The GREAT Place

September 20, 2017 1:30 PM

On the eve of The Good Place's season 2 premiere, Kristen Bell has released the video of the rest of the gang responding to finding out about the finale. Spoilers in the link/video.
posted by jeather (80 comments total)

Wow that's like the ultimate spoiler of all time.
posted by sammyo at 1:37 PM on September 20, 2017

Dammit. This reminds me that I really wanted to do a re-watch of Season 1 before the new one. Stupid busy summer. Oh well-- new Good Place = Good Thing.
posted by martin q blank at 1:46 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Holy fork!
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:49 PM on September 20, 2017 [6 favorites]

Is there a direct link to the video? All I get (on mobile) is a 15 second ad for cold cream wipes.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 1:52 PM on September 20, 2017

Chidi's face is so different without his glasses! I already loved this show, and I did a rewatch last month and loved it even more. So delighted it's back.
posted by gladly at 1:53 PM on September 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's embarrassing how few people in this forking world are watching this awesome show
posted by Think_Long at 2:09 PM on September 20, 2017 [16 favorites]

Dammit. The premier is at the same time as You're The Worst!
Yeah, yeah...Got no DVR and don't subscribe to any streaming.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:15 PM on September 20, 2017

I was so not optimistic about this show when it was first announced. How many shows about some form of afterlife haven't ended up being painfully silly, or saccharine dreck, or both? But I figured hey, Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, I can give this a shot. And it ended up being an instant favorite. Such a delightful show. Can't wait to see the next season!
posted by solotoro at 2:17 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Somewhat ironically, Reader View provided me a cold-cream-ad-free video. Hooray!
posted by Huffy Puffy at 2:21 PM on September 20, 2017

Best new show of the past year, and Mrs. Fish and I have been waiting with bated breath for the return. I can't wait to catch this on Hulu tomorrow, since I'm apparently in the wrong ZIP code to receive NBC broadcasts.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:51 PM on September 20, 2017

Also, I love that Danson's evil laugh when Eleanor spills the beans -- the moment of that finale -- wasn't even in the reading.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:59 PM on September 20, 2017 [9 favorites]

This show is incredibly engaging and deeply funny. If you're on the fence about watching: you must give it a shot, especially if the first season hasn't been spoiled for you. And even if it has: so? It's still fantastic. Don't sleep on it!
posted by everybody had matching towels at 3:02 PM on September 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's now available on Netflix Canada as well as Netflix US.
posted by jeather at 3:14 PM on September 20, 2017

We're so committed to watching this that we're staying up watch it live, even though the toddler will have been in bed for hours and we could totally sleep. It's that good.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 3:17 PM on September 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's so Forking funny.

I binged watched all of season 1 this week. Don't know how I am going to cope with just weekly Eps now.

Also I love Janet.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:26 PM on September 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

Holy shirtballs, I love this show.
posted by rewil at 3:30 PM on September 20, 2017

I watched the first season again with some friends who hadn't seen it just a few weeks ago. There are so many things going on that you miss when you don't know the twist that you catch the second time. There were a few that made me feel surprised I didn't catch on the first time around (but it seems like no one does).

A friend pointed out that they telegraph the ending in the very first episode, with Eleanor talking about how her parents are probably in the Bad Place torturing each other because they are each perfect for it.

This show was such a pleasant surprise. I was hoping for not crappy because I like Danson and Bell and we got great.
posted by Infracanophile at 3:49 PM on September 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

I just watched a bunch of episodes for the third (!) time with a friend who was new to it, too, and I feel like there are such good, tiny, throwaway jokes. Like after the folks from the "bad place" come in and Eleanor wakes up with a hangover and Chidi explains that the bad folks requested that the hangover filter be turned off.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 4:04 PM on September 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

Thorzdad, if you have a cable subscription--and it sounds like you do, since You're the Worst is on FXX!--you can probably watch one show or the other on the internet tomorrow. (For You're the Worst, the FXNOW app will even let you watch it tonight).

