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Author Topic: The Good Place  (Read 27578 times)
NowhereMan
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Reply #35 on: April 10, 2018, 11:41:25 AM

 awesome, for real Actually having a Season 3 or 4 twist where this is all a wager between Sean and the Judge (actually from the Good Place) about demons being redeemable would be a pretty awesome 1-up twist. Or revealing this Janet is actually the original Janet and thus God (or something).

I suspect the growth of Janet is going to have some kind of big metaphysical pay off since she seems to be pretty much omnipotent within her programming and that is now glitched.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
eldaec
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Reply #36 on: April 10, 2018, 12:00:41 PM

Hmmm.

The problem with twists like that is they are not likely to compare well with the original twist which was so well embedded in s1 performances.

It seems a bit cheap to tell us s2 and s3 are not an honest PoV of the main cast. Possible to do it with a new or minor character ofc - but really hard to do it as well as last time. Every other line in the first few episodes is telling you the s1 twist, it only stays at all hidden if you aren't looking.

"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular ­assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson
"Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
Khaldun
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Reply #37 on: April 10, 2018, 02:14:33 PM

Well, think about it, they have iterated new situations and characters over time: the first Bad Place group; Sean; the Medium Place; more Bad Place people; the Judge. There's room for them to suddenly "widen out" the scope with something that functions like a twist: that none of this is what it seems, and that all the characters have the wrong idea, even the demons. Janet seems the obvious macguffin to use to change the status quo yet again, considering Michael's story of how he acquired her. An omni-capable automaton associated with Heaven brought into Hell with the idea that she'd lend it all a 'real' heavenly feeling? In retrospect that seems like a plan almost destined to go wrong.
lamaros
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Reply #38 on: April 10, 2018, 10:12:57 PM

I still like the idea that this is all actually an experiment of The Good Place that has gone sideways in some way, maybe by redeeming a demon more effectively than it has allowed people to overcome damnation. It would be kind of hilarious if the experiment is a wager between Kant and Schopenhauer or something like that.


Re Kant and Schopenhauer: I don't think the show can lean that far in to philosophy without losing the balance it currently has - but certainly your first sentence is where I thought the show was going at various points, and I wouldn't be surprised if it still ends up there.

Edit: To be honest, this would make a far more interesting Season 3 than continuing down some soap opera route with the Earth simulation. This show is far more interesting, and funnier, when its characters don't have any sure footing.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2018, 10:48:45 PM by lamaros »
eldaec
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Reply #39 on: April 11, 2018, 12:44:30 AM

At the end of last season I assumed next step was Michael and Janet in the real world.

'Retirement' is also unexplored.

Real world and 'Retirement' being the same thing is not out of the question.

"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular ­assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson
"Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
NowhereMan
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Reply #40 on: April 11, 2018, 10:00:16 AM

Hmmm.

The problem with twists like that is they are not likely to compare well with the original twist which was so well embedded in s1 performances.

It seems a bit cheap to tell us s2 and s3 are not an honest PoV of the main cast. Possible to do it with a new or minor character ofc - but really hard to do it as well as last time. Every other line in the first few episodes is telling you the s1 twist, it only stays at all hidden if you aren't looking.

If the other characters are in on it? Yeah that wouldn't work so well. Having either 1) Everyone else being dupes or 2) Sean and Janet being in on it in some way would be interesting. I think it works well at continuing to widen the world but I don't think it will work as well as the s1 twist, partly because you can't just keep coming up with twists and them working as well and partly because I don't think this has been as neatly planned from the beginning. They definitely need to work in someone from the actual Good Place though.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
jgsugden
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Reply #41 on: April 11, 2018, 10:22:06 AM

At the end of last season I assumed next step was Michael and Janet in the real world.

'Retirement' is also unexplored.
Isn't retirement the thing where Michael would be split apart into atoms and burned across a trillion suns or something?

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
Khaldun
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Reply #42 on: April 11, 2018, 04:05:56 PM

Let's put it this way: if someone told you a season of a sitcom would feature a significant amount of explication of Kantian ethics by a philosopher and it would be funny, you would have said, four years ago, that this was not gonna happen. That it couldn't happen.

