The Good Place 2x2

This episode was a fantastic season 3, wasn't it?! 😂

I am SO delighted in how much you're enjoying this show! You hit on something really special about it -- how, based on what they give us in an episode, we THINK we know where the season will go, but then they throw in the proverbial wrench at the last second and we have no idea what they'll do next! It's SO. MUCH. FUN. Truly brilliant show planning and writing. P.S. I *knew* you'd love Vicky's "excellent" Australian accent! LOL. I've been dying for you to hear it. :D

Fun fact: everything always comes back around to Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence. For example, in this episode we got the rest of the story about Sheila, the black-market alligator dealer with a pierced jawbone.

I am always impressed by the writers willingness to just drop the plot and go in an unexpected direction. It’s the most fearless show ever, it all could have gone off the rails so easily but never does.

I'm glad you're enjoying it because the look on your face during the S1 finale reveal.... it looked like you wanted to throw up and stop watching! "None of the TVs get NFL RedZone" and "what a stupid age I am" are my favorite Jason lines.

I think "I call it my looking hole" rattles around my head more than any other film or tv quote in recent years.

This may be my second favorite episode, only a fraction behind the season 1 finale. But it's real close. Michael's reaction to Jason figuring it out is comedy gold! "JASON figured it out? Oh, this one hurts. Yeah, this is a real low point." :D I bet they had the best time filming all the little cut scenes for the previous attempts.

You said you haven’t watched much TV, but I feel pretty confident in saying there is nothing like the Good Place. Also, one of my favorite things about this show are the restaurant names in the background. With all the different resets, there were so many great ones. Some of my favorites: • Knish From a Rose • Lasagna Come Out Tomorrow • From Schmear to Eternity • The Pesto’s Yet to Come • You Do the Hokey Gnocchi and You Get Yourself Some Food • Beignet and the Jets • Hot Dog on a Stick on a Stick • Crueller Intentions • Biscotti Pippen • Chicken Soup for the Mouth And pretty much everything involving chowder. Maybe I’m just hungry, but I want to go to all of these (except for chowder)!

An amazing episode and an even more 'amazing' aussie accent by Vicky.

I thought you were pretty close with your guess that it would be Vicky who ruins everything, just HOW she went about it was unexpected. Such a funny episode, getting to see so many reboots all at once really gave them a chance to have a lot of fun.

This is the bad place! This show is great at subverting expectations. I think what makes it so good is that they respect their audience - which might sound weird because it's constantly fooling us. But they do it in a way that feels clever. Where other shows might beat you over the head with clues, or vice versa be filled with a bunch of things that don't make sense after the big reveal, this show is extremely subtle about it, and it all still makes sense in retrospect.

If you're into podcasts at all, there's a brilliant one hosted by Marc Evan Jackson (The Judge, aka Shaun), that does one podcast episode per show episode, with special guests each time from the cast and crew. It's a great way to hear more about the behind the scenes stories, and how the show came together. One theme is how often they break the rules of what traditionally makes a show work. Eleanor confessing mid-season 1 was a big moment, the big reset at the end of season 1 was one, and cramming a whole season's worth of stories into 22 minutes is a big one. There are spoilers in it of course. I think they did season 1's podcast with no season-2 spoilers, and so forth. I listened to all of them after watching the whole show a few times, and it held up well :)

Pretty standard experience for The Good Place fandom. You think you know where the show is going for the season or at least a few episodes and then they beat you to the punch and change gears almost immediately. The way this show (usually) stays just a bit ahead of its audience is really one of my favorite things about it. This episode, in particular, feels like an entire season's worth of ideas crammed into a single episode and it's glorious. I would not consider this a spoiler, but avert your eyes if you want to avoid absolutely all information about the show: Vicki's Australian accent isn't even close to the worst Australian accent you'll hear on this show.

I've been so looking forward to this. ^^