I feel like a philosophy
major on a serious bender, thanks to the hours I’ve spent watching The Good
Place.
In normal times, I rarely
watch television. Movies are my beat, and it wouldn’t occur to me to
binge-watch a TV series. Hell, I wasn’t even quite sure how to turn on Netflix.
All that ended in mid-March when I found myself a prisoner in
my own home, thanks to COVID-19. I’ve since watched all of The Crown and
am finally catching up on Mad Men. Not to mention The Great British
Baking Show, which fueled my enthusiasm for baked goods (yum!) but also
reminded me of all the culinary skills I’m lacking.
Now, though, I’m hooked on a
series that’s about as far-fetched as it can get. While mortality is in the air
both in real life and on television, this is a show that skips death and goes
straight to the afterlife. The Good Place follows Eleanor Shellstrop, a
rough-around-the-edges young woman from Phoenix who likes to party hard and
satisfy her own personal needs at the expense of others. As played by Kristen
Bell, the post-mortality Eleanor is brash, foul-mouthed (to the extent that the
rules allow her to swear), and undaunted by any obstacle in her path. A cuddly
heroine she is not. The comrades she meets in the afterworld are a motley lot.
There’s Chidi Anagonye,, an earnest Senegalese professor of ethics and moral
philosophy who gets the unlikely assignment of being Eleanor’s Good Place
soul-mate. There’s Tahani Al-Jamil, a remarkably tall, remarkably pretty,
incredibly snobbish Brit likes to boast of her history of philanthropy and her
web of celebrity connections. And there’s Tahani’s official soul-mate, a young
Taiwanese monk who’s taken a vow of silence. But wait—there seems to have been
a mistake. He’s actually Jason Mendoza, a part-time DJ and drug dealer (as well
as full-time doofus) from Jacksonville, Florida.
Two more essential characters
fill out the cast. Presiding over this neighborhood of the Good Place, a Disneyland-ish space full of
fountains, frozen yogurt stands, and a giraffe or two, is Michael, its
architect, and a being whose outrageous secrets are gradually revealed as the series
moves forward. He’s played by Ted Danson, an actor adept at showcasing a wide
range of outlandish emotions. (No question that in real life Danson has a
wicked sense of humor. Long ago, when dating Whoopi Goldberg, he showed up at a
Friars Club roast in her honor wearing blackface and proceeded to eat a
watermelon.)
And of course there’s Janet,
who’s not easily described. She looks like your basic cute flight attendant
type, but she has all the knowledge of the universe at her fingertips. Which
doesn’t stop her from the occasional emotional trauma as she runs through a
series of highly inappropriate boyfriends. .
All this may sound goofy
indeed, but underlying it all are serious questions about ethics, with nods to
philosophers like Aristotle, Descartes, and Kierkegaard. Under Chidi’s
tutelage, Eleanor truly weighs questions of good and evil, evolving from a
selfish brat into a far more empathetic woman. And – though she’s not immune to
backsliding – her new outlook helps her weather the challenges that Michael and
others set before her.
One thing that’s particularly
refreshing: although Eleanor and her afterlife peers demonstrate at times all
manner of bad behavior, no one on the series is ever cruel on the basis of
religion, race, or political leaning. This is the most diverse cast I’ve ever
seen on television. Some of them believe in eternal torture, but racist they
are not.
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