So a hilarious bet between Kant and Schopenhauer doesn't seem out of the question to me at this point. Nothing does. For all I know Nietzsche and Foucault are going to show up as entertaining gay lovers and tell Jason he's the wisest of the entire group.
jgsugden
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Reply #43 on: April 11, 2018, 04:49:50 PM

I'll send them a shinny nickel if the last scene of the series is Cliff Clavin telling Sam Malone, "... and that err... sums up the afterlife."

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
Ironwood
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Reply #44 on: September 28, 2018, 03:30:21 PM

Season 3, here we go.

"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
Khaldun
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Reply #45 on: September 28, 2018, 04:08:03 PM

Yup! I'm feeling good about the theory that this is all about finding out if demons can become angels, with the humans as an entirely side issue.
lamaros
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Reply #46 on: September 30, 2018, 07:20:57 AM

Hopefully that was just the heavy lifting out of the way and the show can now get back to being funny.
Khaldun
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Reply #47 on: September 30, 2018, 07:14:10 PM

You are ridiculously hard to please.
lamaros
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Reply #48 on: September 30, 2018, 10:30:56 PM

You are ridiculously hard to please.


By the standards of this show that was a shit episode.
Ironwood
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Reply #49 on: October 01, 2018, 12:17:58 PM

I don't agree.  We laughed lots.

"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
schild
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Reply #50 on: October 04, 2018, 02:04:05 PM

liked season 2 overall more than the first one

didn't like the ending
Khaldun
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Reply #51 on: December 07, 2018, 05:48:19 AM

Last night's 'mid-season' finale was great. D'Arcy Carden did an unbelievably great job playing most of the cast.
lamaros
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Reply #52 on: December 09, 2018, 02:51:26 PM

This season has had only about 1.5 good episodes for me so far, but I'll keep watching.
Khaldun
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Reply #53 on: December 09, 2018, 07:30:10 PM

It hasn't been quite as funny or amazing as the first two, but still pretty genius by anything but lamaros standards, where Leonardo da Vinci is just kind of a duffer who has a couple of decent paintings and some meh sketches.
lamaros
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Reply #54 on: December 09, 2018, 09:06:19 PM

I'm sorry my selective appreciation of TV seems to rile you so much.
Zetor
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Reply #55 on: December 10, 2018, 12:00:36 AM

I was pretty amused by the episode that ostensibly took place in Budapest. They seemed to have done some filming on location, had people with Hungarian names in the credits... and yet, whenever those two artist dudes were 'speaking in Hungarian', it sounded like random mangled garbage.

... this is totally going to be a plot point in S6 when it turns out they've been in the Negaverse all along, right?  awesome, for real

(but yeah, I'm digging this series a lot overall)

Reg
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Reply #56 on: December 10, 2018, 04:18:32 AM

I'm sorry my selective appreciation of TV seems to rile you so much.

Continuing to watch a series where a 10 episode season only gave 1.5 good episodes makes no sense at all. How seriously should we take your negative ratings when you keep watching what you say are  bad TV shows?
Draegan
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Reply #57 on: December 10, 2018, 06:05:21 AM

It's the internet.
jgsugden
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Reply #58 on: December 10, 2018, 07:13:51 AM

It's the internet.
Right.  The internet where we argue because we know we're just that one post away from everyone agreeing with us.

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
lamaros
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Reply #59 on: December 10, 2018, 12:45:09 PM

I'm sorry my selective appreciation of TV seems to rile you so much.

Continuing to watch a series where a 10 episode season only gave 1.5 good episodes makes no sense at all. How seriously should we take your negative ratings when you keep watching what you say are  bad TV shows?

Because the first season was one of the best tv shows Ive watched recently, and the second season was mostly good.
Raph
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Title delayed while we "find the fun."


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Reply #60 on: December 11, 2018, 10:12:26 PM

I was pretty amused by the episode that ostensibly took place in Budapest. They seemed to have done some filming on location, had people with Hungarian names in the credits... and yet, whenever those two artist dudes were 'speaking in Hungarian', it sounded like random mangled garbage.

