You'll stand by my side no matter what.
Right?
Of course I will.
Good.
Because those aren't my memories.
I wasn't a lawyer.
I'm not supposed to be here.
This is The Good Place, a show that
marries deeper concepts of ethics and philosophy
with some ridiculous and at times absurd comedy.
No!
The pilot episode is about Eleanor Shellstrop, played
by Kristen Bell, exploring a heaven-like Good Place
after her death, eventually realizing
she's there by mistake.
She then has to figure out how to keep this mistake a secret
and stay in the afterlife by becoming a better person,
or else be banished to a hell-like Bad Place.
Different episodes of The Good Place
might feel perfect for different reasons,
but the season one finale takes the cake
because it encapsulates how The Good Place masterfully subverts
expectations.
Holy mother forking shirt balls.
The Good Place had a four season run on NBC from 2016 to 2020.
It won a Peabody Award, four Hugo Awards,
and was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards.
Creator Mike Schur was no stranger to NBC.
He was a writer on Saturday Night Live from 1997 to 2004,
then moved on to write The Office
and eventually went on to co-create Parks and Recreation
and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which, yes, originally aired on Fox,
but whose final few seasons aired on NBC.
OK.
Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
No doubt.
Schur was able to land a 13 episode deal for The Good Place
based on just a concept pitch alone.
The season one finale was notably praised for its twist
ending that left audiences and cast members alike
with their jaws on the floor.
They're never going to call a train
to take us to the Bad Place, because we're already here.
This is the Bad Place.
The ending actually wasn't revealed to the cast
until it was time to film the episode.
Oh!
Schur was always writing at least one season ahead.
He had the whole first season mapped out
before they began filming, then while filming season one,
they mapped out the entire second season.
This planning is essential when establishing expectations
and then subverting them.
He always knew exactly where they
were going while still leaving the room for the actors
to play and improvise jokes.
As they were writing, he would constantly
be asking "how long does this show merit
being on television," and as they started mapping out
the fourth season, he knew it would be the last.
I hate to see you walk through the final door
at the edge of existence, but I love to watch you leave.
There we go.
Comedy functions off of expectations and subversion.
Doing or seeing something unexpected results
in funny situations.
A clash of contexts or an inappropriate response
is subverting our expectations and making us laugh.
Think about a bull working behind the counter in a China
shop, for example.
Mike Schur said that "the best ending to a story
is at once inevitable and surprising."
That was the only way it could have happened,
and yet the audience didn't see it coming.
No, this doesn't make any sense.
His goal for every episode and every season of every show
he writes is to end that way.
Standing precariously at a fork in the road.
One major influence, David Foster Wallace's book Infinite
Jest, inspired Schur's work.
Schur has said "nothing terrifies comedy writers more
than heartfelt emotion."
Wallace's entire body of work was an attempt
to reconcile jokes, postmodern games,
and coolness, which he admittedly
loved and reveled in with what he saw
was the most basic job of writing--
to make the reader feel something,
to make them feel like they are not alone in the world.
These emotional elements as well as
the major twist in Infinite Jest are clear influences
of The Good Place.
Each character is confronted by the consequences of a lifetime
of choices in this episode.
Our characters are faced with a dilemma of choosing someone
to go to the Bad Place with a 30 minute timer set.
Under the pressure of making this tough decision,
Jason, played by Manny Jacinto, displays
surprising intelligence and character
growth by introducing this episode's
philosophical concept.
It's basic consequentialism.
The morality of an action is solely
judged on its consequences.
Throughout the season, both the characters and audience alike
believe that Tahani, played by Jameela Jamil, and Chidi,
played by William Jackson Harper,
belong in the Good Place.
When it is revealed that they are just
as bad as Jason and Eleanor, it subverts our expectations
and ends up being pretty satisfying.
You hurt everyone in your life with your rigidity
and your indecisiveness.
Oh, fork.
The season one finale opens with a flashback to Michael,
played by Ted Danson, being promoted to architect,
written to maintain the audience's belief that he
is good.
I'm going to work so hard.
My design is going to be absolutely perfect.
Creator Mike Schur always admired Ted Danson
for his comedy in Cheers, but we get
to see some of his more nuanced acting
chops and subtleties shine in this episode.
Michael's face is unfamiliar and icy.
Our first hint that he might not be who we thought.
The writers used intentional dialogue throughout the episode
to build up to the twist.
Every line in the flashbacks to Michael is vague,
but it's so subtle that the audience is never
suspicious of him, the writers hinting but never
showing their cards until the time is right.
Oh, man!
I can't believe you figured it out!
Humans are constantly growing, changing,
and are surprising Michael.
The moment Eleanor confesses, the moment
she realizes it's the Bad Place, when
Jason and Janet fall in love.
These are all moments showing that humans are constantly
unpredictable, both to Michael's chagrin and to his delight.
Humans are so challenging that by the end of the series,
Michael loves them so much he wants to be human.
I'm going to be--
--a real boy, Pinocchio.
Michael throughout the series is always
wanting to make things better, whether he
creates the best Bad Place or creates
the perfect Good Place like he does in the season four finale.
He is written so consistently in his personality
while still growing as a character
and becoming the best Michael he can be.
Ya basic.
It's devastating.
You're devastated right now.
The writers are perfectly setting up
Michael's transformation in this season one
finale so that his character growth from antagonist
to protagonist is extra rewarding.
Each flashback, whether to the architect planning sessions
or to moments we knew from earlier in the season,
set us up beautifully for the rest of the series.
Getting to know the Bad Place architects,
getting to add more context to familiar moments,
allow the audience over and over again
to say "this all makes sense now."
Whether foreshadowing or deja vu, much of the season one
finale is beautifully mirrored with the season four finale.
Jason and Janet are in love, Chidi and Eleanor's feelings
are growing for one another, and Jason
is the first to say goodbye before moving
on to the next chapter of the afterlife.
More mirroring is seen in the interruptions
from the real Eleanor in season one
and our Eleanor in season four with the same goal in mind.
Chidi can never leave.
I proposed a rule that Chidis shouldn't
be allowed to leave because it would make Eleanors sad.
And I could do this forever, and I'd still
never find the justification for getting you to stay.
The season one finale ends as the series began--
a close up of Eleanor's eyes being
back in that waiting room, seeing everything is great.
But now we know that it isn't.
We can see Michael's smug face and dark eyes.
We don't trust him anymore, and we're worried for Eleanor
and anxious to start the next season.
The writers fit in so much detail
in such a succinct, consumable way,
setting us up for the entirety of the show.
The twist of realizing Michael is the antagonist
is such a gut punch that makes the payoff
of his inevitable and surprising goodness
by the end of the series so rewarding.
Mike Schur has said that his favorite themes to write
are "people need each other to be happy,"
"communities are important," and "nobody achieves anything
alone."
You can see these themes in all of the shows he's
written on and created, But The Good Place especially
embraces these concepts, frequently
showcasing deep poignant emotion tied to thought provoking
philosophies, beautifully written human relationships,
and all balanced by surprising, expectation subverting humor.
And well, that's all we have this week.
Is there anything we missed?
Let us know in the comments below.
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