How The Good Place Redefined Sitcoms
I have wanted to write this blog for over a year now, all that held me back was the desire not to spoil an amazing ending of an outstanding show for anyone who hadn’t watched it yet. But we are now over a year past the finale of The Good Place, a conclusion to a truly one-of-a-kind show that lets us judge the work in it’s entirety, so I feel like enough time has passed for everyone to have had a chance to watch.
If you’re reading this without having seen The Good Place… maybe go knock out four seasons real quick. There’s no way for me to talk about this aspect of the show without spoiling pretty much everything, and so much of the fun of The Good Place is from not knowing what comes next, so if you have any inclination to see it whatsoever, this is your official all seasons spoiler warning.
The ending of The Good Place was so many things. Emotional, inspiring, cathartic, funny, heartbreaking, all in shifting and changing measures. It was the summation of four years of adventure and philosophy, during which we follow most of the characters to the truest end of their stories. And yet, amidst all that payoff and ending of plots, The Good Place casually dropped a fascinating revelation that influenced not only itself, but all sitcom-television past and future.
To greatly surmise a ton of plot, the afterlife system of judgment based on points in The Good Place is determined to be flawed by the end, forcing the creation of an entirely new system. How does this one work? People “live” fake lives in the afterworld, facing challenges and chances to grow. At the end, if they’ve done well enough, they move on to the good place. Those who don’t are rebooted (mind-wiped) to try again, only with a small amount of what they learned before sticking around in the form of intuition. Everyone has the chance to improve, to be the best version of themselves, then join those they love.
On it’s own, that’s a pretty neat solution to the question of how a fair afterlife system would actually work. Much more interesting are the broader reaching implications. The Good Place is a show that knows sitcoms, some of their best tricks and surprises came from using the audience’s own expectations against them. So I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the system for an afterlife they created just happens to be… well… sitcoms.
In case anyone thought my blog title was hyperbolic, what I’m saying is that The Good Place quite literally redefined all sitcoms, postulating that what we’re seeing is actually people’s experience in the afterlife as they try to improve. Now, obviously the subtle hint at an alt-reality for all your favorite shows is only ever as cannon as you want it to be. I doubt Mike Schur was trying to low-key steal credit for the entirety of television.
What I find fascinating about this whole concept is how well it holds together, explaining so many disparate elements of the staple sitcom universe. How do main characters end up in increasingly zany and unlikely situations? Because the situations are being specifically engineered to happen to them. Why has a character suddenly been written out of existence (ala Chuck Cunningham)? You’re seeing a different iteration, and that character wasn’t kept around. Continuity errors and characters learning the same lesson repeatedly? Multiple timelines and mental reboots.
Spin-offs can be seen as either some people in group passing while other’s remained, or just an afterlife architect trying a wild new direction for the soul in question. Reboots are architects using old designs on new souls. Animated re-imaginings are… okay, maybe not everything fits perfectly, but those tend to be oddballs in their own right anyway.
For those who read my blog about the status quo, you’ll know it’s a concept that fascinates me, and The Good Place had one of the most unique ways to tackle it among the examples listed. What I didn’t touch on there, since it lacked the giant spoiler warning, was that The Good Place also provided an alternate interpretation for every show. In any sitcom, the series of seemingly endless cycles can be viewed as presented, or taken as part of the characters’ self-journeys. It’s a small touch that doesn’t change much, but for those who find lack of character growth frustrating, the interpretation might make a show more enjoyable.
There are so many tremendous moments in The Good Place, from the first season’s surprise to the last walk through a door in the woods, pieces that have stuck with me since viewing them. Yet its this odd detail that keeps popping up in my mind the most frequently, bubbling forth when I’m watching new sitcoms and beloved classics alike. Wondering, just for a moment, if this is all taking place in the Jeremy Bearimy timeline. A small keepsake from one of my favorite fictional universes, and one I hope will bring you some joy as well.