Created by Michael Schur, The Good Place aired from 2016 to 2020, following a young woman called Eleanor Shellstrop (portrayed by Kristen Bell, known to a young generation as the voice of Anna from Disney’s Frozen). Eleanor has recently died, and finds herself in the afterlife.
A being called Michael (played by Ted Danson), opens up a door to an office and greets her. He explains that she is in ‘The Good Place’, although he is clear that the afterlife does not adhere to Christian ideas of Heaven and Hell. God does not appear to exist in The Good Place universe.
While Eleanor and her newfound friends, Chidi Anagonye (played by William Jackson Harper), Tahani Al-Jamil (played by Jameela Jamil) and ‘Jianyu’(Jason Mendoza, portrayed by Manny Jacinto, who will also be in the upcoming Freaky Friday Film, Freakier Friday, playing Lindsay Lohan’s husband).
A demon, a robot, a millennial.. brilliant characters
The characters are all brilliantly developed. There’s Michael, a demon who tricks and later befriends our main characters; Janet, a helper robot who gradually turns more human over time; Eleanor, a cynical, selfish, sarcastic millennial type, who turns into a truly caring, inspirational person; ‘Jianyu’, who is initially beloved to be a Buddhist monk, but is actually turns out to be a young man called Jason from Florida, who is impulsive and perhaps a few baskets short of a picnic; Tahani, a vain, shallow former British socialite who has rubbed shoulders with many of the British and American elite, and then becomes altruistic and helps others to reach The Good Place; and finally Chidi, an adorable, insecure nerd who struggles to make decisions, but ends up being a self-assured, confident and calm, more decisive version of himself.
Friendships that create a family trope
Many people who enjoy modern media enjoy the found family trope, and truth be told, I am one of them. I had a very loving family growing up, but I find such comfort and warmth in the idea of having a found family, and I am fully aware of the vital importance of friendships. Friendships make life not only bearable, but genuinely joyful. As my Mum points out about her best friends repeatedly: friends are the family you choose. I feel this way about my friendship group at university. We have said, repeatedly, that we feel like a chaotic sort of family. I love that, and I love seeing that in media. I got the feeling that was what the group friendship dynamic was like when I watched Heartstopper, and I get the same feeling in The Good Place.
The false Good Place was meant as punishment
As is repeated by the characters a plethora of times in The Good Place, and Michael in particular, the four main characters help each other to become better people. This flies in the face of what Michael intends, due to him having put the four humans in a false Good Place together to psychologically torture both themselves and each other, by putting them into their personal nightmare situations. This is done as an experiment to see if, instead of facing eternal torture, those who go to the Bad Place can be punished in another way.
What he finds, though, surprises him and forces him to change his own ways, eventually. He learns that humans can change. Together, the group learns a moral formula of sorts, which they eventually add to their reforms of the afterlife. They figure out that changing an initial behaviour that causes conflict, hurt or pain, is the first port of call. The second, they discover, is adapting the motivations behind their behaviour. As Chidi, a former Moral and Ethics Philosopher, points out, it is not good enough to just do good. Being a good person requires you to automatically do what can be considered the right thing.
Various philosophies are explored
The show itself goes into a number of philosophies, by a variety of philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Thomas Scanlon, Aristotle, Plato and Kierkegaard, just to name a few. They touch on a number of different philosophies, including the classic Trolley Problem (as presented by Phillipa Foot), and a variation of this thought experiment involving a doctor who has to make the decision over whether to kill a healthy patient to save the live of five others, or sacrifice the lives of the five dying patients to save the healthy one.
As someone who answered a question on this (I studied Moral and Political Philosophy as my minor in my first year of university), I found it very interesting to look at all of the moral and ethical dilemmas and debates which sprung up throughout the show.
A good view on life, afterlife and being a good person
I also found their perspective of afterlife – and indeed, life itself – to be very comforting. As an atheist who is scared of death, I have always found it difficult to reconcile with this great big thing which will inevitably come to us all. This show made me feel calmer about what’s to come, and as though it is a natural process. At one point at the end of the series, Chidi uses an analogy of a wave, returning to the sea. I love that analogy, and will be adopting it whenever I become scared again.
Then, there was the way they portrayed life. Life is depicted as a gift to be grateful for, and it is presented that people always have the opportunity to grow and change as people. I believe that this is a beautiful message to come out of the show with. The relationships formed show the importance of not taking loved ones for granted while you are able to spend time with them, because life is short and you only get one chance. The show suggests that this mortality is what gives life its beauty and meaning, and that death is a natural part of this process.
There are also a lot of messages about what it truly takes to become a good person. For them, it means being empathetic, and caring about others. It means helping others when you can, and not expecting anything out of it. It means being selfless, and sacrificing your happiness for the good of other people, and the good of your community. It means looking after your loved ones, checking up on them, and loving and accepting them for who you are. Overwhelmingly, it’s a show about love, and I cannot think of anything better than that.
So, what has it actually taught me?
Chidi has taught me to be more selfless, and to not take advantage of my access to education (given that he is an intellectual and academic). He has encouraged me to re-engage with my inner nerd; specifically, my inner philosophy nerd. Tahani has taught me that fame and money are meaningless and empty, and that spending meaningful time with your family is the best way to exist. Jason has taught me to embrace my light-hearted and fun side, without letting my impulses take me over entirely. Janet has taught me that there is so much more to the world than the pursuit of knowledge, and that our connections with others are what makes life worth living, what makes us human. Michael has taught me that people can always change for the better, and that being human is truly a blessing. And Eleanor has taught me the importance of resilience, that being open to growth, change, learning and love is vital, and that, no matter what, everything is going to be okay.
The Good Place is a beautiful show about identity, life, afterlife, death, purpose and meaning. In just a brief period of time, it has fundamentally changed who I am. I am not who I was yesterday, nor do I wish to be. I wish to not only be good, but better than I was. To quote my favourite character from the show, Michael:
What matters isn’t if people are good or bad; what matters is if they’re trying to be better today than they were yesterday.
Carry that quote with you. It’s a good way to live. And watch the show: it’s easily a five star watch for me. It will change you, and you will be better for it.
Trust me, I’d know.
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