In the wake of what have been a few pretty eventful episodes, “Most Improved Player” gave The Good Place a chance to take advantage of its great cast and provide a satisfying next step in Eleanor’s journey to becoming a better person. Most of the episode revolves around Michael (Ted Danson, who after being pushed to the side for the first few episodes, has become the series MVP in the show’s most recent episodes) interviewing Eleanor and her friends to figure out who knew what about Eleanor being an imposter and Janet’s death. What “Most Improved Player” highlighted about The Good Place is that with a cast as talented as the one the show has, sometimes just letting them play off of each other, can produce the best results.
Putting Michael at the center of the episode was a smart move for the show. For not being a human, he’s arguably the most human of any of the characters on the show. Here Michael was playing his greatest hits list of personality traits. His reserved sympathy for Eleanor was affecting, his misplaced reverence for Jianyu’s way of life wrung what little comedy out of that part of the show that is left, and his overall frustration with the situation as a whole provided most of the episode’s best laughs. The running gag about Janet answering every character’s request by bringing everyone a cactus instead of what they asked for, could have gotten old quick, but the the pure frustration that Ted Danson was able to convey every time made it one of the episode’s funniest aspects. Darcy Carden also deserves a lot of credit for so convincingly selling the joke every single time.
As far as addressing the events at the end of last week’s episode, “Most Improved Player” set up a lot of strong points of conflict going into the final episodes of the season. The show has shown little signs over its course that Eleanor is becoming a better person, but here the show really sold the idea that she definitely isn’t the kind of person that belongs in the Bad Place. Not only does Eleanor openly acknowledge remorse for the bad things she did during her life, she repeatedly shows that the bonds she has formed with her friends in the Good Place, mean more to her than her own comfort in remaining there. The episode smartly contrasted Eleanor’s kind of “bad” with the kind of “bad” displayed by the representatives of the Bad Place when they arrive to take her. That she is physically repulsed by how they act shows that Eleanor’s desire to stay in the Good Place is less about the physical comforts of her environment and more about the people she has been spending her time with. Overall the episode did a lot to show that Eleanor, is far from perfect, but she’s still a protagonist worth rooting for.
Other Thoughts:
- Adam Scott’s guest starring role as the representative from the Bad Place was a perfect bit of casting. Here’s hoping more Parks and Recreation alumni can find their way onto the show from time to time.
- Some of the other funny gags from the show included Michael accidentally revealing to Tahani, through the lie detector cube, that he was lying when he said her testimony was helpful, or the punishments on the train to the Bad Place, such as the temperature in the train raising one degree every time Eleanor thinks of how hot it is in the train.
- At the end of the episode it is revealed that the Eleanor who was supposed to be in the Good Place, has been in the Bad Place this whole time. It’s a great note of conflict to end the episode with, but shouldn’t Michael be questioning why the Bad Place representative only mentioned the second Eleanor after Michael pulled our Eleanor off the train?
- The show has done a nice job of building the relationships between Eleanor and both Tahani and Chidi. That Chidi was willing to put himself at risk to save Eleanor, and that Tahani’s real anger with Eleanor is because she thinks Eleanor wasn’t her true friend, were two of the more affecting aspects of the episode.
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