The way the janets are just... standing there letting Gem marblize them is also kinda horrifying. Also possible extra horror: is that... it? for the janets? Or just the ones who made it there?
Also, someone give Darcy multiple acting awards already, come on!
Gen closed and locked the door so no more Janets could get in.
So other than the wonderful sight gag and opportunity for D'arcy Carden to show off her rollerskate skills, is there a reason for Roller Disco Janet? I kinda feel like if they were going to expand beyond Good/Neutral/Bad Janet, they should've had more than just that one.
So other than the wonderful sight gag and opportunity for D'arcy Carden to show off her rollerskate skills, is there a reason for Roller Disco Janet? I kinda feel like if they were going to expand beyond Good/Neutral/Bad Janet, they should've had more than just that one.
It was an earlier reference
Michael had mentioned at one point about different Janets, and one of them was Disco Janet. "She was a lot of fun." I don't remember which episode it was.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Just feel the need to point out that Chidi already called this episode:
"If you live forever then ethics don't matter to you, because, basically, there's no consequences to your actions. You tell a lie, who cares? Wait a few trillion years the guilt will fade."
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couldn't bring herself to properly eulogize Chidi in the moment, but when it came time to actually make the case for why he is the one who would have the best idea of how to go about designing a fair system, she's able to beautifully state all of his best qualities.
I'm trying to speculate on
what kind of system Chidi would design. I feel like it would be a hard sell to talk Gen out of points altogether, but having people penalized for choices beyond their control hardly seems fair. Maybe it will take into account what people are capable of knowing, which lessons they learn from their mistakes, and how many chances to improve they take/let pass. It might also take into considerations the living conditions of the person - like, if in the current system it's always negative points to feed your children junk instead of a healthy meal, the new system would make allowances if the parent lives in a food desert or has to work too many hours to have time to prepare that healthy meal. Maybe the employer who doesn't pay their employees a living wage also takes on the consequences of those employees' inability to make Good choices.
I'll have to rewatch the scene where they compare a person getting his mother(?) flowers several hundred years ago vs now and how the associated points changed. Intentions should matter to a point. Maybe Chidi's anxiety about the almond milk will still be correct because he knew full well in life all the problems with almonds. But maybe a limit on the number of step removed from the harm could come into it, with each step reducing the point impact until it is zero. Or maybe it matter what you're choosing between - someone who can choose either cow's milk or almond milk is different from oat milk vs almond milk. Generally more nuance, I think, would be the way to go if you kept the point system.
I also really like the idea that
at least borderline cases, if not every person flagged for the Bad Place, could have a year in the Medium Place to see if they can improve. It really seems like they might even go so far as to advocate for the abolition of the Bad Place. Or maybe its role could change from permanent torture to a kind of rehabilitation until people are ready to move on to the Medium and eventually Good Place.
Fantastic episode overall, my confidence that they will stick the landing has been renewed!
...and just like that, the show redeemed what's commonly thought of as the worst batch of episodes.
Namely, when the soul squad was on Earth, they found out about the afterlife, and they dedicated themselves to improving other people -- specifically, their families and friends.
True, you can say that this segment had little to do with the overall plot, and some have argued that the redemptions weren't really necessary. (I'd disagree, but whatever.) And that the whole thing was just wheel spinning until the weirdness kicked back in.
But I was thinking about this segment a couple weeks ago, and how it felt like a dry run for this season. The new experiment had the soul squad trying to improve the life of strangers to save humanity. But that might be a little jarring or overly difficult if it were the first time they tried to do that. So, they first try their hands at people they know. It's lower stakes, it's familiar, it's a fantastic ramp up to saving the new subjects. And it bolsters Michael's case! Granted this could be a happy accident, but I think it fits together well.
....I mean, with the result of fully dooming humanity.
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minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
Those are some of my favorite episodes.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
Four more episodes. Four! When it seems like there's only one episode of material left, max! Holy shit, this show. The two month hiatus is going to be torture!
....holy forking shirtballs.
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WACriminalDying Is Easy, Young ManLiving Is HarderRegistered Userregular
I don't think that I can handle this show right now -- the existential dread that set in for me in real life when
Off tangent but theres a very long kinda weird ad for bras in the latest office lady podcast and Id listened to it before this episode which was a weird semi deja vu
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
I like how they're playing with how many episodes they have left. Michael going "and all that in 45 minutes" is exactly the 2 episodes left before the holiday season. But we know they're going to do a special triple episode in 2020 (followed by a cast interview).
So my expectation is that Chidi and gang do come up with a new system and the show ends there. Then the 2020 episodes are going to check in on all of them as a victory lap. Just like the 7th season of Parks and Rec.
A fairer afterlife:
If they still want a point system, but recognize that it is inherently unfair to punish someone for infinity over something they did for a finite amount of time, then I can only think of reincarnation. It would be interesting to me to introduce some eastern philosophers into the mix.
