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Okay, I think I've caught up enough to comment...
1. No, Not the Led Zeppelin Song
In the period around World War Two, there were a lot of movies about people dying "before their time" and petitioning Heaven for a second chance at life. Usually, it was the screwup of an apprentice angel who wasn't good at his job, and our hero would take his case to the celestial courts and win his second chance. (My favorite of these movies is 1946's "A Matter of Life and Death," better known in the states as "Stairway to Heaven.")
I guess in that tumultuous era, people needed to know that the universe still made sense, that even if there was a glitch, there were reasonable beings who could sort things out to everyone's satisfaction.
I see "The Good Place" as the spiritual heir to these classic fantasies, but with one crucial difference: the cosmic system determining our heroes' fate never worked right in the first place.
2. The Fork in the Road
I haven't been watching since the beginning, so I didn't have the pleasure of getting hit with the big switcheroo at the end of Season 1. But in the end, that startling revelation didn't change the game that much. Either way, Eleanor and company were frightened of eternal damnation; and either way, we in the audience didn't think our heroes belonged in that neighborhood, be it Heaven or Hell.
Yes, in life, Eleanor was a selfish asshole; Tahani was a shallow, name-dropping celebutante, Chidi a vacillating stick-in-the-mud and Jason a clod. But none of these people seemed to be evil enough for Hell or truly good enough for Heaven. The point system for entry into the Good Place is a shockingly superficial and inadequate means of determining someone's eternal fate. Just like bureaucracies here on Earth, The Good Place's celestial spheres are ruled by functionaries who have lost touch with the needs of their constituents.
If the only roads available to the recently deceased don't lead to an appropriate destination, then a new path is needed. That's where Michael's experiment comes in.
3. "Le Paradis est Les Autres"
Michael's revolutionary experiment in torture isn't so revolutionary; Jean Paul Sartre did the same thing in "No Exit"--set up a select group of mismatched personalities, trap them in a closed environment, watch them drive each other nuts.... forever. What was utterly diabolical about Michael's neighborhood is that it's almost pleasant. You feel you could be happy there, even with these irritating people, but you also feel it isn't quite right. It's like wearing the most beautiful clothes, but having a slight itch under your skin.... forever.
But what Michael didn't anticipate (and this is the interesting reversal the series throws in) is that if Hell is other people, Heaven can be other people, too. It's no coincidence that all of the other people in the Bad Place are being tortured in isolation. Alone, cut off from any contact with others, they are frozen as they were in life, unable to react to another person, unable to change. Michael's neighborhood allows the residents to interact and introduces the possibility of change. Almost immediately, the interaction among our four protagonists begins to produce small, positive changes in their behavior. Over the course of two seasons, these small changes snowball into (after)life-altering transformations for every character (well, maybe not Jason).
Eleanor learns that the raw deal she had growing up isn't an excuse for her crappy behavior, and by the end of S2 she is willing to give up the Good Place for her friends. Chidi realizes that his Kantian moral absolutism has been his way of avoiding decisions. (Kissing Eleanor was probably his first spontaneous action as an adult.) Tahani finally realizes that her rivalry with her sister poisoned every aspect of her life. (Jason?...um, let's say he's a work in progress.)
But that's nothing compared to the changes in our resident celestial beings. Janet evolves from a quasi-sentient Siri-like automaton into a delightful, one-of-a-kind multidimensional being, capable of kindness, compassion and love. And Michael? In the space of six(!) episodes, he changes from a cackling demonic overlord into a cosmic rebel, ready to overturn the system he served for untold millennia.
I don't know if Michael Schur intended it, but in a way, the show's frame of reference has shifted from a Western viewpoint to something closer to Eastern philosophy. The universe of The Good Place is not static and unchanging; it is in a state of constant change, with everyone in it a part of that change. (Each person is part of the whole, and the whole is embodied in each person. Heaven and Hell are both contained within.) And with our scrappy quartet returning to their earthly bodies--literally "re-incarnated"--the shift becomes obvious.
4. I (Don't) Have a Theory
The internet is buzzing with theories about the series' next moves and its endgame, and some of these are beauties: what if all of this is a test for Michael, with the other four as instruments of his evolution? Is Janet just Michael's loyal assistant and (sniff) BFF, or is she a higher Higher Power overseeing the whole operation? Is all of this Eleanor's delusion brought on by neurological dysfunction (which would kind of bring it back to "Stairway to Heaven")?
I don't buy any of these (for various reasons) and I'm not interested in keeping one step ahead of the writers, anyway. For one thing, Schur, Drew Goddard and their staff have been great at concealing their twists and you can hurt your brain trying to outguess them. But mostly, now that I'm here, I want to sit back and enjoy the ride without worrying about spoilers. (I guess I learned my lesson from Buffy.)
5. Random Notes
* With all this deeeep philosophizing, you can almost forget how forking funny this show is. Michael's initial solution to the Trolley Problem (complete with diagram) had me laughing for a solid minute. And, of course, watching Chidi get splashed with gore will never NOT be funny.
* Then, a few episodes later, Michael tells Eleanor the real solution to the Trolley Problem, and I'm awed by the callback and choked up at the same time. Well done, show.
* In case you hadn't guessed from the rest of this essay, I'm not into Manny Jacinto's Jason as much as the rest of the characters. Why is he catnip to Tahani and Janet? Is it a "Being There" thing, where the women project their desires onto his near-total emptiness?
* I never saw the "Derek" episodes. Were they good? I found Jason Mantzoukas almost impossible to take on Brooklyn Nine Nine and I wonder if he was any better here.
* Season Three starts in six days. I think they've barely scratched the surface of these characters. They have plenty of room to grow. Can't wait.
