User Reviews

So a new afterlife is born. Everyone will now go to a giant Medium Place when they die, using the points they accumulated during their lives as a base score. Both the Good Place and the Bad Place will work together to design tests and challenges, specially tailored to each individual to help them work on their shortcomings. At the end of the year, they will be sat down, told what they did right and did wrong, and then rebooted to try it again, retaining a brief memory of what they had learned. Rinse and repeat until they become the best version of themselves and can move on to the Good Place.

For the most part, it makes sense. It gives everyone a fair chance to learn and grow from their mistakes. It makes the "punishment" fit the "crime", rather than subjecting everybody who lived less than an exemplary life to eternal torture. But...a few things are bothering me here:

1) Does *everyone* deserve a fair chance to learn and grow? I mean, do we really need to see if someone like Hitler has a "best version"? Some people are just plain evil. In Chidi's new system, that person would just stay in the Medium Place for eternity, rebooted over and over and over again, and to me that doesn't seem like a harsh enough punishment.

2) Pretty sure I know why the show doesn't address it-but what about children? Can someone who dies very young even have a "best self"? At what age would a person start being subject to the new afterlife testing? It seems that in the Good Place universe, only adults die, but if you're overhauling the entire afterlife, it should probably be considered.

Wondering if the show will answer these questions in the coming episodes. Guess I'll have to keep watching and see. Otherwise, it was a fun episode. The Timothy Olyphant cameo was hilarious ("I don't have a dog in this fight, little lady.") And confident Chidi is a treat to watch.

It was a very suspenseful, high-stakes pressure situation with a lot of tension, and very good writing and directing. While Eleanor, Chidi and Michael come up with a new afterlife system to pitch to The Judge Of The Universe, she is trying to reset the Earth and I laughed as we got a glimpse of her journey with the original Good Janet to look for her button-clicker to reset Earth. The jokes with them in the voids of Neutral Janet, Bad Janet and Disco Janet all hit and did not miss my head. The best part of this episode, the real turning point that solves the problem to get Shawn on board with a new afterlife system he did not believe in, is when Michael confronts Shawn and pretends to give up, which annoys Shawn after their ongoing feud for 33 episodes. I was really surprised to see Shawn, the main devil boss of The Good Place, to open up to Michael and admit "Fighting with you was the most fun I ever had." and then Michael says "You wouldn't have let me try the original experiment if things were working. Let's try a new way." It was truly a testament to Marc Evan Jackson's previously untapped acting abilities, plus the director and music composer of this scene, to make us feel sad for a character we spent the whole series hating without it ever feeling forced, and have him agree to Michael's terms against all odds.

I type this just as the news rolled in that Ted Danson's Mr Mayor got axed after two seasons. Perhaps this will allow The Good Place to be rebooted please to restore the sparkle that seemed to be missing from season 4.