Make the point system apply to afterlife workers as well.
Complete lack of empathy would presumably be a substantial negative value, so the Judge would be in trouble for this last episode.
Petitioning for a remake of Ally McBeal might be even worse.
We'd end up with an/all Janet(s) as the Ultimate Authority.
Also they have to address that the Angels demons and accountants arent nuanced but humans are.
The system is hurting them too by forcing them to be one thing
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I wonder if they'll address the fact that infinite reward for a finite amount of good is no more just than infinite punishment for a finite amount of bad.
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I wonder if they'll address the fact that infinite reward for a finite amount of good is no more just than infinite punishment for a finite amount of bad.
Life isn't fair, why should death be?
More seriously, those aren't equivalent to start with. And there's nothing saying one person can't be moved around is there? No one has tried? Even if it can't be done now in the broken system one of them will have to think of it after Mr. 1%.
Saying infinite reward/punishment is unjust would be a problem when the supermajority of America would very much disagree
Depends how you phrase the question. Infinite reward for that guy I don't like? I don't like the sound of that.
Infinite punishment for that guy I like? That doesn't sound fair.
Infinite punishment for me? Extremely against that, I mean it was only the one arson, it's not like it was a habit.
Infinite reward for me and the people I like sounds pretty good, though.
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It was an earlier reference
"If you live forever then ethics don't matter to you, because, basically, there's no consequences to your actions. You tell a lie, who cares? Wait a few trillion years the guilt will fade."
If it’s true that every neighborhood in the Good Place is specifically tailored to its residents...
But that only works logically if people from that era made it into the Good Place. Which we know they didn't. And haven't since the late 15th century.
So... unless people from no later than the middle ages had a passion for disco and rollerskates, it doesn't make much sense.
But I don't care, because it's funny, and don't think it needs an explanation.
Their souls were disco, even if they didn't know it yet.
I mean disco janet may have been a form of torture for many a soul in the bad place as well.
Disco is timeless, baby
The Home Depot bit had me dying.
I'm trying to speculate on
I'll have to rewatch the scene where they compare a person getting his mother(?) flowers several hundred years ago vs now and how the associated points changed. Intentions should matter to a point. Maybe Chidi's anxiety about the almond milk will still be correct because he knew full well in life all the problems with almonds. But maybe a limit on the number of step removed from the harm could come into it, with each step reducing the point impact until it is zero. Or maybe it matter what you're choosing between - someone who can choose either cow's milk or almond milk is different from oat milk vs almond milk. Generally more nuance, I think, would be the way to go if you kept the point system.
I also really like the idea that
Fantastic episode overall, my confidence that they will stick the landing has been renewed!
True, you can say that this segment had little to do with the overall plot, and some have argued that the redemptions weren't really necessary. (I'd disagree, but whatever.) And that the whole thing was just wheel spinning until the weirdness kicked back in.
But I was thinking about this segment a couple weeks ago, and how it felt like a dry run for this season. The new experiment had the soul squad trying to improve the life of strangers to save humanity. But that might be a little jarring or overly difficult if it were the first time they tried to do that. So, they first try their hands at people they know. It's lower stakes, it's familiar, it's a fantastic ramp up to saving the new subjects. And it bolsters Michael's case! Granted this could be a happy accident, but I think it fits together well.
....I mean, with the result of fully dooming humanity.
....holy forking shirtballs.
was unexpectedly intense, LOL.
Did you try?
It's remarkable they knew every question Id ask.
Off tangent but theres a very long kinda weird ad for bras in the latest office lady podcast and Id listened to it before this episode which was a weird semi deja vu
So my expectation is that Chidi and gang do come up with a new system and the show ends there. Then the 2020 episodes are going to check in on all of them as a victory lap. Just like the 7th season of Parks and Rec.
A fairer afterlife:
Petitioning for a remake of Ally McBeal might be even worse.
We'd end up with an/all Janet(s) as the Ultimate Authority.
The system is hurting them too by forcing them to be one thing
Life isn't fair, why should death be?
More seriously, those aren't equivalent to start with. And there's nothing saying one person can't be moved around is there? No one has tried? Even if it can't be done now in the broken system one of them will have to think of it after Mr. 1%.
Infinite punishment for that guy I like? That doesn't sound fair.
Infinite punishment for me? Extremely against that, I mean it was only the one arson, it's not like it was a habit.
Infinite reward for me and the people I like sounds pretty good, though.
Especially in the framework of being good enough to get in.
It is explained, by
If points can be earned in the afterlife, then move people around like in online matchmaking
This episode should be graded on a Bell curve.
Should be graded on the Jamil curve. Even Eleanor would admit that there are more of them.
Tahani would find that scale flattering and vaguely problematic.
Maybe that version of Janet really got into disco.
Eleanor is the only person in the show that has had to deal with regular ass 9-5 shit job purgatory life.
I’m sure Jason had a normal job or two until he got fired for robbing/setting fire to the place.