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Post by Jeremy on Nov 11, 2018 8:04:26 GMT -8
I think Parks and Rec sustained a pretty incredible three-season peak (from S2 to S4). Ditto The Office, which Schur was a regular writer on. The Good Place is a different beast from his other shows, but there's only so much that can be done with the premise.
My issue with S3 is that, thus far, it seems to lack the same distinguishing identity of the first two. Part of this may because of the earthbound setting, but beyond that, there's a definite lack of focus and freshness this season.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Nov 11, 2018 11:49:44 GMT -8
I think Parks and Rec sustained a pretty incredible three-season peak (from S2 to S4). Ditto The Office, which Schur was a regular writer on. The Good Place is a different beast from his other shows, but there's only so much that can be done with the premise. My issue with S3 is that, thus far, it seems to lack the same distinguishing identity of the first two. Part of this may because of the earthbound setting, but beyond that, there's a definite lack of focus and freshness this season. I agree w/r/t The Office and Parks and Rec. They did have some great runs for an impressively long time. But they undoubtedly grew a little stale (well, a lot in the case of The Office-Parks was still pretty good) after that point. It would be a shame for that to happen to The Good Place, especially if Schur really intends to make this show for 4.5 more seasons. If he pulls it off, it'll be one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of television. With the way Season 3's going so far though...I don't know.
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Post by Jeremy on Nov 11, 2018 12:14:45 GMT -8
I don't see The Good Place running for more than four or five seasons, total. Like most heavily-serialized, status quo-changing shows, there's only a certain amount of story it can tell without feeling like it's being dragged out for the sake of being dragged out. Shows like Parks and Rec (or Superstore, TGP's lead-in) can last much longer, since they're not dependent on major twists and game-changing finales.
(Plus, the show's ratings aren't doing it any favors with the network.)
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 9, 2018 11:17:37 GMT -8
Despite the readily apparent flaws with this season, I thought "Janet(s)" was great. A real game-changer, with plenty of laughs, and a great bit of stunt casting with Stephen Merchant. Easily S3's strongest episode yet.
Also, D'Arcy Carden could certainly get an Emmy nomination for it, if the Emmys would only realize this show exists.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Dec 9, 2018 12:29:59 GMT -8
Despite the readily apparent flaws with this season, I thought "Janet(s)" was great. A real game-changer, with plenty of laughs, and a great bit of stunt casting with Stephen Merchant. Easily S3's strongest episode yet. Also, D'Arcy Carden could certainly get an Emmy nomination for it, if the Emmys would only realize this show exists. It and "The Worst Possible Use of Free Will" are the two best of the season in my opinion. "Jeremy Bearimy" was also very good.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jan 25, 2019 11:53:38 GMT -8
Augh augh augh. Not a good episode. Actively bad episode.
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Post by Jeremy on Jan 25, 2019 13:28:39 GMT -8
Okay episode, but as a finale, it's pretty underwhelming. Between the recycled locales and constant mind-wipes and reset buttons, I think this show has trod pretty much all the ground it can. Hopefully next season finds some fresher ideas.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Jan 25, 2019 14:41:41 GMT -8
Okay episode, but as a finale, it's pretty underwhelming. Between the recycled locales and constant mind-wipes and reset buttons, I think this show has trod pretty much all the ground it can. Hopefully next season finds some fresher ideas. Something that someone else brought up that really resonated with me is why the Chidi/Eleanor thing fell flat for me. They've already done it, and far more effectively (Chidi and Eleanor never worked better as a couple than in Season 1). The AV Club compared their interactions in this episode to "I Will Remember You", but in my opinion, the reason that worked so well is because it stuck. It was a poignant one-off 'what if?' scenario. There's no evidence that this will. And even if it doesn't, it might get rebooted again. They've done it at the end of every season so far. Another thing I thought this season did really wrong was the serialization. Almost every episode felt like an unsatisfying puzzle piece of a larger story. And that larger story is deeply silly, so there's nothing to latch onto for me. There isn't much tension, and I know nothing is going to be resolved by the season's (or episode)'s end. It'll end on another cliffhanger. The first two seasons (season two, in particular) nailed it. Every episode felt satisfying in its own right, from the Trolley Problem to the hundreds of reboots to their stint in the Bad Place. The show's depth was the third major problem-or lack thereof. I've been watching/re-watching Adventure Time lately, and it boggles my mind that an 11 minute cartoon for young children has more to say about life, depression, adolescence, and growing up than what a high profile network sitcom written by a bunch of Harvard grads has to say about "What We Owe to Each Other" (This could change with the end of the show, though).
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jan 25, 2019 20:03:53 GMT -8
The frustrating thing is that this episode could have kept Chidanor (Eleidi?) together while putting both of them in a novel situation that'd challenge their character development and give them real stakes, with both of them living a lie for the greater good. But no - Chidi has to lose his character development and """"""heroically"""""" choose to effectively kill himself, shuffling his discomfort onto his current lover. So that we can have a love triangle. BLEEECCH.
