I started watching this yesterday, and by that I mean I'm already 9 episodes in. I was worried during the first episode how it would work as a show because it wasn't immediately clear where the conflict would come in. Then it did. And hoo boy. Ted Danson is amazing in this.
I'm pretty convinced this is all some kind of purgatory put-on for some or all of our characters. Eleanor may have had more work to do, but Chidi (passive and sterile) and Tahani (vain and condescending) also have issues that the good place seems to be working on through their mistaken soul mates
I'm guessing Michael's bumbling aura is just a put-on and everything is happening exactly as he intends.
The explanation for how the Eleanors switched blows up when you realize the same thing must have happened to Jianyu down to the 10-thousandth of a second. If it isn't a lie, then an unknown third party is arranging these on purpose.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I don't know if it was Danson, the writer, or the director who added the touch of him pushing the plant off of the table, but that little detail took me from "Whabuduhuh?" to laughing hard enough that my sides hurt.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
The biggest hint is when Adam Scott says that they have the same clown painting for Eleanor in the bad place.
The real reason no one took it seriously is that the basic premise that there are hundreds of demons playing Truman show for the sake of four people still doesn't make a lot of sense. Especially since it's clear that the humans still have privacy and are only being observed directly, unlike Truman.
I'm pretty convinced this is all some kind of purgatory put-on for some or all of our characters. Eleanor may have had more work to do, but Chidi (passive and sterile) and Tahani (vain and condescending) also have issues that the good place seems to be working on through their mistaken soul mates
I'm guessing Michael's bumbling aura is just a put-on and everything is happening exactly as he intends.
The explanation for how the Eleanors switched blows up when you realize the same thing must have happened to Jianyu down to the 10-thousandth of a second. If it isn't a lie, then an unknown third party is arranging these on purpose.
I was close, but I was really convinced it was purgatory (work on your faults) rather than outright The Bad Place to torture them.
WhiteZinfandelYour insidesLet me show you themRegistered Userregular
I'm not leaning real heavily in this direction, but I had a thought:
What if what's happening right now is Vicki's actual plan? The core 4 being aware of their situation might be even more stressful than the old ignorance in some ways. They have to pretend to be clueless AND good people instead of just pretending to be good people. At the same time, they know full well that they're in hell, surrounded by demons out to get them, and if they screw up their very last chance (or it gets screwed up for them), things can only get much worse. As a side bonus of schadenfreude for Vicki, Michael has to put up with a bunch of bullshit, too.
I'm not leaning real heavily in this direction, but I had a thought:
What if what's happening right now is Vicki's actual plan? The core 4 being aware of their situation might be even more stressful than the old ignorance in some ways. They have to pretend to be clueless AND good people instead of just pretending to be good people. At the same time, they know full well that they're in hell, surrounded by demons out to get them, and if they screw up their very last chance (or it gets screwed up for them), things can only get much worse. As a side bonus of schadenfreude for Vicki, Michael has to put up with a bunch of bullshit, too.
i thought about this last week as well. I don't think it's what's going on, but it's possible.
i think they are too happy while doing this. it's work, but it isn't torture.
Honestly, every episode this season except the decision episode burns through what most shows would use for a big chunk of a season, if not all of it.
With an actor as talented as Danson it would have been so tempting to slowly go his adaptation to a human perspective over multiple episodes, but we came out the other side in just one go.
I'm not leaning real heavily in this direction, but I had a thought:
What if what's happening right now is Vicki's actual plan? The core 4 being aware of their situation might be even more stressful than the old ignorance in some ways. They have to pretend to be clueless AND good people instead of just pretending to be good people. At the same time, they know full well that they're in hell, surrounded by demons out to get them, and if they screw up their very last chance (or it gets screwed up for them), things can only get much worse. As a side bonus of schadenfreude for Vicki, Michael has to put up with a bunch of bullshit, too.
i thought about this last week as well. I don't think it's what's going on, but it's possible.
i think they are too happy while doing this. it's work, but it isn't torture.