Both apps should let you watch on demand with your cable username and password.
posted by thecaddy at 4:04 PM on September 20, 2017

I was skeptical at first, but I love this show so much.
posted by biscotti at 4:19 PM on September 20, 2017

What I really want: "Janet, how does someone wage a war in heaven for the sake of the hells?"

I'm sure what's coming is amazing and mind bending but that is where my head is.
posted by Slackermagee at 4:21 PM on September 20, 2017

Here's what I say to people who don't watch The Good Place.
posted by roger ackroyd at 4:28 PM on September 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

Also I am traveling this week and I'm trying to figure out how many points I lose if I watch this tonight versus waiting to get home on Saturday.
posted by thecaddy at 4:33 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's embarrassing how few people in this forking world are watching this awesome show

It's bullshirt.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:05 PM on September 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

We just finished binging (bingeing?) the first season last night after a couple recommendations. We were surprised and delighted to find out it's returning tonight! Although I'm not psyched about having to wait a week between episodes.

TGP is one of the most thoroughly best put-together shows I can think of, everything about it is just wonderful.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 5:56 PM on September 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm so excited about S2E1 that I'm going to take a nap using the several blankets that I already have.
posted by catlet at 5:58 PM on September 20, 2017 [7 favorites]

I found the show delightful. I accidentally-on-purpose rewatched the whole first season in two days last week - it really doesn't take very long, anyone thinking of doing it! It certainly held up to a second viewing, and it's been my first recommendation to people looking for new shows, especially nicer shows, for a while now.

I also try to tell anyone who struggles with the first couple of episodes (it can come off as twee or irritating, apparently) that it gets exponentially better every four episodes as it goes along. Though that's more because that was roughly the pace at which they'd throw in a twist or a change that ramped everything up a notch.

I just want people to watch it without being spoiled, though. Which, on the eve of the new season spoilers seem to be accepted without warning in most of the articles I've seen about it, which is a shame. Because that moment in the video was a moment I had, and a moment I want everyone to have. The preservation of that reaction is why I'm so anti-spoiler in general, because getting your mind blown by a perfect twist is one of the rarest delights there is.
posted by gadge emeritus at 6:14 PM on September 20, 2017

One of my issues was trying to get people to watch it without saying "watch it before the amazing twist is spoiled for you."
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:16 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

One of my issues was trying to get people to watch it without saying "watch it before the amazing twist is spoiled for you."

I just told people to watch the whole first season because it's got a really satisfying arc.
posted by lovecrafty at 6:20 PM on September 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

There are so many things going on that you miss when you don't know the twist that you catch the second time.

My very favorite, in the first episode, occurs just after Kirsten Bell asks Danson (paraphrasing) "So... am I, you know, in heaven or hell?" And there's a moment - just a moment - where you can see Danson's mouth quirk into a grin. He is feasting on the fact that he's about to mislead her.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 6:21 PM on September 20, 2017 [6 favorites]

Janet has always been the personification of metafilter to me.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:23 PM on September 20, 2017 [20 favorites]

Janet has always been the personification of metafilter to me.

Hey Janet, can I eat this?
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 6:30 PM on September 20, 2017 [30 favorites]

Heh. Budhole.
posted by rewil at 6:49 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

I just started rewatching it on Netflix in anticipation of season 2. It's my favorite sitcom in ages. Smart, surreal, hilarious. Excellent casting all down the line.
posted by the sobsister at 6:51 PM on September 20, 2017

This is such a fabulous show, with its delightful premise and characters being bolstered by such brisk pacing. So many sitcoms monkey around with The One Where episodes, but this show just freight trains through on plot to great reward. I'm so, so excited it's back!
posted by missmary6 at 6:53 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Janet has always been the personification of metafilter to me.

Hey Janet, can I eat this?

