The first season's surprise twist, that the Good Place was the Bad Place, and Chidi, Eleanor, Jason and Tahani were the four souls chosen because they were best suited to torture each other indefinitely, is very similar in premise to philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's stage play No Exit, in which three strangers die, are escorted to a single room by a friendly bellhop where they are informed they must co-exist together, but ultimately determine they are entirely incompatible and thus come to the conclusion that "hell is other people". The only actors who knew the truth from the start were Danson and Bell.
Critics have also suggested resemblances to 1960s surreal TV show The Prisoner in its isolated, rule-bound setting.
Broadcast and release
Since the start of season two in September 2017, Netflix distributes the show to various international markets with new episodes being released a few hours after their original American airing.
Home media
The first season was released on DVD in region 1 on October 17, 2017.
Reception
Ratings
Critical reception
The Good Place has received positive reviews from television critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a rating of 90%, based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 7.84/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kristen Bell and Ted Danson knock it out of the park with supremely entertaining, charming performances in this absurd, clever and whimsical portrayal of the afterlife." On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 78 out of 100, based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The editors of TV Guide placed The Good Place second among the top ten picks for the most anticipated new shows of the 2016-17 season. In its review from writer Liam Matthews, "NBC's new comedy has an impressive pedigree" (referring to Mike Schur, and stars Kristen Bell and Ted Danson, the latter cited as "arguably the greatest sitcom actor of all time"). Matthews concludes that "The hope is that their combined star power can restore NBC's tarnished comedy brand to its former glory. It won't be the next Friends, but it's something even better: a network comedy that feels different than anything that's come before."
Jason Martin, a critic for Outkick the Coverage, placed The Good Place on his list of best comedies of the year for 2016.
The second season has received highly positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has a rating of 100%, based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 8.62/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "By voluntarily blowing up its premise, The Good Place sets up a second season that proves even funnier than its first." On Metacritic, the second season has a score of 87 out of 100, based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Accolades
References
External links
- Official website
- The Good Place on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments