Streaming on Netflix
Metadata: 2016 | TV-14 | 1 Season, 13 episodes, 22 minutes each
Genre: Comedy
Why did I watch it: My brother recommended it. (Thanks, Jason!) He said I needed something light and funny to watch after The Punisher. (He was right.)
You might also like: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime
Jason had to tell me to watch The Good Place approximately three times before I actually did it. Honestly, I held off because the premise sounded kind of dumb. By the end of the first episode, I had decided it's actually genius. A not very virtuous woman named Eleanor (Kristin Bell) dies in a grocery cart accident that is too hilarious to be tragic and ends up in "the Good Place," an afterlife designed for really good people. The catch is, she's not supposed to be there! Don't worry, I'm not spoiling anything. You learn all of that in the first episode.
Everything about this show works. Kristin Bell leads an uber-talented cast of up-and-comers, and it just. feels. so. good to fall in love with fresh faces and characters. One of the best things the show does is assemble a diverse cast in a way that feels totally effortless. I mean, of course there would be people of all colors and genders and ages and shapes and sizes in the Good Place! Right?! Thankfully, these people aren't actually all as virtuous as they seem at first—that would be boring—and it's tons of fun learning about their various, um, shortcomings. For example, on Earth, Eleanor's favorite word was a certain four-letter one that starts with "f." The Good Place filters out bad language, though, which means Eleanor says "fork" a whole lot. It's sort of like middle school humor, but boy-oh-boy, it makes me laugh every time.
The Good Place is riotously funny, totally weird, and completely lovable. I devoured Season 1 in less than two sittings, and I can't wait for Season 2 to come to Netflix.
Enjoy!
Grace