"🌵"
posted by roger ackroyd at 7:33 PM on September 20, 2017 [32 favorites]

I am super-psyched but waiting until tomorrow; Mini McGee (now 8) became a super-fan last year when he happened to see the episode with the shrimp flying across the sky and kept asking when he could watch "the weird show" again and he got TOTALLY into it. (If you read the fanfare threads, he offers commentary in some of the later ones.) We have not one but TWO fake cacti in our house solely for the purpose of presenting to people who ask for a glass of water.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:41 PM on September 20, 2017 [11 favorites]

They telegraphed it. Like heaven has froyo instead of gelato or frozen custard, oh please.
posted by BrotherCaine at 7:55 PM on September 20, 2017 [6 favorites]

The funny thing is that if you eat enough froyo, you kinda forget what you're missing. In that way it really is perfect.
posted by wierdo at 8:01 PM on September 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

This was such a delight to watch. I have so much fondness for this show, which has been transferred to the actors. It was so much fun to watch them have the same exact reaction they did.

I rewatched the first season this summer too and it was great. One fun thing was realizing that a lot of those things that just didn't seem right - like the fro yo, or the fact that Tahani or Chidi would be in the top .000000001% of all humans who have ever lived - were actually clues.

This is the first fall I can remember where I have four network shows I'm excited about returning: this, You're the Worst, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (if you like this, you will almost certainly like that), and This Is Us (which is kind of a guilty pleasure for me but which had some truly excellent episodes last season).
posted by lunasol at 8:18 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Froyo is good unless they try to hide the tangy froyo taste. Then it's just ice cream with a mediocre texture.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:18 PM on September 20, 2017

Well, I guess You're the Worst isn't a network show. But three is pretty good!
posted by lunasol at 8:18 PM on September 20, 2017

Mini McGee (now 8) became a super-fan last year when he happened to see the episode with the shrimp flying across the sky and kept asking when he could watch "the weird show" again and he got TOTALLY into it.

My 9 year old is super into it, too! She was a big Kristen Bell fan already (initially because of Frozen). It's great that it's almost completely appropriate for her to watch, as well.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:23 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's also the only TV show I can imagine has ever referenced Kant's Prolegomena.

Though Chidi incorrectly referred to it as a "treatise." That's a bit grand; it's more like the Cliff's Notes version of The Critique of Pure Reason.

Still, that's like 100% more Kant references than literally any other television show ever. And an actual discussion on deontological vs. utilitarian ethics! How great!
posted by leotrotsky at 8:30 PM on September 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

Episode Fanfare link.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:34 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Apparently the whole of Season 2 is on Netflix waiting for me. This is enormously exciting. Last year it was not only one episode a week, but also "Oh, by the way, we're just going to disappear for a couple of months" in the middle, and this year it's all there.

And people don't believe in progress any more.

(Although the combination of glorious show with frustrating scheduling acted as a sort of microcosm of the show's themes, so there's a meta thing that I'd be happier to do without.)
posted by Grangousier at 5:37 AM on September 21, 2017

Apparently the whole of Season 2 is on Netflix waiting for me.

Really!?
posted by ODiV at 7:42 AM on September 21, 2017

I only see Season 1 on my Netflix account.
posted by solotoro at 7:50 AM on September 21, 2017

Yeah, me too, but I'm in Canada, so I thought I'd double check as we're often given short shrift.
posted by ODiV at 7:50 AM on September 21, 2017

Oof! Sorry - this is the UK. Also, they might be getting with the spirit of the series and lying to me. But that's what they say.
posted by Grangousier at 8:06 AM on September 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

It might be the complete season 2 so far, i.e. new episodes are added as they air? I would be shocked if a deal to release the entire season of a major network's show on Netflix ahead of broadcast had happened without fanfare.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:22 AM on September 21, 2017

Ted Danson's evil laugh is so amazing that I want him to play an older Joker in something. Anything. Reboot the DC movie verse with people in their 60's as the heroes and villains.
posted by asteria at 8:25 AM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

I watched the pilot episode recently, and it seems filled with self-hatred. Does the protagonist get less toxic over time?
posted by Coventry at 8:36 AM on September 21, 2017

Oh, yes.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:47 AM on September 21, 2017 [4 favorites]

I just checked, and now it is just as you say HZSF, but this morning all the episodes were listed, honest. I tried not to read any of the synopses, because that's probably the least entertaining way to engage with a television series.

