The Good Place: ...Someone Like Me as a Member

November 3, 2016 6:23 PM - Season 1, Episode 9

Michael tries to manage The Bad Place crew in advance of negotiations over Fake Eleanor's fate. Real Eleanor and Chidi go on a double date with Fake Eleanor and Trevor.

The Good Place returns in Jianyuary.

posted by Small Dollar (29 comments total)

The set up to Real Eleanor saying she learned English from Seinfeld was beautiful.

I've quickly come to like The Good Place more than Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which has taken a real step back this year for my taste.

I see a lot of value in making misogyny one of the defining traits of the Bad People.

Finally, Ted Danson should never EVER dance.
posted by dry white toast at 6:46 PM on November 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

It is indeed a cruel irony that his name is a homophone for "dancin'."

I haven't seen the episode yet. I just had to say that.
posted by thesmallmachine at 8:48 PM on November 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

That this plot-driven show is on hiatus until 2017 is annoying as fork. It's only got 12 0r 13 episodes ordered; they should have found room for them on the schedule somewhere.
posted by mojohand at 8:53 PM on November 3, 2016 [12 favorites]

Kind-of a talky episode lacking in wackiness, but Mini McGee was glued to the screen regardless.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:00 PM on November 3, 2016

I stayed up late to watch this episode. Wish I'd realized I have till JANUARY to catch up.

Seriously, why.
posted by purpleclover at 10:47 PM on November 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've been really enjoying this show, everyone is great and Adam Scott has the douchebro mastered. I thought the big reveal was going to be Shawn, but Tahani showing a little Bond villain side was a nice touch.

Then NBC airs a promo saying "The Good Place will return in January." Oh, come on.

One question: Is everyone in Micheal's "Good Place" broken? We know Eleanor and Jianyu/Jason are fake, and Tahani showed another side in the man cave.
posted by Marky at 12:08 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Tahani showed another side in the man cave.

Uhh, I think you mean budhole.
posted by tracicle at 7:00 AM on November 4, 2016 [30 favorites]

Forkin' January!
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 8:01 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Wait, what?

January?

What the fork?
posted by Grangousier at 8:06 AM on November 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, of course, Trevor has taken over the scheduling of the show. It all makes sense now.
posted by Grangousier at 8:29 AM on November 4, 2016 [11 favorites]

Another thing that struck me is that as long as The Good Place is only for a very select few, it makes a mockery of any idea they might have of being good. If Eleanor is capable of change, then anyone is, in which case Chidi could argue quite convincingly to Shawn, when he arrives, that what is really needed is a post-mortem Cincinnati, as Eleanor said.
posted by Grangousier at 8:35 AM on November 4, 2016 [6 favorites]

One question: Is everyone in Micheal's "Good Place" broken?

So far, we know that Eleanor and Jianyu are genuinely incorrectly there (if Michael is telling us the truth), but I would call Chidi and Tahani less "broken" than "imperfect". Chidi is just sort of boringly into studying ethics and wishy-washy, while Tahani is just sort of self-involved and oneupsmanny.
posted by Etrigan at 9:19 AM on November 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

A scorpi-ote would be a perfect Bad Place monster.
posted by Small Dollar at 11:19 AM on November 4, 2016 [7 favorites]

The Bad Place already sounds a lot like high school anyway, so sure.
posted by Etrigan at 11:27 AM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

We have no idea if Chidi ever did anything we would conventionally call "good". All we know is that he didn't lie much.
posted by amtho at 1:38 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I still haven't sorted out my thoughts beyond "wow, so good" but I liked this quote from Vulture: "That’s more like what this show does best, suggesting that a restless soul’s true punishment could be to realize — too late — that she’s always needed to be a part of something bigger."
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:51 PM on November 4, 2016 [7 favorites]

Yeah something doesn't totally wash with Tahani and Chidi both being there. Chidi seems intrinsically good but doesn't seem to have done much to garner the kind of point total to be in a Good 1%-er. Whereas Tahani actually seems like she was jealous and calculating, but just kept running up her score to "win." You could make the argument that she's an intrinsically worse person than Fake Eleanor.