... this is totally going to be a plot point in S6 when it turns out they've been in the Negaverse all along, right?  awesome, for real

(but yeah, I'm digging this series a lot overall)

The Hungarian names were actually "Artistic Man" and "Artistic Man's Friend"... according to Reddit. :)
Zetor
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Reply #61 on: December 11, 2018, 10:37:50 PM

I was pretty amused by the episode that ostensibly took place in Budapest. They seemed to have done some filming on location, had people with Hungarian names in the credits... and yet, whenever those two artist dudes were 'speaking in Hungarian', it sounded like random mangled garbage.

... this is totally going to be a plot point in S6 when it turns out they've been in the Negaverse all along, right?  awesome, for real

(but yeah, I'm digging this series a lot overall)

The Hungarian names were actually "Artistic Man" and "Artistic Man's Friend"... according to Reddit. :)
Oh yeah, the role names were hilariously mangled too. Basically, the first guy was "Jozsef Müvészember", which is... almost Hungarian for "Joseph the Artist Man"... however, the other person was called "Istvan Müvészi Ember-Barátja" which due to 'Művész" vs "Művészi" would translate as "Stephen Artistic Man-Friend" -- I assume they meant boyfriend? It made me think of the sign with trrbl mangled Hungarian in Sandman (THANKS STEVEN BRUST).

What threw me was the *actor* -- "Peter Katona" is actually a legit Hungarian name. Goddammit Péter, why did you betray your country and allow those imperialistic pig-dogs stomp on our, uh, ~cultural heritage~?!

Ahem... this has been a public service from the Hungarian Bureau of Useless Minutiae, no need to thank me! I'm sure we will have someone from Jacksonville around momentarily to complain about the inaccurate depiction of their airport taxi service.  why so serious?
« Last Edit: December 11, 2018, 10:48:13 PM by Zetor »

Khaldun
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Reply #62 on: December 12, 2018, 07:56:23 AM

Joseph the Artist Man and Stephen Artistic Man-Friend are truly great names.
Raph
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Reply #63 on: December 14, 2018, 01:40:25 PM

Oh, that was totally not the Jacksonville airport. Didn't resemble it in the least.
Khaldun
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Reply #64 on: January 26, 2019, 08:17:49 AM

Interesting season overall. The twists and turns of the plot came really quickly; I sort of felt they weren't always being patient enough to let a specific situation produce its own humor. But Michael's discovery of what was going on with the points system felt clever (and actually pretty meaningful in a deep way) and the season ender was interesting.
Reg
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Reply #65 on: January 26, 2019, 09:48:26 AM

I really didn't think they'd be able to come up with enough material to keep going but I'm still hooked.
Samwise
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Reply #66 on: January 26, 2019, 11:33:50 AM

It strikes me that with the new experiment they've left out a really key element of previous iterations, which is that Michael was torturing them in such a way as to prey on their personal deficiencies,and that forced them to be more self-aware and work on improving themselves. 

Really, Michael should have just repeated the same "make them torture each other" technique, since that has a proven 100% success rate with the original group.  He basically invented Purgatory.   DRILLING AND MANLINESS

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Khaldun
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Reply #67 on: January 26, 2019, 11:49:29 AM

Which is kind of an odd thing if you think about it, considering that humans thought about that idea a long time ago.

The show is being really careful about pinning down exactly what the demons and Good Place admins and other immortals are, exactly, and the Judge doesn't really seem to be God. As it should be, but it does leave some questions unanswered (in a good way, in terms of room for them to offer some more twists).
Reg
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Reply #68 on: January 26, 2019, 11:54:42 AM

There are a lot of good stories based on the premise of God going missing or refusing to come out of his room for hundreds or thousands of years. What I find the most interesting is that Michael himself has changed and become a better person. I never thought that was possible for a born evil Demon. I forget. Do angels and demons have free will or is that just a human thing.
Ironwood
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Reply #69 on: January 26, 2019, 12:23:12 PM

Fairly sure that's making a point about nature vs nurture.

"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
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