That said, if I were given access to all of them, I'd probably just watch them all and then have an enormous headache that I can't tell anyone about because spoilers, so I suppose all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.

(n.b. - this is not a series-approved philosophical viewpoint.)
posted by Grangousier at 10:07 AM on September 21, 2017

Thank you, Metafilter, for getting me to binge this show. I got very little sleep and I'm happy about it.

The amount of talent in the cast is kind of bananas. And is my wont, I developed crushes on almost all of them.

Sidenote: this is apparently Jameela Jamil's first acting role? And she's um...amazing.
posted by schadenfrau at 10:25 AM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

schadenfrau: Sidenote: this is apparently Jameela Jamil's first acting role? And she's um...amazing.

It is? Wow. She's fantastic. I had no idea.
Wherever they found her, they should count themselves lucky.
posted by Superplin at 10:38 AM on September 21, 2017 [3 favorites]

She seems to have done the rounds of Brit-TV quiz/comedy chat shows, so it's more that this is the first thing in her IMDb page not credited as "self". I recently watched this David Mitchell Great British Bake-Off Comic Relief episode someone had posted a snippet of on tumblr and there she was -- link.
posted by oh yeah! at 11:03 AM on September 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

AV club: The good places: The uncommonly decent TV worlds of Michael Schur
posted by rewil at 2:27 PM on September 21, 2017

Thanks to the wording/framing of this post, I did not click to read past the description, went immediately to watch Season One, and therefore was not spoiled for that forking awesome finale.

Holy shirt!

Thanks for the post and a new show to enjoy, jeather!
posted by tzikeh at 4:52 PM on September 21, 2017 [3 favorites]

roger ackroyd: Janet has always been the personification of metafilter to me.

Hey Janet, can I eat this?

"🌵"


This is the single greatest comment in the history of MetaFilter.
posted by tzikeh at 5:32 PM on September 21, 2017 [5 favorites]

So I watched the new episode (singular, yes, sorry), and now I'm watching through the first season again in a mad binge. It really is like a great comic novel, and the second time through it's even better than the first. Where it's going in the end - and I personally am still holding out for a more humane moral universe - I don't know, but I trust them enough to just sit back and enjoy the trip.
posted by Grangousier at 3:55 PM on September 22, 2017

I personally am still holding out for a more humane moral universe

My new working theory is that we discover at the end of this season that the whole thing is actually The Bad Place for Michael. Failed experiment? Lying to his boss? Seems like a recapitulation of the torture-by-feeling-like-you-don't-belong to me.... Now, whether it's because Architects get one themselves, or because he's a human who's been given false memories to make him think he's an Architect, I dunno.

But if I'm wrong, I hope your theory wins out. There's one key quality of this afterlife that definitely sets up the possibility - they've demonstrated that personal growth is still possible there.
posted by solotoro at 4:44 AM on September 25, 2017

Ah geez, shoulda read the Fanfare link before commenting here. I'm not so original.
posted by solotoro at 6:09 AM on September 25, 2017

Just finished season 1- can’t believe I was tricked into watching science-fiction under the guise of a religious morality tale.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:18 PM on September 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I feel like some kind of joke should be made about Lost after that last comment....
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:14 PM on September 25, 2017

ALSO, I hope Sartre gets his cut. ALSO, I think Janet is basically Data. ALSO, I went to sleep last night convinced maybe I'm in "the Good Place" right now.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:02 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

can’t believe I was tricked into watching science-fiction under the guise of a religious morality tale.

You and I can compare lists for all the times I was tricked into reading ponderous religious allegories under the guise of science fiction.

