The Good Place

[schneefink]

I saw several people in my dw circle post about "The Good Place": apparently the season finale had an amazing twist, and that made me curious. It's very short so far, 13 episodes with half an hour each, so I decided to check it out.
Now some people, knowing that there was a twist coming, might try to watch carefully for clues and try to figure out what was coming. But I decided not to because it made watching more relaxed, and I wouldn't get attached to any theories that might turn out to be wrong and might spoil the surprise twist. It worked out well.

I did NOT see it coming, even though in hindsight there were SO MANY clues. (I did have a few "wouldn't it be funny if" thoughts in the right direction, but I never thought they were actually right.) I did think the set-up for the Good Place was very restrictive and it was weird that nobody except Eleanor seemed bothered by it, for example, but I thought that was just a part of the premise that they didn't think about too closely. Michael literally kicked a dog into the sun!

The reset at the end – the only way it works for me is if I imagine that they'll find each other again and find a way to escape, otherwise it's too depressing and pointless. But I'm confident they will! Mostly because of Janet, and because of the overall atmosphere of the show. I do wonder how that'll change in season 2, when the viewers know what's happening from the beginning.
If I'm very optimistic I hope for Eleanor/Tahani/Chidi.

Comments

[jae]

I think the reason why we didn't see it coming is that we were all collectively underestimating the show! Like, I actually did notice and think about all the things we were meant to notice as clues, but those things didn't register as clues to me. In fact, they irritated me because I thought they were hiccups in the worldbuilding or the characterization. I was enjoying the show, but the twist gave me so much more respect for it.

-J

[schneefink]

Good point. In the second season it'll definitely be very interesting to see what has been a clue all along and then try to figure out what is a new clue for something in the show's future, and what might be an actual plot hole or inconsistency.

[jae]

I know this is an old post, but I really wanted to make sure you saw this! It's a great interview with the creator about the season 1 finale twist. :)

http://uproxx.com/sepinwall/the-good-place-twist-explained-mike-schur/2/

-J

[schneefink]

That is a great interview, thanks a lot for the link :) Janet as Clippy xD Now I'm even more curious about the second season, what will change and how the story-telling will change now that viewers will watch differently.