I'm not leaning real heavily in this direction, but I had a thought:
What if what's happening right now is Vicki's actual plan? The core 4 being aware of their situation might be even more stressful than the old ignorance in some ways. They have to pretend to be clueless AND good people instead of just pretending to be good people. At the same time, they know full well that they're in hell, surrounded by demons out to get them, and if they screw up their very last chance (or it gets screwed up for them), things can only get much worse. As a side bonus of schadenfreude for Vicki, Michael has to put up with a bunch of bullshit, too.
i thought about this last week as well. I don't think it's what's going on, but it's possible.
i think they are too happy while doing this. it's work, but it isn't torture.
To some people work is torture.
I'd love a job building an actual bear
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited October 2017
on the one hand tahani and jason is cute but on the other hand IT RUINS MY SHIP
Michael's existential meltdown didn't make much sense to me.
He already knew about the possibility of his own demise. It's the whole reason he bothered getting in cahoots with Team Cockroach.
Also they're all literally already in the afterlife. Doesn't that kind of render all of Chidi's philosophical pondering about the nature of life and death moot?
Michael's existential meltdown didn't make much sense to me.
He already knew about the possibility of his own demise. It's the whole reason he bothered getting in cahoots with Team Cockroach.
Also they're all literally already in the afterlife. Doesn't that kind of render all of Chidi's philosophical pondering about the nature of life and death moot?
Eleanor questioning how a millennia old being could be so fragile could be a hint he was just forking with them like when he had a "breakdown" in S1. He presumably can't help himself.
I think when you're in Hell and the best case scenario is ceasing to exist it's reasonable to ponder about life and death.
Michael's existential meltdown didn't make much sense to me.
He already knew about the possibility of his own demise. It's the whole reason he bothered getting in cahoots with Team Cockroach.
Also they're all literally already in the afterlife. Doesn't that kind of render all of Chidi's philosophical pondering about the nature of life and death moot?
Michael's existential meltdown didn't make much sense to me.
He already knew about the possibility of his own demise. It's the whole reason he bothered getting in cahoots with Team Cockroach.
Also they're all literally already in the afterlife. Doesn't that kind of render all of Chidi's philosophical pondering about the nature of life and death moot?
There's a difference between
knowing something and actively thinking about it.
I can totally buy that an immortal being had never taken the time to genuinely contemplate the idea of his life ending. Most humans don't really think about it properly until confronted with it, either, and they tried to show that with Eleanor in this very episode.
Michael's existential meltdown didn't make much sense to me.
He already knew about the possibility of his own demise. It's the whole reason he bothered getting in cahoots with Team Cockroach.
Also they're all literally already in the afterlife. Doesn't that kind of render all of Chidi's philosophical pondering about the nature of life and death moot?
Nope. Chidi's point is that ethics requires a concept that actions have consequences. Chidi now knows hell is real and he currently deserves to be there if something drastic doesn't change.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Michael's existential meltdown didn't make much sense to me.
He already knew about the possibility of his own demise. It's the whole reason he bothered getting in cahoots with Team Cockroach.
Also they're all literally already in the afterlife. Doesn't that kind of render all of Chidi's philosophical pondering about the nature of life and death moot?
Yeah this whole bit really didn't land with me
First, thank god for Hulu because my roomie and I just got caught up and only have to wait a day after live broadcast from here on out. Yay!
Second,
As someone pointed out, knowing you die and thinking about what it means are totally different things. I've known since I was a child I would die but it was such a far-away concept that it never bothered me. Then when I turned 30, I was having waking nightmares frequently about death and what it meant. And my brain wouldn't shut up with thinking about it. I was a total trainwreck and afraid to sleep for almost a year straight. I dunno how I got out of it, but even actively thinking about it now I don't worry anymore. I've gone through the coping phase.
