Should You Spend Time In The Good Place, Or Does It Feel Like An Eternity?

What Is This Thing?

When Eleanor Shellstrop wakes up to discover that she's in her afterlife, her first question is where exactly she's ended up in terms of either eternal bliss or eternal damnation. She's relieved to find out that she's in "The Good Place," though that relief is quickly replaced by alarm due to the fact that she knows she shouldn't actually be there -- and flashbacks to her mortal life prove how right she is on that point. What will she have to do to continue passing as a decent person? Or will her presence among them have dire consequences for her neighbours?

When Is It On?

It premieres Monday, September 19, at 10 PM ET on NBC; on the 22nd, it moves to its regular time slot: Thursdays at 8:30 PM ET.

Why Was It Made Now?

NBC's last high-profile comedy to attract any buzz or award nominations was Parks & Recreation, which has been in its grave now for more than a year. Its creator, Michael Schur, went on to shepherd another big comedy hit...for Fox: Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Rather than let history repeat itself, I assume NBC decided to get back into Schur business.

What's Its Pedigree?

In addition to the aforementioned Schur -- whose writing credits also include The Office, The Comeback, and SNL (and whose acting credits include Dwight Schrute's cousin Mose) -- the series stars Kristen Bell as Eleanor and Ted Danson as Michael, the architect of her little corner of The Good Place. The Electric Company alumnus William Jackson Harper plays Chidi: a professor of ethics when he was alive and (conveniently, or not) now Eleanor's soulmate. Also appearing in smaller roles are D'Arcy Carden (Broad City's hard-charging Soulstice trainer Gemma) as Janet, a kind of personified Siri; and Jamie Denbo (Ronna & Beverly) as a chef; IMDb tells us that, past the first few episodes, we'll also see Seth Morris, Leslie Grossman, and Ajay Mehta.

...And?

I guess if you come up with an idea for a TV series set in Heaven, you can't half-ass it, and The Good Place doesn't. Yes, it sort of sidesteps doctrinal questions without mentioning things like "God" or "Hell," but it sets about world-building right from the series premiere. Of course Heaven's downtown looks like The Grove. Naturally, you can drink as much as you want and never end up hungover the next day. And never mind if you were lonely on earth: the powers that be pair you up with the soulmate with whom you're meant to spend eternity. Also: shitloads of frozen yogurt joints!

Such a setting would, of course, be extremely boring if it were peopled only with upstanding citizens, which is why our protagonist is Eleanor -- a jerk in life, and mostly a jerk in the afterlife, though one who's trying fairly hard to hide it. Bell is sufficiently removed from her years playing Veronica Mars that I now think of her primarily as a sloth-loving Disney princess, so it's a fun departure watching her try to swear (which, in The Good Place, she can't -- it's a lot of "fork," "bench," and "bullshirt") and, in flashbacks, rig a draw among friends so she doesn't have to be the designated driver.

But there's also an urgency to Eleanor's story: due to a rather large error on Michael's part -- this is his first assignment, and he's very nervous about it and endearingly solicitous of the souls in his care; Danson is one of my favourite things about the show -- Eleanor's name has been attached to someone else's exemplary life, and while no one in charge of The Good Place likes to talk much about what The Bad Place is like, Janet is permitted to play audio, and it does sound extremely unpleasant. Eleanor doesn't want to be cast out...but there are also signs that her having been sent to the wrong place could be calamitous for all the people who are supposed to be there. Chidi agrees to draw on the experience of his former life to teach Eleanor how to deserve the second chance she's been given -- a process that's incredibly frustrating for him and which he's not too perfect to complain about.

...But?

But Eleanor's road to redemption makes this kind of a less dirtbaggy My Name Is Earl. Eleanor doesn't have a list -- probably because she was such a dick on earth that she committed countless offenses she wasn't even aware of at the time or wouldn't remember now -- but she does have a lesson to learn every week, and in the early going -- I've seen the first four episodes -- she seems trainable in the way dogs are trainable, which is to say, she's primarily motivated by a desire to avoid bad consequences. I also assume we're heading toward a storyline in which either Eleanor or Chidi wonders whether they're really meant to be soulmates, because despite the fact that their performances are good, Bell and Harper have zero romantic chemistry. Maybe Eleanor has to earn a partner as upstanding as Chidi. Or he has to learn that he's attracted to the danger inherent in her chaotic evil nature.

The pilot episode also kicks off a mystery of sorts, as Eleanor gets a note slipped under her door suggesting that someone is on to her, and the good news is that (a) we don't have to wait long before it's solved, and (b) the detective's identity sends the story in an interesting direction; the problem is, if I hadn't gotten screeners, I would have definitely bailed after the second episode (Part 2 of the two-part series premiere event) due to their twee-ness. The second episode literally has a plotline about Good Place residents learning to fly, okay? A show's compelling weirdness needs to assert itself sooner than Episode 4; in this TV environment, viewers don't have that kind of time to wait for a show to impress them because there are 700 other shows they're also supposed to be watching in order to remain part of culture.

Also, in Heaven you still have to have a job? Lame.

...So?

A premise this high-concept is either going to be something you like, or something you really hate; even fans of Schur's other workplace sitcoms won't find much of a through line from those to this. Therefore, it's hard to know whether or how to recommend this. If the premise, on paper, seems too precious for you to handle, it probably is. But if you're curious, give it through Episode 4 before you make a final ruling.