The Good Place Review, one of 2016's best
buzzz worthy. . .
Fall 2016 gave TV viewers many gifts this season with a diverse swath of programming. "The Good Place" became my "must see" program.
The new NBC comedy series "The Good Place" follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), a New Jersey woman who comes to realize that she hasn’t been a very good person through a strange series of events. In the spirit of Everybody Loves Earl, she decides to make up for lost time by becoming better but there is a twist -- Eleanor is dead, a new resident in the "good place" or the afterlife. She mistakenly ends up in the highly exclusive "good place" after living a self-absorbed life on Earth and upon discovering she is supposed to be in the "bad place" she starts to focus on a good deeds ruse to stay. Being paired with the wrong soul mate, the design of her eternal home not reflecting her taste, and watching a flashback video that referred to her having a completely different career were clues that she was in the wrong place.
No other show has a premise remotely as original as this one. The writers get high marks for originality because when you do something so different it can either flop or be the draw. In this case creativity and originality were defiitely a draw. The "Good Place" manages to address eternal life without focusing on any particular religion, while interweaving religious ideas into the story. The series also stars Ted Danson who plays Michael, the head guide and self-described "architect" of this euphoric community. Manny Jacinto (The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story), William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, D’Arcy Carden make up the supporting cast.
The final four episodes of season 1 returns on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.
Fall 2016 gave TV viewers many gifts this season with a diverse swath of programming. "The Good Place" became my "must see" program.
The new NBC comedy series "The Good Place" follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), a New Jersey woman who comes to realize that she hasn’t been a very good person through a strange series of events. In the spirit of Everybody Loves Earl, she decides to make up for lost time by becoming better but there is a twist -- Eleanor is dead, a new resident in the "good place" or the afterlife. She mistakenly ends up in the highly exclusive "good place" after living a self-absorbed life on Earth and upon discovering she is supposed to be in the "bad place" she starts to focus on a good deeds ruse to stay. Being paired with the wrong soul mate, the design of her eternal home not reflecting her taste, and watching a flashback video that referred to her having a completely different career were clues that she was in the wrong place.
No other show has a premise remotely as original as this one. The writers get high marks for originality because when you do something so different it can either flop or be the draw. In this case creativity and originality were defiitely a draw. The "Good Place" manages to address eternal life without focusing on any particular religion, while interweaving religious ideas into the story. The series also stars Ted Danson who plays Michael, the head guide and self-described "architect" of this euphoric community. Manny Jacinto (The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story), William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, D’Arcy Carden make up the supporting cast.
The final four episodes of season 1 returns on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.
