The Good Place’s fourth and final season? In the words of Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) – holy fork. Michael Schur’s metaphysical and fundamentally philosophical hit comedy is gearing up for its humanity-dependent finale. It’s not like anyone wants the addictive and binge-worthy greatness that is the The Good Place to end, but if it doesn’t, then how do we know what fate humanity has sealed? The season picks up straight off from the last, it’s like they never left the god-given sanctuary that is ‘the good place’ – when in reality they did. A round-trip to hell and back, in fact.
The eclectic bunch of baddies turned good people, Eleanor, Chidi (William Jackson Harper), Tahani (Jameela Jamil) and Jason (Manny Jacinto), have alas returned to the afterlife. Striking a pivotal deal with the neutral zone’s Judge Gen (Maya Rudolph), after finding out a fatal flaw in the system – over the last 500 years nobody has scored high enough to get in to The Good Place. Ex-demon architect Michael (Ted Danson) and source of all human information and knowledge Janet (D’Arcy Carden) join our dysfunctional band of humans to prove Michael’s ex-superior, The Bad Place’s son of a bench Shawn (Marc Evan Jackson), wrong – that humanity can truly improve themselves (because we can’t all be that bad, right?).
Schur develops on the incredible characterisation he has framed from the previous three seasons, showing all dimensions of the characters – the good, bad, ugly and Tahani. The plot is far from basic, it’s a mind-boggling adventure of trial and error with actual consequences unlike other comedies. You just can’t help but root for the humans. Watching the first episode of the new season is all warm and cozy, like saying hello to an old friend, then ending up never wanting to let them go again. There’s a magical quality in the writing that feels effortless yet utterly hilarious, whether that be the bittersweet analogies on life and death, feeling like you can relate to all the humans in some odd way, or clever jokes that criticise and poke fun at living society and current news even after death.
It’s likely that Schur will take us to a good place with the end of the final season. There’s still scope for outrageous plotlines and plot twists. However, according to Michael (Danson), ‘Any place or thing in the universe can be up to 104% perfect’ and that’s how we got The Good Place. Overall, The Good Place’s final season? So far, fork yes.
4 stars
Image Credit: Movie DB
