Jump the shark

‘Someone royally forked up’: how The Good Place turned hellish

The philosophical comedy is now so complicated that watching it feels more like homework rather than a hobby

Few sitcoms can effortlessly blend silly jokes with conversations about the time-space continuum and the purpose of life, but when it debuted in 2016, The Good Place was out of this world. After Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) was killed by a truck advertising erectile-dysfunction medication, Ted Danson’s Michael – the dapper designer of her afterlife experience – informed her that she had made it to “the Good Place” thanks to her history of humanitarian acts.

A former telesales scammer whose favourite book was Kendall Jenner’s Instagram feed, Eleanor instantly realised that “someone royally forked up” (the Good Place is a swear-free zone). But rather than face her fiery destiny, she asked her designated celestial soulmate, moral philosophy professor Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), to help her become a better person. He reluctantly agreed, and later added their neighbours, name-dropping socialite Tahani Al-Jamil (played by Jameela Jamil) and dirtbag DJ Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto) to his ethics classes. After this mismatched crew had one personality clash too many, the first season finale delivered a hell of a twist when Eleanor unmasked Michael as a demon in disguise and realised they’d been in the Bad Place all along.

The writers could have dug themselves into a hole with this revelation, but the show soared to new heights in season two, as the humans teamed up with Michael against his satanic boss in an effort to make it into the Good Place for real. This led to some of the show’s standout episodes, including one that explored the reformed villain’s friendship with Janet, an all-powerful Alexa in humanoid form played to perfection by D’Arcy Carden.

In season three, however, the show fell to Earth with a bang. A storyline where the four humans had their memories wiped and returned to their mortal lives separated the core cast and stripped the show of its magic; while a reunion interlude in Sydney, featuring some of the most spurious Australian accents ever, only extended viewers’ misery. Season four, currently airing, has found our protagonists in a sort of limbo, where their last chance of avoiding eternal damnation is to give spiritual makeovers to a new bunch of ethical underachievers.

Chidi planned to revive his mentoring role, but when his Aussie ex-girlfriend Simone became part of the experiment, his memory was erased again so he wouldn’t give the game away. This ended his budding relationship with Eleanor and forced the audience to spend time with new, unlikable characters rather than the ones they’d grown to love. No one could deny that The Good Place had moments of brilliance and the best music-pun restaurant names in the business (Sushi and the Banshees, Beignet and the Jets). But recently it has gone from a philosophical comedy to an existential drama and the show’s ever-expanding mythology has made it so complicated that watching now feels more like homework than a hobby. When it departs from our screens in 2020, it will be a forking relief.