The Good Place Review: "Tahani Al-Jamil"

Due to some scheduling manipulation on NBC's part, The Good Place ended up airing three episodes in its premiere week, and it was a move that I think ended up greatly benefitting the show. I noted in my review that one of the things that weighed down the first two episodes of the show was how much exposition the show had to get through to set up its premise. "Tahani Al-Jamil" was largely unchained from that burden, and as a result I believe it is the strongest of the episodes that has aired so far.

There were times while watching the episode that it felt like the writers had specifically been trying to assuage my doubts about whether or not the show would live up to its potential. My biggest concern after those episodes was that the cast of supporting characters were talented and often funny, but seemed like very broad stereotypes we've seen before. Janet, who was essentially a walking search engine before, got to try on a lot of different personalities as Michael kept adjusting her settings throughout the episode. My favorite of her phases was the "fun fact" phase, and her explanation of why Christopher Columbus is in the Bad Place was the second best joke of the episode (the first being the  "Who died and left Aristotle in charge of ethics" joke). Having Michael there to play off of Janet's many personality changes was a very effective use of Ted Danson's dry humor.

Chidi not only got to wear the hat of Eleanor's teacher in this episode, but also got to spend a good chunk of the episode figuring out what he wants to do in the afterlife (an area where Eleanor inadvertently teaches him to go after what he wants). Chidi is so central to the show's main story that it's important for the show to establish him as a character outside of Eleanor.This was  good first step in that direction. For his relationship with Eleanor to be rewarding, it has to work two ways. Having Eleanor and Chidi both learn something from each other in this episode, showed how rewarding this relationship might be in the future.

The central concern of the episode, however, was the relationship between Tahani and Eleanor. Tahani reminds me a lot of Parks and Recreation's Chris Traeger. At first they seemed so perfect that (much like Eleanor) I suspected there was something sinister lurking underneath the surface, only to realize that despite being somewhat delusional, they pretty much are exactly what they present to the outside world. Tahani really does want to be a good neighbor and friend to Eleanor, and having Eleanor realize that (while still being reasonably annoyed with how perfect Tahani is at everything from baking to giving hugs) led to some great moments of self-discovery for our main character.

The revelation that Eleanor's problem with Tahani is really that she feels insecure about who she is as a person (a fact we learn through a series of flashbacks where Eleanor sabotaged a relationship because her boyfriend suggested they not patronize a coffee show where the manager sexually harasses women) was the biggest step toward true change that Eleanor has made so far on the show. For the main premise of the show (Eleanor learning to be a better person) to work, it has to come from a place of self-discovery, instead of Eleanor just magically changing her mind about ethics.

Just to keep things interesting, the last moments of the episode threw in a couple of plot twists. Thinking this to be a gesture of friendship, Tahani suggests to Michael that Eleanor should be his assistant, and partner in solving the "mystery" of what is going wrong in the neighborhood. Having Eleanor work for the person who could send her to the Bad Place if he found out her secret provides a lot of fertile ground for interesting future storylines, but it also gives Eleanor a perfect excuse to be at the center of an investigation that few others realize directly concerns her. To complicate things further, the revelation that Jianyu has been putting the notes under Eleanor's door because he too was put in the Good Place by mistake, give the show a lot to work with. Not only does it complicate the main premise of the show (If both Eleanor and Jianyu are there by mistake, who else might be?), but it also adds a welcome new layer to Jianyu's character, who was quickly becoming a tired gimmick. Overall, the show has made some excellent progress in three episodes, and I feel safe saying this is the best new comedy of the fall.

"The Good Place" Premiere Review: Not Quite "Parks and Recreation"...Yet.

To say that a show like "The Good Place" (created by former "Parks and Recreation" creator Mike Schur)  is built on an abstract idea, is a bit of an understatement. The show, tells the story of Eleanor (the always funny Kristen Bell) who dies and accidentally winds up in "The Good Place" after having spent her life being a pretty terrible person. How did she wind up here? Michael (Ted Danson doing some great physical comedy) is some sort of eternal entity taking his first crack at creating his very own community in the Good Place, and has mistaken Eleanor for a lawyer who helped innocent people get off of death row. Realizing his mistake, Eleanor is desperate to avoid being found out as a fraud and sent to "The Bad Place," despite her inherent tendency to make selfish choices. It's a solid premise that presents a lot of opportunities for funny and inventive stories, but it also requires an exhaustive amount of exposition. The result was a series premiere that felt like it had a lot of potential to be something great, but also felt pretty bogged down by all of the explaining it had to do.

It's hard to call the exposition done in these first two episodes a flaw, because it's all very necessary. These episodes had to explain what "The Good Place" is, how a person winds up either there or in "The Bad Place" (it's based on a point system that evaluates everything you ever did while alive), and how Eleanor can have any hope of staying in "The Good Place," when she is clearly a pretty bad person.  The answer to that last plot issue is Eleanor's afterlife soulmate (In "The Good Place" every person is paired with their perfect soul-mate, even though the pairings don't always seem very perfect) Chidi (William Jackson Harper), who was a professor of ethics during his life on earth. Chidi is reluctant to be an accomplice to Eleanor's fraud, and the way that he won't let Eleanor off the hook for her bad behavior creates a strong comedic dynamic between the two characters. A lot of credit in these first two episode is owed to William Jackson Harper who proves to be a strong comedic foil for Kristen Bell.

Along the way, the show introduces some key supporting characters that currently feel more like caricatures than people. Ted Danson's Michael is the most developed of the supporting characters so far. His always optimistic attitude can be played for great laughs, but Danson also shows that there a cracks in Michael's happy exterior (such as the scene where Michael kicks a small dog into the Sun because he mistakenly thinks it is a glitch in his "perfect" community). D'Arcy Carden plays Janet, a sort of Google search bar AI who appears as a human. Janet provides a lot of funny moments, but as of now lacks depth. Tahani (Jameela Jamil) and Jianyu (Manny Jacinto) are Eleanor's soul-mate neighbors. Tahani is set up as Eleanor's sort of rival, whose actions are nearly perfect but whose attitude is incredibly smug. It's a broad character that we've seen before, but I have hope the show can turn it into something interesting. Jianyu is a former Buddhist monk who has taken a vow of silence which he is continuing even in the afterlife. Mostly this gimmick plays as a punchline to the fact that Tahani talks all the time, and it drives her nuts that Jianyu won't say a word back to her. It's a joke with a short shelf life, but the relationship could be rewarding if the show chooses to explore it further.

That about describes my overall view of the show after these first two episodes. None of it is quite where it needs to be yet, but just about everything in these episodes suggest the show could go in a lot of very fun and interesting directions. Schur's former show "Parks and Recreation" is a classic example of a show that needed time to grow, and it eventually became one of TV's all time great comedies. Will that happen with "The Good Place"? I don't know, but these two episodes were arguably more polished and self aware that the entire first season of "Parks and Recreation," so it's definitely a possibility. Either way, I can definitely see myself sticking with this one for a while.