[7.0/10] It occurred to me while watching this episode that The Good Place feels surprisingly like another, far more down-to-earth show -- Orange Is the New Black. Both feature a collection of people from different walks of life, thrown together and trying to make it work in a new environment, with episodic flashbacks to give you insight into their lives and explain how they got there.
That’s clearest in Tahani’s B-story here. The whole “my parents liked my sibling better” is trite and done in a broad way, but it at least gives us some hints as to what motivates Tahani. The ranking thing was a little too literal way to explain her motivation for doing good, and her sister’s accomplishments were a bit too over the top, as was her parents’ disregard for her. But there were some cute moment and again, it’s nice to see the show humanizing an otherwise seemingly perfect character.
The A-story with Eleanor and Chidi was pretty broad too. I like the idea that there’s friction and exhaustion between the two of them having to spend so much time together, but including a marriage counselor and body language expert into the equation is too convenient, with too many generic sitcom-y conflicts like “she never washes the dishes!”
Still, like Michael Schur’s prior show, Parks and Rec, it gets the emotions of the story right which goes a long way. As with Tahani, it deepens and humanizes Chidi to learn that not only is he worn out from having to spend his time in paradise teaching Eleanor, but that her being there keeps him from finding his real soulmate, something he never came close to on Earth. It’s a character beat that makes the nerdy, reserved Chidi feel more real, and creates emotional stakes rather than just the standard sitcom skirmishes for the story.
(Wild theory time:[spoiler]Chidi is actually meant to be Tahani’s soulmate. Just a guess that stems from the law of conservation of characters.)
It provides a nice chance for Eleanor to grow too. Her applying her newfound understanding of Utilitarianism to discern how increasing her happiness takes away from Chidi’s is a surprisingly mature way to look at things, and her “fork off Eleanor” card and attempt to give Chidi his rowboat/french poetry escapade is a nice beat for her. (As is her glee at letting someone cut in front of her because she doesn’t know what she wants at the frozen yogurt shop.)
Overall, a solid episode that seems better in hindsight because of how well it nails the emotional landing in the A-story.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-09-25T06:04:44Z
[7.0/10] It occurred to me while watching this episode that The Good Place feels surprisingly like another, far more down-to-earth show -- Orange Is the New Black. Both feature a collection of people from different walks of life, thrown together and trying to make it work in a new environment, with episodic flashbacks to give you insight into their lives and explain how they got there.
That’s clearest in Tahani’s B-story here. The whole “my parents liked my sibling better” is trite and done in a broad way, but it at least gives us some hints as to what motivates Tahani. The ranking thing was a little too literal way to explain her motivation for doing good, and her sister’s accomplishments were a bit too over the top, as was her parents’ disregard for her. But there were some cute moment and again, it’s nice to see the show humanizing an otherwise seemingly perfect character.
The A-story with Eleanor and Chidi was pretty broad too. I like the idea that there’s friction and exhaustion between the two of them having to spend so much time together, but including a marriage counselor and body language expert into the equation is too convenient, with too many generic sitcom-y conflicts like “she never washes the dishes!”
Still, like Michael Schur’s prior show, Parks and Rec, it gets the emotions of the story right which goes a long way. As with Tahani, it deepens and humanizes Chidi to learn that not only is he worn out from having to spend his time in paradise teaching Eleanor, but that her being there keeps him from finding his real soulmate, something he never came close to on Earth. It’s a character beat that makes the nerdy, reserved Chidi feel more real, and creates emotional stakes rather than just the standard sitcom skirmishes for the story.
(Wild theory time:[spoiler]Chidi is actually meant to be Tahani’s soulmate. Just a guess that stems from the law of conservation of characters.)
It provides a nice chance for Eleanor to grow too. Her applying her newfound understanding of Utilitarianism to discern how increasing her happiness takes away from Chidi’s is a surprisingly mature way to look at things, and her “fork off Eleanor” card and attempt to give Chidi his rowboat/french poetry escapade is a nice beat for her. (As is her glee at letting someone cut in front of her because she doesn’t know what she wants at the frozen yogurt shop.)
Overall, a solid episode that seems better in hindsight because of how well it nails the emotional landing in the A-story.