So it makes sense that Michael had that kind of reaction. I mean, obviously comically presented, but it works. An immortal may be aware of their possible specific demise, but the actual threat of it looming on them is different. Because they've gone so long without the consequences.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited October 2017
Oh just to throw out my prediction for the 2nd season finale,
I think all of this, including all the repeat mind wipes and 800+ "tries," are a part of the 2nd attempt. All the stuff about Michael getting blackmailed and such is a load he's concocted.
Henroid on
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I have had
a close brush with death and I can attest that the experience focuses your attention - transfixes you, really - in a way that isn't beep-boop "rational" and has very little to do with the preceding decades+ of adult cognizance of the fact of death.
Everyone who's young is aware of death, but a lot of them will still think, "I'm gonna live forever!" because dying of old age is something that won't happen for a long time. That's why so many young people engage in stupid and behavior.
Then they get older and their bodies don't bounce back like they used to and they start thinking "Holy shit..."
The idea that we can change, morally speaking, in the afterlife, has always been a thought that fascinated me. If you possess consciousness, you possess the capacity for self-improvement. So the cutoff of, “The end of your life on planet earth” most religions impose always seemed kind of arbitrary to me.
The idea that we can change, morally speaking, in the afterlife, has always been a thought that fascinated me. If you possess consciousness, you possess the capacity for self-improvement. So the cutoff of, “The end of your life on planet earth” most religions impose always seemed kind of arbitrary to me.
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The best comedy on TV right now by a mile?
Yeah, I went there.
This should be the entire OP.
I don't think anyone predicted it in this thread, because it wouldn't have blindsided me as much as it did.
There were plenty of people that were poking holes in Tahani and Chidi deserving to be in the Good Place.
I think even if you figured it out Ted Danson delivered that twist in such an epic way you just forgot for a minute
I don't know if it was Danson, the writer, or the director who added the touch of him pushing the plant off of the table, but that little detail took me from "Whabuduhuh?" to laughing hard enough that my sides hurt.
The biggest hint is when Adam Scott says that they have the same clown painting for Eleanor in the bad place.
The real reason no one took it seriously is that the basic premise that there are hundreds of demons playing Truman show for the sake of four people still doesn't make a lot of sense. Especially since it's clear that the humans still have privacy and are only being observed directly, unlike Truman.
I was close, but I was really convinced it was purgatory (work on your faults) rather than outright The Bad Place to torture them.
That laugh, though. That laugh.
Steam: adamjnet
Funniest existential collapse ever.
i thought about this last week as well. I don't think it's what's going on, but it's possible.
wow that bad huh
it's prop choices like that that really make the show special. It could have been anything and the picked the funniest one.
I watched the show knowing the twist, and it got me. That said, how can I resist not liking a show with Kristen Bell and Ted Danson?
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
He already knew about the possibility of his own demise. It's the whole reason he bothered getting in cahoots with Team Cockroach.
Also they're all literally already in the afterlife. Doesn't that kind of render all of Chidi's philosophical pondering about the nature of life and death moot?
I think when you're in Hell and the best case scenario is ceasing to exist it's reasonable to ponder about life and death.
Yeah this whole bit really didn't land with me
Don't really have an explanation for Michael. Maybe it was just Chidi making that thought a little bit chowder now.
There's a difference between
I can totally buy that an immortal being had never taken the time to genuinely contemplate the idea of his life ending. Most humans don't really think about it properly until confronted with it, either, and they tried to show that with Eleanor in this very episode.
Also; Ted Danson can fucking act.
Nope. Chidi's point is that ethics requires a concept that actions have consequences. Chidi now knows hell is real and he currently deserves to be there if something drastic doesn't change.
Second,
So it makes sense that Michael had that kind of reaction. I mean, obviously comically presented, but it works. An immortal may be aware of their possible specific demise, but the actual threat of it looming on them is different. Because they've gone so long without the consequences.
it absolutely rang true for me
Which is perfectly normal.
Everyone who's young is aware of death, but a lot of them will still think, "I'm gonna live forever!" because dying of old age is something that won't happen for a long time. That's why so many young people engage in stupid and behavior.
Then they get older and their bodies don't bounce back like they used to and they start thinking "Holy shit..."