The Good Place

The afterlife is a topic that many think about often. In NBC’s new comedy “The Good Place,” trouble in paradise abounds, and it could not be more entertaining.

The show’s humor starts in its premise: Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) is happy to find herself in the heaven-like Good Place after her death, but she soon realizes that she does not belong there. As her personality begins to shine through, with flashbacks to her life on earth and her interactions with her neighbors in the afterlife, it becomes clear that Eleanor doesn’t just fail the standard for entrance into the Good Place—she’s also an awful person. But with the help of her ethics professor soulmate, Chidi (William Jackson Harper), Eleanor begins to learn how to be a good person, in hopes of not getting caught by Michael (Ted Danson), designer of the heavenly neighborhood always accompanied by a Siri-like assistant Janet (D’Arcy Carden). Eleanor’s cynicism leads her to believe that her next door neighbors, soulmates Tahani (Jameela Jamil) and Jianyu (Manny Jacinto), are not as perfect as their presence in the Good Place would lead one to believe.
Within the main cast, there is not a single dud. Many actors superbly show confidence while hinting at more layers behind each character that we begin to discover as the show progresses. Kristen Bell delightfully emulates Eleanor’s condescension and superiority complex, and her desire to become a good person, albeit weak, rounds her as a character. Chidi’s commitment to helping Eleanor learn is completed by his common frustration with her challenges. As the show progresses, Tahani and Jianyu begin to open up to and bond with Eleanor, and these interactions are as hilarious as they are heartwarming. Danson’s anxious Michael is an absolute joy as he continues to discover more about the humans he designed for, and Carden’s Janet steals every scene she is in as her programming is always being fiddled with and taken to extremes. The show’s one-liners are laugh-out-loud funny, and the delivery is just as strong as the writing. The constant comedy does not cause the setting to lose depth and immersion. The sense of being in the Good Place feels as real as the danger its citizens are in due to the mysterious effects of troubling occurrences. NBC’s “The Good Place” stakes its place as what you should be watching every Thursday night at 7:30.