Yahoo News How to make The Good Place really good again
Don't get us wrong, we forking love The Good Place. It's the shirt. And we're totally stoked for season three. But even fans have to admit the first half of season two (we're on a mid-season break right now, so only half has been aired) was starting to tread water very slightly.
SPOILERS FOR THE GOOD PLACE SEASONS ONE AND TWO FOLLOW
Season 1 was a heavenly bubble of perfection – a genius premise (girl dies, wakes up in heaven, realises she's not meant to be there), perfectly structured (every episode ending with a shock or a cliffhanger making it pretty much impossible to switch off) with a fantastic cast lead by Kristen Bell's brilliantly amoral Eleanor.
This was a comedy structured like a thriller, packed with existential philosophy, and all squeezed into 20-odd minute episodes. And then of course came that "Holy forking shirt!" moment where the rug was pulled out from under us. What a moment! What a climax! What a forking show!
Which did leave us wondering where they could possible take us in season two (though of course we'd be along for the ride). Season two is good. It's funny and it's clever and it's inventive. But largely because of that amazing WTF plot twist at the end of season one, it's veering slightly towards the generic.
Our four protagonists (Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto) have had their memories wiped so they don't remember any of the events of season one, for starters.
The characters have now been (somewhat) paired off into two heterosexual couples (three if you count Janet (D'Arcy Carden) and the boyfriend she created, Derek) plus Ted Danson's Michael, while the rest of the supporting cast are hardly in it at all since they're supposed to think the four leads are still in the dark. It's still head and shoulders above so many sitcoms out there, but with a whole new season incoming there are going to need to be some changes. Here's how The Good Place can be heavenly once again.
1. No more memory wipes!
At the end of the first half of season two, Michael's boss Shawn (Marc Evan Jackson) arrives in Michael's office with an ominous "Shut the door. Have a seat…" Has Michael's deception been discovered? It would seem likely. If so though, what we definitely don't want is any more memory wipes.
This was a smart plot device at the start of the season – we get why it was necessary, but by removing the relationships we'd watched grow and unfold over season one it was hard not to feel a bit… if not cheated, then certainly disappointed. We can't go through that again.
Fortunately, we trust the showrunners not to go there.
2. Expand the world
In season one the other residents of the Good Place (or what we thought was the Good Place) added some extra humour and quirk, but now we know they're all playing roles to torture Eleanor and the others, they barely feature.
Not surprising since it's impossible to give them any character development in scenes with the humans. It means they're all rather one-dimensional. We know they are demons who exist only to torture dead souls. Other than that they're pretty much interchangeable.
For a while the character formerly known as 'Real Eleanor' (Tiya Sircar) was given some extra screen time and a personality when we discovered that she's actually an ambitious demon called Vicky, but with the restriction on who she can interact with it just didn't work and she faded into the background again.
Therefore in season two there are essentially just six characters – Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, Jason, Janet and Michael – and it's starting feel a bit too much like supernatural Friends. We need some outsiders.
3. Like, who were those guys from the Bad Place?
In season one episode eight, a train arrives from The Bad Place bringing with it Trevor (Adam Scott) and a load of his Bad Place cohorts who threaten to take Eleanor back to The Bad Place. It's a brilliant episode, which also introduces 'Real Eleanor'.
Of course, none of that stuff was real, as we now know, but we haven't seen 'Trevor' or his gang since. Who are they? Are they working in a different bit of the Bad Place? Are they office workers? Friends of Michael? We're hoping to see these guys again.
4. The other places
We'll be careful what we wish for but… It might be cool to hear a bit more about the *actual* Good Place. And also the other parts of the Bad Place.
We're not advocating a full-on expanded universe – it's basically impossible to imagine true perfect happiness or indeed perfect despair (not to go all Chidi here, but that's part of the whole human condition), which is why the show works so wonderfully, but we would like to at least know more, even if we can't take a look.
5. It's good to be bad
While we appreciate The Good Place for its general pleasant nature, we do kind of miss bad Eleanor and evil Michael. Everyone's becoming too damn sympathetic – The Good Place needs its edge back. Janet is becoming too human-like, Michael is becoming too… well, also human-like, while Jason has become less the terrible, hilarious, deluded, small-time crook and more the loveable imbecile.
But most of all we miss naughty Eleanor. We miss her selfishness and shamelessness and outrageousness – we preferred her when she was a bit more… well, human-like.
6. Flashbacks!
On that note – while we get that her arc is from total Bench to enlightened soul, but we'd still love a few more flashbacks to when she was alive and terrible. Same goes for Jason, Chidi and Tahani – these guys are in the Bad Place, so we'd love to see more of their flaws.
7. Dial down the romance
Chidi and Eleanor's on-again-off-again is a big part of the plot – in one iteration they are in love, but in the current one, he doesn't love her back. That's fine. But Tahani and Jason need to knock it off. Yes, the mis-matched couple thing has comedy value, but once they were actually supposed to be in love with each other, well this doesn't feel like 'The Bad Place' at all.
It's all a bit too nice. Hell, we wish we could be condemned to eternal damnation if it means a great big house and no money worries and the chance to fall in love with our soulmate, get married, etc, etc…
8. The Mindy project
There's also the 'Medium Place' issue to contend with. The Medium Place has (as far as we're aware) just one inhabitant, Mindy St Clair, who exists in a loophole between good and bad. Eleanor and Chidi escape there – repeatedly, in different iterations due to memory-wipe business – and each time they decide to return to The Good Place, which is in fact The Bad Place, but they of course don't know that, because their consciences get the better of them.
However now the truth is out, they don't actually need to feel bad for hanging out in The Medium Place. Why not head over there? More Mindy please.
9. Let's twist again
This might be a lot to ask for but the constant twists, reveals and cliffhangers of season one were an absolute joy. If the clever forkers in the writers room can pull off anything close to as clever as that for the third season, we'll be over the moon.
Here's the cast learning about that twist for the first time: enjoy!
The second half of The Good Place season 2 airs on January 4, 2018. We'd expect to see season three in September 2018.
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