Add in lots of awful little moments like Michael being reduced to a sniveling coward, Simone getting fridged, and Janet telling Eleanor that during these past few eternities she's learned that the universe is a magical and unknowable place (and not, y'know, a bureaucracy where the best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with passionate intensity) - and everything adds up to a terrible terrible finale.
Holy motherforking shirtballs... this is a bad show!
I kid, given that The Good Place loves zigging where you expect it to zag and burns through plot with astonishing velocity - but only slightly, because I can't help but shake the horrible feeling that the writers are going to abandon everything that made the show interesting, because they'd rather write interminable will-they-or-won't-theys and lazy gags about how tacky (place white people live that isn't New York or California) is.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Jan 26, 2019 10:38:03 GMT -8
The frustrating thing is that this episode could have kept Chidanor (Eleidi?) together while putting both of them in a novel situation that'd challenge their character development and give them real stakes, with both of them living a lie for the greater good. But no - Chidi has to lose his character development and """"""heroically"""""" choose to effectively kill himself, shuffling his discomfort onto his current lover. So that we can have a love triangle. BLEEECCH. Add in lots of awful little moments like Michael being reduced to a sniveling coward, Simone getting fridged, and Janet telling Eleanor that during these past few eternities she's learned that the universe is a magical and unknowable place (and not, y'know, a bureaucracy where the best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with passionate intensity) - and everything adds up to a terrible terrible finale. Holy motherforking shirtballs... this is a bad show! I kid, given that The Good Place loves zigging where you expect it to zag and burns through plot with astonishing velocity - but only slightly, because I can't help but shake the horrible feeling that the writers are going to abandon everything that made the show interesting, because they'd rather write interminable will-they-or-won't-theys and lazy gags about how tacky (place white people live that isn't New York or California) is. What made it interesting (to me at least) was the setting and the philosophy. The show kind of did away with those two things this season. Hopefully Season 4 re-focuses on the show's strengths.
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Post by Jeremy on Jan 26, 2019 17:57:20 GMT -8
Something that someone else brought up that really resonated with me is why the Chidi/Eleanor thing fell flat for me. They've already done it, and far more effectively (Chidi and Eleanor never worked better as a couple than in Season 1). The AV Club compared their interactions in this episode to "I Will Remember You", but in my opinion, the reason that worked so well is because it stuck. It was a poignant one-off 'what if?' scenario. There's no evidence that this will. And even if it doesn't, it might get rebooted again. They've done it at the end of every season so far. As I've said in the past, while Eleanor and Chidi work well as comedic foils to one another, they don't really work well as a romantic couple, and it feels like the show is trying to pair them due to the law that "Male and Female Lead Must Get Romantically Involved." Having the dramatic tension of the finale hinge in great part on their romantic relationship hurt the episode as a whole. The frustrating thing is that this episode could have kept Chidanor (Eleidi?) together while putting both of them in a novel situation that'd challenge their character development and give them real stakes, with both of them living a lie for the greater good. But no - Chidi has to lose his character development and """"""heroically"""""" choose to effectively kill himself, shuffling his discomfort onto his current lover. So that we can have a love triangle. BLEEECCH. And Simone barely even has any real presence in this episode. Even by typical love triangle standards, it's pretty weak. On the bright side, the way this show is constantly hitting reset, I don't expect this phase to last very long.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Jun 7, 2019 19:15:21 GMT -8
Well, it was recently announced that The Good Place's fourth season will be its last. Honestly, I think it's for the best. I (and many others here) have stated numerous times on this forum that I felt the third season was a sizable step down from the first two seasons-hopefully with an endgame in sight, Michael Schur and the rest of his brilliant team can send this great show out with the ending it deserves.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 10, 2019 18:45:47 GMT -8
We're three episodes into the final season, and... I'm just not feeling it.
I don't think this show has much of a story driving it anymore. We've been introduced to virtually every aspect of the afterlife by this point, and so now we're... going back to the beginning? Except without the freshness and lower stakes. And a lot of time spent on brainwashed Chidi, who is quickly growing wearisome.
I expect I'll stick with the show till the end, but this has been a really underwhelming season thus far.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Oct 11, 2019 5:07:12 GMT -8
We're three episodes into the final season, and... I'm just not feeling it. I don't think this show has much of a story driving it anymore. We've been introduced to virtually every aspect of the afterlife by this point, and so now we're... going back to the beginning? Except without the freshness and lower stakes. And a lot of time spent on brainwashed Chidi, who is quickly growing wearisome. I expect I'll stick with the show till the end, but this has been a really underwhelming season thus far. It seems much lighter on jokes, just like Season 3. Jason almost seems like comic relief in a drama. What do you make of the philosophy on the show nowadays? It's nice that they're throwing out Kant references, but for those of us who haven't read A Critique of Pure Reason, I'm not sure what we're supposed to get out of it.
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Post by Jeremy on Oct 11, 2019 13:18:16 GMT -8
The show's well of philosophy, like most everything else, seems to have run dry. There's just not enough grounding in the story to make the Kant references interesting (even if I still retained memory of all the Kantian lectures I sat through in college).
I still get a few laughs, but yeah, they're mostly from Jason (his "revelation" to Chidi that he's not a monk was great). And what exactly is Tahani's purpose this season?
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