(Imma win)
posted by tzikeh at 6:58 AM on September 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

forking
It's bullshirt

Is this kind of comstockery a thing on the show, or is it just something people are doing in here, for whatever reason?
posted by thelonius at 7:52 AM on September 27, 2017

This neighborhood of The Good Place does not allow profanity, so when somebody tries to curse it gets changed to something like "fork" or "bullshirt".
posted by InfidelZombie at 8:54 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

forking
It's bullshirt

Is this kind of comstockery a thing on the show, or is it just something people are doing in here, for whatever reason?

There's no cursing in The Good Place. If you try, you get words like these coming out of your mouth.
posted by tzikeh at 8:54 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

When they first explain that, you figure, yeah, makes sense, no cursing in The Good Place. Of course, what kind of "Good Place" would let you want to curse and not give you the satisfaction of actually doing it?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:59 PM on September 27, 2017

Also, what's the Good Place equivalent of bitch, did they say?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:00 PM on September 27, 2017

Also, what's the Good Place equivalent of bitch, did they say?

Yeah, we've been rewatching over the last couple nights, and somewhere in one of the early episodes they use "bench" a couple times.

They also have a scene where a drunk Eleanor learns she can still say "butthole" ... but then in the next episode, Jason refers to his private den as his "bud hole" and everyone thinks he is saying the other, which raises the question to me whether that's just the obvious confusion or if in fact EVERYONE is saying "bud hole" and it's just so close even they can't tell (at least when drunk).
posted by solotoro at 5:06 PM on September 27, 2017

Ok wait, there's programming analogies and metaphors everywhere, people literally have moral point totals, and they never mention utilitarianism?

Also, I just realized Janet doesn't know she's really in the bad place (at least right after she marries Jason).

Janet will break everything!
posted by schadenfrau at 5:55 PM on September 27, 2017

what's the Good Place equivalent of bitch?

Bich? It's slang for generosity! (or not, as it turns out)
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:18 PM on September 27, 2017

Utilitarianism is definitely one of Chidi's lessons for Eleanor, and they lean on it pretty overtly throughout that episode. S1E5, I think.
posted by solotoro at 6:23 PM on September 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

They also have a scene where a drunk Eleanor learns she can still say "butthole" ... but then in the next episode, Jason refers to his private den as his "bud hole" and everyone thinks he is saying the other, which raises the question to me whether that's just the obvious confusion or if in fact EVERYONE is saying "bud hole" and it's just so close even they can't tell (at least when drunk).

Also re: the butthole/bud hole confusion: in the first episode, Chidi tells Eleanor that he's speaking French, and the Good Place is translating it into English for her.

But later on, he has the same "butthole"/"bud hole" confusion as Eleanor. I spent a probably inadvisably long time wondering whether there are words/phrases in French that would be similarly confusable. I think I satisfied myself with the explanation that Chidi may be speaking French, but he's still hearing and understanding everyone's untranslated English. (He studied/worked in Australia, so I assume he's fluent in English.)

And now after the season finale, I have no idea whether I'm overthinking or underthinking this show. And I'm loving it.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 2:15 PM on September 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thank you, Metafilter. I saw this post go up, and read the first few comments - where everyone was talking about how great the finale was without actually spoiling anything - and then a couple of days later decided to watch it on Netflix and give it a shot. Watched it all in a couple of days, watching the new season now.
posted by curious nu at 6:46 PM on September 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

I spent a probably inadvisably long time wondering whether there are words/phrases in French that would be similarly confusable.

Trou de 'cool' is about the best I can come up with; not the same pun, but in the same spirit of something Jason might name the place. It would require some accent shenanigans; I don't think a native francophone, listening to another native francophone speak, would find "cool" and "cul" to be particularly mistakable one for the other. An anglophone who picked up French as an adult could easily make that mistake, though. (Yes, I'm an anglophone who learned French as an adult, why do you ask?)
posted by solotoro at 8:52 AM on September 30, 2017