Thursday, February 1, 2018

The Good Place - Somewhere Else


After convincing themselves, and the demon who was assigned to torture them, that bad people can in fact change after death our intrepid gang of misfits failed (or almost all of them failed) in their individual tests to make it to the Good Place. Enter Michael (Ted Danson) with a new suggestion for the judge (Maya Rudolph) as the Second Season takes another swerve putting Eleanor (Kristen Bell) back into her life after narrowly avoiding her unfortunate grocery-cart demise (and without the knowledge of her afterlife) to see if she can, in fact, be a good person without the certainty of a reward in heaven. Despite her initial high after her life-and-death experience, Eleanor eventually falls back into her old habits. Thankfully Michael still has just enough devil left in him to cheat and give her the proper nudge back to the right path.

It's an interesting twist, with more than a few ups-and-downs for a would-be good person, and I'll be curious to see if the next episodes catch-up on our other three defendants in their simulations. The episode also features a big moment for Chidi (William Jackson Harper), inspired by Janet's (D'Arcy Carden) example, who gets out of his own head long enough to kiss Eleanor before the new rounds of tests begin. As we see in her simulation, Eleanor may not have it in herself to be a good person on her own (at least over the long haul), but with the right motivation and support anything appears possible.

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