My wife posited that the solution to the issue of who belongs where will be resolved (either in the short term or long term of the series) by creating post-mortem Cinncinnati.
posted by dry white toast at 7:50 PM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Maybe having some kind of injustice to address, some kind of mission, is what _makes_ the good place good for most of its residents. Maybe if Eleanor was gone, and everything really was "perfect", the actual do-gooders would be miserable.
posted by amtho at 9:04 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't know how classical we're going on the seven deadly sins, but Tahani certainly suffers from pride and envy.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:34 AM on November 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm calling it now: Michael trades Tahani to the Bad Place in order to keep fake Eleanor.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:31 AM on November 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

My theory: Tahani realizes that her real soulmate is in the Bad Place and undertakes an Orpheus-like quest to retrieve him.
posted by amtho at 11:40 AM on November 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

January? That's some bullshirt right there. We get it, you control the schedule, wrap it up Elton John.

Anyway, I wonder if Tahani is going to believe that everyone except her is an impostor. She's discovered that her best friend Eleanor was an impostor, and now she's discovered her so called soul-mate's budhole, and it's not pretty.

And while I thought Real Eleanor was a fake last episode, she seemed pretty convincing this time around. I mean, would a fake know about tom yum goong soup? Although I get weirded out anytime someone calls Eleanor's house "primitive Icelandic", because I immediately think of this type of dark and damp houses, which are nothing like Eleanor's light and airy home.
posted by bjrn at 12:12 PM on November 5, 2016

One thing that occurred to me last night was that no one in the Good Place seems to miss anyone down on earth. Which made me realise that all the Good Placers (including fake Eleanor) have had lives that were very disconnected from other people. Fake Eleanor pushed everyone away, Chidi chose to live in his head, Tahani worked to impress people more than do good, and Jianyu is just .. Jianyu. Maybe this place is about being a home for all the lost souls, and Fake Eleanor isn't the only lost soul there? Afterall, I'm not sure Real Eleanor is more connected to people than the fake one. And Fake Eleanor helps Chidi a lot more than Real Eleanor I suspect.

Also, what kind of soul mate would the Real Jianyu make for Tahani!? Real Jianyu is a real Buddhist monk with a real vow of silence. That was making her very unhappy. I think Fake Jianyu is more what Tahani needs, so maybe that's on purpose.
posted by dness2 at 1:42 PM on November 5, 2016 [11 favorites]

Yeah, each episode The Man who was Thursday twist where it turns out they all think they're pretending because they think they alone don't "really" belong seems tempting. But Chidhi & Tehani seem flawed in non-secret ways they aren't trying to hide.

On the other hand real Eleanor is so over the top that maybe she is a creation.

(I loved how fake Eleanor's nightmare house was close to real Eleanor's dream house.)
posted by mark k at 12:30 AM on November 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, and the payoff to the big step up to the bedroom area!
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 4:54 AM on November 7, 2016 [6 favorites]

The set up to Real Eleanor saying she learned English from Seinfeld was beautiful.
I caught this episode yesterday and I'm still i awe at that joke.
posted by Green With You at 7:50 AM on November 7, 2016 [5 favorites]

I'm kind of bummed that the Bad Place turned out to be actually bad. Since Michael's early line that all the great human artists and musicians went to the Bad Place, I've been expecting the reveal to be that there is no Bad Place. It's just another Good Place, possibly with more sex and passion. The show's Good Place is specifically for uptight do-gooders who couldn't enjoy heaven if they didn't think they were the only ones there. Sort of like the Baptists in the old joke. I thought the big conflict would come once Eleanor had to decide which Good Place to spend eternity in.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:01 AM on November 8, 2016 [5 favorites]

The Good Place is back tonight.

YAAAAAAAY!
posted by mochapickle at 3:07 PM on January 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Karaoke Nixon ftw.

--

"I know what I have to do. I have to be... more accomodating.

Offer them everything they want, give in to all of their demands, and then they'll have to respect me!"
posted by porpoise at 1:39 PM on January 8, 2017 [3 favorites]