Sunday, October 22, 2017

The Good Place - The Trolley Problem


Possibly better than any other show currently on television, The Good Place knows how to write itself out of potential issues and provide twists to what is a very simple premise with (presumably) limited story options. The end of the First Season dropped the bomb shell of where Eleanor (Kristen Bell) and her friends are truly living while Season Two has kept viewers on their toes with the demons trying (and failing) to hoodwink the damned foursome again. Michael's (Ted Danson) decision to team-up with the group was another such twist, the fallout of which provides some of the best moments of the season so far.

The crux of the episode is that Michael, a demon whose main skill-set is to torture human beings, is ill-equipped to understand and learn human philosophy. His choice to literally make Elinor and Chidi (William Jackson Harper) live out the theoretical ethical dilemmas, more to torture Chidi than actually learn, reinforces each character's basic traits while providing some bloody good scenes. The subplot of Tahani (Jameela Jamil) and Jason (Manny Jacinto) initially seems just like filler but helps to set-up a potential new problem for the group with Janet's (D'Arcy Carden) increasingly erratic behavior.

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