Reviewed by Lauren Canaday
Meet the author at the bottom of this review -
What do you get when you combine themes of philosophy, morality, socioeconomics, the after-life, the human soul, and... fart jokes?
You get the television series The Good Place!
The series has a stunning 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (with seasons two and four both at 100%), and takes viewers from laughing to crying to laughing again amid plot twists that would usually leave you biting your nails in anticipation of the next season.
Haven't watched it yet? You're in luck! This series just became perfectly bingeable. The entire four-season series is now available on DVD, through your Netflix subscription, or you can borrow them using interlibrary loan at Bluffton Public Library (Shameless plug, I know, but isn't a free option always the best option?)
So what's the premise? It's a bit of a mouthful. If you asked the character Janet (an all-knowing, celestial personal assistant played cheerfully and hilariously by actress D'Arcy Carden), she'd undoubtedly start an hours-long oral synopsis without hesitation.
To simplify, we start the series at an ending – our main character, Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) dies and wakes up in the office of afterlife "architect" Michael (Ted Danson).
Yes, The Good Place refers to that place. Michael tries his best to make his otherworldly office a bit more worldly -- in order to make the transition an easier process (think: informational videos and paperclips).
After some bumbling, Michael gives Eleanor a tour of his design, which is personalized for its residents with a village town center and neighborhoods.
Eleanor finds out she has a soulmate named Chidi (William Jackson Harper), a former Professor of Moral Philosophy (he teaches us a lot over the four seasons); a neighbor, Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil) who was a philanthropist socialite (and won't let you forget); and another neighbor, Jianyu Li, a Taiwanese monk, who is Tahani's soulmate.
Then there's, of course, Janet, and I'll stop there, because this show is best enjoyed organically (spoiler-free). With the afterlife as a setting, there were really no boundaries for the writers.
The Good Place is an NBC sitcom, but there's no laugh track here. This is an intelligent, colorful imagining of the afterlife with fresh ideas of what could come next – illustrated through a combination of old ideas we should know, and relatable situations and comedic cultural references we do know.
All of the seasons are good, but season four does the best job at tackling the deeper subjects as the series could only truly do after rounding out the development of our main characters.
But don't expect to even be aware (at first) that you're dealing with these themes. The best part of The Good Place is that it makes everything seem light and even frivolous. The show never takes itself too seriously (hence the fart jokes and pop culture references), and viewing is pleasant, addictive escapism.
But don't take my word for it. Binge The Good Place today.
BORTLES!
Meet our newest reviewer
Lauren Canaday came to Bluffton 12 years ago by way of Bluffton University. She graduated in 2012 with a double major in English and Writing, and started working at Bluffton Public Library in 2014.
As the Public Services Coordinator, she does a little bit of a lot, including community outreach, virtual programming, writing and editing, reader's advisory, social media, and website design.
Lauren calls her taste in media "eclectic," as her preferred television series, films, and books range in genre from comedy to documentary, and from modern shock horror to slow-burning classics. She knows it's a cliche by now, but she enjoys consuming that which "makes you think," whether it be Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window or Dan and Eugene Levy's Schitt's Creek. She also "fangirls" over the acapella group Pentatonix, and spends way too much time watching The Dodo animal videos.
