We’re well into season 3 and The Good Place seems to have finally lost its way.
What started out as one of the funniest new comedies, The Good Place has officially plateaued. The gang has been to hell and back (literally), but is there anywhere left to go?
Season 3 started out with Eleanor, Chidi, and the rest of the crew going back to Earth where they had to re-meet each other all for the 500th time. Michael is determined to help them truly get into heaven by gaining points back in the real world. But when things don’t go his way, he goes down to Earth himself to give Eleanor and company a little nudge. Cut to a few episodes later and the other demons have figured out that Michael is cheating. And so, the gang will never truly get into “the good place.”
What made The Good Place so genius in the first place was how original and refreshing it was. The show is stacked with an amazing cast — Kristen Bell, Jameela Jamil, Ted Danson — and season one was full of so many hilarious twists and turns, not to mention that amazing plot twist at the end.
But by the third season, we’ve already seen all of the writers’ tricks. The plot has repeated over and over by now — the gang gets separated, they reunite, Eleanor learns ethics, the end. How many times can we watch this play out in different locations?
And in the latest two episodes — A Fractured Inheritance and The Worst Possible Use of Free Will — it felt like the writers were purely biding their time. But for what? It’s not quite clear where the show is going, or even if they have a direction at all. For the first season and a half, every episode felt so deliberate. You could tell that every move, every moment, was meticulously planned. But now, the gang is just wondering around aimlessly. With no hopes of ever truly getting into the “real” good place, what’s the point of the show?
Of course, we all want to see Eleanor and Chidi get back together and have their happily-ever-after (and I obviously want to see Jason and Janet reunite), but it doesn’t feel like we’re even close to seeing that happen.
I’d really love to see the show get back on track. With the cast and writers they have, The Good Place should be a great show, not a one-hit-wonder. But at this rate, I’m just not sure the show can ever recover.
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Photo by: Colleen Hayes/NBC
