The Good Place started with a relatively simple premise. Horrible person Eleanor Shellstrop finds herself desperate to remain in The Good Place after discovering there has been a terrible mix-up. To prove herself, Eleanor enlists her soulmate, Chidi, to teach her how to be a good person to prove she belongs. However, over time, the massive season one conclusion revealed that Eleanor was never indeed in danger, as the group of four humans had been in The Bad Place the entire time. Following the reveal, The Good Place sets out on a journey to tell a story about personal growth and development.
The Good Place is a comedy from the moment it starts to its final conclusion, never losing its charm as the series continues. The show found a perfect balance of growing the characters without making them lose elements of their personality while showing organic character development and still making the situations and characters funny. It was never a show that overstayed its welcome as it feels complete with a beginning, middle, and end. While the series finale is emotional, it is so in a good way. One where everyone’s conclusions feel earned and genuine without trying to go over the top in trying to sell jokes in moments they are not needed.
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Discussion of Becoming a Better Person
NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Plenty of sitcoms use a reset button technique, bringing the main characters back to the beginning, previous to any development. The thing about The Good Place is that it does use that technique, but not in the way one would think, and certainly different from others who have ever done it before. Eleanor and Jason work to be better people throughout the show’s first season, having Chidi be their morals and philosophy teacher that can help them earn their spots in The Good Place. Chidi teaches Eleanor and Jason how to be better people, leading to Chidi improving himself. His journey eventually brings him to understand that he can make a decision without self-imploding. Tahani also goes through her own development and deals with much-needed closure with her sister and parents.
The Good Place knows how to reset its characters while still portraying the different ways in which they learn how to become a better person anyway. No matter what Michael does to torture the group, they still end up coming together to improve, showing that they can grow after death. Even when they are rebooted and brought back to life, the four humans still find a way to go on a self-improvement journey and rely on each other. Even though The Good Place is a comedy focusing on people who are arguably not the best versions of themselves, discussing how their hearts may be in the right place and they need a little shove in the right direction is worth it, especially when it becomes their job to prove others are capable of similar development as well in season four.
Unexpected Plot Twists
NBC
The revelation that they had all been in The Bad Place the entire time, and Michael was the demon torturing them, had been the biggest plot twist of the show. It turned the series on its axis as it suddenly became clear that all four humans were being tortured and that Eleanor and Jason’s arrival was not just a horrible accident. However, that was not where the plot twists ended, and even the first season finale came with a second big plot twist when Michael rebooted Eleanor, Jason, Chidi, and Tahani for attempt number two. But Michael was unaware that Eleanor had thought to leave herself a note. The concept that The Good Place could not just keep rebooting the humans when he did so again at the end of the season two premiere was sent right out the window when most of the following episode portrayed a select few of the over 800 attempts Michael had used to try to torture the humans, which all ended in them learning the truth and ending the neighborhood.
Even sending Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason back to Earth was a massive plot twist as Michael wanted to prove that the group could change had they not died when they were initially meant to. On top of that, the actual Good Place was not the grand haven the group believed it would be, as everyone had grown bored with their eternal afterlife. However, The Good Place never loses the jokes in these moments, always finding a way to make it funny. Of course, these are not all light-hearted circumstances, but The Good Place still finds a way to make its biggest plot twists into comical moments.
A Solid Series Finale
Rather than trying to overstuff the series finale with jokes, The Good Place uses the opportunity to take a more serious approach. With a doorway out of existence, the four humans discover that they will notice when their time in The Good Place has ended. Throughout the episode, each of the four realizes when it is time for them to move on. For Jason, it is after playing the perfect game of Madden. But, although he is meant to go through the door, Jason does not actually exit until Janet returns with Chidi, showing Jason’s growth with patience that he never had before. Tahani recognizes her time not as one to leave existence but to participate in building neighborhoods and scenarios that can help people learn to improve, having used her previous experience in perfect party planning.
Chidi’s decision to leave has him initially hesitating because of Eleanor, but their final goodbyes have Eleanor making the selfless decision to let Chidi go. They have had a happy afterlife together, and if he feels he is ready to move on, she will not interrupt. For Eleanor, however, it takes a little longer to be ready to move on. But she does so after undergoing massive character development. Even Michael ends the series on a solid note, getting to experience life on Earth as a human. It is the perfect mix of jokes and emotional undertones as The Good Place finds the ideal way to discuss death and say goodbye to these characters.
