MVP Janet!
Man I keep wondering where there can take this next but they haven't let me down so far.
[6.8/10] Count me as a big Michael McKean fan. I’d already admired him from his turns in various Christopher Guest films, his voiceover work, and tons of other small but great appearances, but that admiration kicked up a notch with his incredible performance on Better Call Saul. So The Good Place, which opens up with a very Better Call Saul-esque montage, casting McKean as Doug Forcett, the man who, while high on mushrooms, managed to figure out the afterlife’s point system, is a home run in my book.
And the parts of the episode that feature Michael and Janet interacting with Forcett are superb. The idea of Forcett as a “happiness pump,” someone so devoted to increasing the amount of good in the world that he sacrifices every ounce of his own happiness to the needs of others is a strong representation of the philosophical concept. The show does a great job of balancing the comedy and the meaning here. It’s funny seeing McKean struggle to avoid/rescue snails, to see Michael discretely spit out the water he realizes is filtered urine, and to see the little snail funeral.
But it also works as a powerful critique of the system of morality the Good Place is built on, if the person who lives according to the rules for a welcoming afterlife seems to have a life hardly worth living. That point is driven home a little cartoonishly, and there’s lots of nuance in whether knowing the point system exists is part of the problem. But it connects with the continuity of the series in a noteworthy way while picking at the series’ premise.
The problem is the other half of the episode. The comedy game is on point, with Chidi and Jason being very amusing while playing “Jacksonville-style” billiards, and Jason reverting to his usual “Jortles!” and molotov cocktail solution to problems. But the meat of it centers on romantic feelings between Eleanor and Chidi that I just don’t really buy. It feels like the show wants to make them its OTP, and I’m yet to be convinced that even the best versions of these two very different people are compatible. I like the idea that there’s a synergy despite their differences, and that they push one another in good directions, but the show hasn’t shown me that this is Leslie/Ben chemistry rather than Leslie/Ron chemistry.
The fight scene was also pretty corny. I have to admit, I’ve lost some interest in the meta-narrative of our heroes versus the demon brigade. It’s substandard comic book stuff, and the show hasn’t been especially good about that this season. The fight scene itself is a little too good to play as comedy but not quite good enough to play as legitimate fight choreography, which just leaves it in an awkward middle ground where it’s neither fish nor fowl.
Overall, one half of this episode is enjoyable and fun, and the other half is a little tedious and misaimed. Hope things look better in Janet’s void!
So far this season has been the best one yet! And to think I first started watching this show a couple of years ago during the holiday hiatus cause I had nothing else left lol
-We did it! - Ehhh..Janet Did. -Yeah, but I had the... good job Janet
how tf did i get emotional because of watching janet kick a bunch of demons' asses?
I think the creator of The Good Place is really against utilitarism... I don't know... Just a thought...
What a clever episode! The plot where Michael and Janet visit Doug was funny, but also had some clear themes about how worrying too much about, well, anything, can you get so caught up in the wrong things. It applies to "trying to be a good person" but also really any other area of life that you might hyper-focus on. I think there are real instances where trying to be too good (and therefore naive) can be a bad thing. I liked Chidi's plot with learning to let go and play anything-goes-pool. And then somehow the episode became super plot-relevant with an actual demon attack, and Janet leading a fight scene was hilarious, they really figured out every possible clever thing they could do with her in that scene. I like that the series may be heading into a plot direction of actually changing how humans are considered to be good or not - I think there's room for some actual depth there, since as Michael said, people can change, and also people may do "bad" actions due to the environment they grew up in, without actually being bad people.
Janet most certainly doesn't need her powers to kick some ass. I absolutely loved that fight scene.
"Twelve years of fencing. En garde!" I'm still laughing. Oh my God.
The Good Place is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
we love you janet <333
The Good Place: The Action Movie. We just got a glimpse of how that could totally work. Janet was killing it! And that was Good Janet, not Bad Janet! Hot damn!
And I thought the last episode's ending would be kicking things up a notch this week (and it most certainly did), but the ending on this one will be taking things to a whole new level (literally)!
One of the best things on TV, right now. This show is on fire!
Shout by MarcusBlockedParent2018-11-17T20:15:35Z
Janet's fight scene was straight up a peak television moment, i don't take any different opinions as valid.