1. No, Not the Led Zeppelin Song
In the period around World War Two, there were a lot of movies about people dying "before their time" and petitioning Heaven for a second chance at life. Usually, it was the screwup of an apprentice angel who wasn't good at his job, and our hero would take his case to the celestial courts and win his second chance. (My favorite of these movies is 1946's "A Matter of Life and Death," better known in the states as "Stairway to Heaven.")
I guess in that tumultuous era, people needed to know that the universe still made sense, that even if there was a glitch, there were reasonable beings who could sort things out to everyone's satisfaction.
I see "The Good Place" as the spiritual heir to these classic fantasies, but with one crucial difference: the cosmic system determining our heroes' fate never worked right in the first place.
2. The Fork in the Road
I haven't been watching since the beginning, so I didn't have the pleasure of getting hit with the big switcheroo at the end of Season 1. But in the end, that startling revelation didn't change the game that much. Either way, Eleanor and company were frightened of eternal damnation; and either way, we in the audience didn't think our heroes belonged in that neighborhood, be it Heaven or Hell.
Yes, in life, Eleanor was a selfish asshole; Tahani was a shallow, name-dropping celebutante, Chidi a vacillating stick-in-the-mud and Jason a clod. But none of these people seemed to be evil enough for Hell or truly good enough for Heaven. The point system for entry into the Good Place is a shockingly superficial and inadequate means of determining someone's eternal fate. Just like bureaucracies here on Earth, The Good Place's celestial spheres are ruled by functionaries who have lost touch with the needs of their constituents.
If the only roads available to the recently deceased don't lead to an appropriate destination, then a new path is needed. That's where Michael's experiment comes in.
3. "Le Paradis est Les Autres"
Michael's revolutionary experiment in torture isn't so revolutionary; Jean Paul Sartre did the same thing in "No Exit"--set up a select group of mismatched personalities, trap them in a closed environment, watch them drive each other nuts.... forever. What was utterly diabolical about Michael's neighborhood is that it's almost pleasant. You feel you could be happy there, even with these irritating people, but you also feel it isn't quite right. It's like wearing the most beautiful clothes, but having a slight itch under your skin.... forever.
But what Michael didn't anticipate (and this is the interesting reversal the series throws in) is that if Hell is other people, Heaven can be other people, too. It's no coincidence that all of the other people in the Bad Place are being tortured in isolation. Alone, cut off from any contact with others, they are frozen as they were in life, unable to react to another person, unable to change. Michael's neighborhood allows the residents to interact and introduces the possibility of change. Almost immediately, the interaction among our four protagonists begins to produce small, positive changes in their behavior. Over the course of two seasons, these small changes snowball into (after)life-altering transformations for every character (well, maybe not Jason).
Eleanor learns that the raw deal she had growing up isn't an excuse for her crappy behavior, and by the end of S2 she is willing to give up the Good Place for her friends. Chidi realizes that his Kantian moral absolutism has been his way of avoiding decisions. (Kissing Eleanor was probably his first spontaneous action as an adult.) Tahani finally realizes that her rivalry with her sister poisoned every aspect of her life. (Jason?...um, let's say he's a work in progress.)
But that's nothing compared to the changes in our resident celestial beings. Janet evolves from a quasi-sentient Siri-like automaton into a delightful, one-of-a-kind multidimensional being, capable of kindness, compassion and love. And Michael? In the space of six(!) episodes, he changes from a cackling demonic overlord into a cosmic rebel, ready to overturn the system he served for untold millennia.
I don't know if Michael Schur intended it, but in a way, the show's frame of reference has shifted from a Western viewpoint to something closer to Eastern philosophy. The universe of The Good Place is not static and unchanging; it is in a state of constant change, with everyone in it a part of that change. (Each person is part of the whole, and the whole is embodied in each person. Heaven and Hell are both contained within.) And with our scrappy quartet returning to their earthly bodies--literally "re-incarnated"--the shift becomes obvious.
4. I (Don't) Have a Theory
The internet is buzzing with theories about the series' next moves and its endgame, and some of these are beauties: what if all of this is a test for Michael, with the other four as instruments of his evolution? Is Janet just Michael's loyal assistant and (sniff) BFF, or is she a higher Higher Power overseeing the whole operation? Is all of this Eleanor's delusion brought on by neurological dysfunction (which would kind of bring it back to "Stairway to Heaven")?
I don't buy any of these (for various reasons) and I'm not interested in keeping one step ahead of the writers, anyway. For one thing, Schur, Drew Goddard and their staff have been great at concealing their twists and you can hurt your brain trying to outguess them. But mostly, now that I'm here, I want to sit back and enjoy the ride without worrying about spoilers. (I guess I learned my lesson from Buffy.)
5. Random Notes
* With all this deeeep philosophizing, you can almost forget how forking funny this show is. Michael's initial solution to the Trolley Problem (complete with diagram) had me laughing for a solid minute. And, of course, watching Chidi get splashed with gore will never NOT be funny.
* Then, a few episodes later, Michael tells Eleanor the real solution to the Trolley Problem, and I'm awed by the callback and choked up at the same time. Well done, show.
* In case you hadn't guessed from the rest of this essay, I'm not into Manny Jacinto's Jason as much as the rest of the characters. Why is he catnip to Tahani and Janet? Is it a "Being There" thing, where the women project their desires onto his near-total emptiness?
* I never saw the "Derek" episodes. Were they good? I found Jason Mantzoukas almost impossible to take on Brooklyn Nine Nine and I wonder if he was any better here.
* Season Three starts in six days. I think they've barely scratched the surface of these characters. They have plenty of room to grow. Can't wait.
