The Good Place: Final Season

So, um, plothole, I think.

Manny Jacinto is ridiculously good looking. I Liked Sean saying it was a good skin suit but they went overboard with the cheekbones.

We've seen it - remember, Team Cockroach has been there a few times. Plus in S1 Janet played a brief snippet of screaming from the Bad Place.

Feels like in the latest episode:

It was so sweet!

(Sap/minor spoiler alert): After it ended my husband turned to me and said "Soulmates aren't found, they're made".

Crossposting from "What are you watching?" because I need to vent

So I simultaneously loved "The Answer" and found it incredibly infuriating. Loved it, because it's a heartfelt exploration of the show's best character and best relationship. Found it infuriating, because that last scene, touching as it is, kind of felt like a slap in the face as someone who likes The Good Place precisely because of Chidi's Kantian bullheadedness and what it represents. Lots of shows can make a relationship between the male and female leads compelling; no other show on television can make the quest to be a good person through judicious application of moral philosophy compelling.

A lot of the criticisms of this season chalk up to "they're retreading the original premise because they're out of ideas," but that doesn't get at the heart of it. Even when the show was burning through its original premise all throughout the second season and a big chunk of the third, it was in service of that inquiry into morals, and how hard it is to be a truly good person in the modern world. Now the show seems intent on reducing that moral criticism to the B-plot in a hangout comedy. And, you know, I like the cast well enough, but that's squandering the premise in a way I'm really not on board with.

Disco Janet was a delight. I particularly liked the Cybertruck ad in one of the Bad Janets’ voids.

The cybertruck also made me realize one thing little thing that’s been getting under my skin this season: every pop culture reference feels about ten years out of date. This makes sense, of course—a lot of the writers probably stopped paying close attention to pop culture around then, which is (I’m guessing) either when they started having to write more-or-less full time or when they turned 30 (and it’s not like this just happens in the culture industry—in every industry almost everyone gets ossified at a certain point). This isn’t something I really noticed before, but it came to the forefront this season since:

1. They had a Perez Hilton character, which is a name that last came to mind around 2011. There are plenty of terrible pop culture obsessed people now, though I guess it’s more atomized so it’s harder to come up with a recognizable example, but surely most people know someone superficial and celebrity-obsessed in a more contemporary way. Hell I’m pretty sure even Perez himself has moved on from his late-aughts habits.

2. I’ve enjoyed the episodes from the morality upticks/Brett-hole on a lot. There’s way less wheel spinning, way more sense of tension, and while I can’t say anything about the philosophical heft of the episodes I’m certainly enjoying them a lot more. But The Judge: oh my is she wearing thin. She taks about binging series as if bingeing were still a thing (or hell, even long series it takes some time to get through, now that pretty much evrything’s truncated at ~three seasons), especially bingeing through prestige cable TV (Timothy Olyfant’s always welcome, but his cameo feels like the only payoff). It’s not just the constant TV jokes, though, but her mannerisms, which feel like they were lifted from one of the lesser performers on Maya Rudolph-era SNL. It just feels so stale, the unironic gusto just makes it worse. It worked in small doses, and there was enough seriousness to the role of The Judge to give it heft, but that balance has been totally disturbed here.

Anyway that’s not getting in the way of my enjoying those episodes, but I just noticed what was bothering about the tone and needed to get it out of my head.

I’ve enjoyed the episodes from the morality upticks/Brett-hole on a lot. There’s way less wheel spinning, way more sense of tension, and while I can’t say anything about the philosophical heft of the episodes I’m certainly enjoying them a lot more. But The Judge: oh my is she wearing thin. She taks about binging series as if bingeing were still a thing (or hell, even long series it takes some time to get through, now that pretty much evrything’s truncated at ~three seasons), especially bingeing through prestige cable TV (Timothy Olyfant’s always welcome, but his cameo feels like the only payoff). It’s not just the constant TV jokes, though, but her mannerisms, which feel like they were lifted from one of the lesser performers on Maya Rudolph-era SNL. It just feels so stale, the unironic gusto just makes it worse. It worked in small doses, and there was enough seriousness to the role of The Judge to give it heft, but that balance has been totally disturbed here.

I was happy for more Raylan, and Olyphant killed it playing Raylan for laughs, but it did feel dated. Crazy, but Justified ended damn near 5 years ago now. Find a newer show to reference, show!

I have mixed feeling on Maya Rudolph. Like you said, she is great in small doses, but that really is about it. I can't think of a main role she has done where I really loved what she was doing, and those larger roles tended to feel like she was just playing herself.