When The Good Place aired on a fateful day in 2016 it was new to NBC, with a plot so complex it seemed like nothing had ever rivaled it. From the get-go, the show puts its unique qualities at the forefront of its image. A sitcom and a moral dilemma problem solver? The Good Place is the one and only. The show begins through Eleanor Shellstrops eyes, a selfish woman who wakes up in “heaven” and knows she doesn’t belong. Navigating the distress of saving herself, versus owning up to her moral compass, she asks for the help of Chidi Anagonye, a former moral philosophy professor. Eleanor, along with her friends Chidi, Tahani, and Jason, discover secrets about the virtuous town they live in, as well as how to better themselves from the people they once were.Â
Rotten Tomatoes rewarded the show with a 97% tomatoes score and a total of 81 nominations and 14 wins including Outstanding Achievement in Comedy and Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for four episodes. Even now, eight years later, the name floats around in conversations, recommendations, and is at least one of your close friends’ favorite tv shows. But why is the show so popular? And why has it maintained this status?Â
Well, the show is funny. It’s got witty humor and relevant pop culture references. Each episode caps at 22 minutes, and each season has around 13 episodes. In recent media, the trend has followed as such: take five years to release a single season of eight or fewer episodes that are all over an hour. Finish said season in one night, and wait five more years for the next one. As TikTok user @watchwithmike summarizes, the classic season length of a TV show is beloved and missed.
The Good Place is a callback to sitcoms like Friends, and How I Met Your Mother, channeling the idea of watching for simple entertainment as it copies a formula. The formula includes banter as the characters develop, and they play off of each other seamlessly. For example, Tahani and Eleanor are constantly at each other’s throats, jealous of what the other has. Yet they have a level of understanding and pass clever comments to each other in a way where it is hard to tell if it is sarcastic or not. Every rewatch of the show highlights something funnier than the last time. It’s impossible to get enough of it.
Within this already lovable template (which viewers demand as it is already a guarantee for success) comes incredibly well-written characters. It’s not that they’re super well-liked or nice or have a quirk, in fact, it’s the opposite. In the beginning, it was really hard to like them. Eleanor is selfish, Tahani is obsessed with her image, Chidi is so indecisive it hurts, and Jason, to put it lightly, is not that smart. The characters are meant to be difficult though, because The Good Place and its true meaning is about growth and forgiveness of mistakes. Had the four of them been the most perfect people, their characters would’ve fallen flat. The point is that you don’t like them…yet.Â
As they learn their struggles and how to overcome them together (keyword: together) the four become better. They even hijack the community overseer and demon, Micheal, and his “not a robot” assistant Janet to become better themselves. In every way, human and non-human alike, learn to be better versions of themselves, and that’s what the show wants you to see. Their development is not only clear to each other but to the viewer as well, as episodes are cleverly crafted to teach those watching a lesson about ethics and philosophy too.
One episode, probably the most well-known episode, does just this. Titled “The Trolley Problem” Micheal transports Eleanor and Chidi into a simulation of this world-famous ethical thought experiment. In case it isn’t known, this specific experiment triggers one to think on their feet and imagine what they would do if they had to choose between saving one person or many. There is no direct answer, only knowing that it is a difficult situation. Similar to what X user @egregiousknives says, such a blatant question asked in TV not only questions the characters but viewers of the series as well. It is a show meant to confront humanity in its fundamental, ethical truths.
My final thoughts have to do with just that: the finale. If, in recent years, the media has felt oversaturated with shows that run too long, it’s not in your head. As television shows find their crowd, they run with it and create season after season. Soon enough, there’s one season too many, and what was once good has lost its charm. The Good Place avoids this. It lasts four seasons, the perfect run time for the perfect level of plot twists and questions. As the last episode approaches, the show leans into true human nature, the good kind. The characters have all lived (and died) through countless problems to solve together, and the finale sums up the importance of friends and family to better oneself. Emotional, curt, and sweet, the last 22 minutes of The Good Place leave anyone who watched teary-eyed and fulfilled.
There’s nothing much else to say, except that it is an instant classic. I beg all those who read this to give it a try, for countless laughs, some tears, and an opportunity to change your perspective of life. As Eleanor asks Micheal, in season 3, episode 1, “What do I owe you?” Micheal responds: “The real question, Eleanor, is what do we owe to each other?” We owe each other external love and support, and the assumption that everyone is capable of change. A show so long-lasting in memory is hard to come by, and since I watched it for the first time in 2020, I’ve given it a rewatch every year after. It will come down as a television jewel, special in all remarks, and will remain relevant for years to come.