What I’m Watching: The Good Place

The Good Place: Season 1, Episode 5 “Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis” (B+)

This sinkhole expanding is bad news, but that just means that our characters get to become even cozier, which is pretty poor timing considering how sick Eleanor and Chidi are getting of each other. Eleanor’s delight at realizing that she accidentally did something nice for someone else by letting them go in front of her instead of trying a dozen flavors she knew she didn’t want just to be rude was contradicted by her neglect of Chidi’s request for frozen yogurt, and she only made it worse by failing to grasp just how much of Chidi’s time and energy she was taking up. Watching them bicker and nearly fall apart under the watchful but not too intellectual eyes of a marriage counselor and human lie detector was entertaining, and I’m glad to see that they quickly returned to a positive place which ended with Eleanor preparing Chidi’s lifelong wish to cast away in a relaxing rowboat, not taking into account the fact that it was a theoretical fantasy only. Michael sure doesn’t know how to hide his panic, and Ted Danson is proving to be very entertaining in that role, constantly feeding his frantic energy and then reining it in with a fake smile and crazed expression on his face. Tahani’s sister being a perfect monster is a shame, and it certainly says a lot about why she tries so hard to be liked. I’m most gratified by the mention of her name being misspelled as Tahini – that’s what my computer and I have been saying since this show started!