What I’m Watching: The Good Place

The Good Place: Season 1, Episode 7 “The Eternal Shriek” (B+)

This episode felt like it flew by, probably because it really only dealt with one plotline. Fortunately, said plotline worked very well and proved to be extremely entertaining. Michael announcing that he had to leave motivated Eleanor more than ever before to find a way to make things right, and of course in this twisted version of things that would mean killing Janet so that the train to an eternal purgatory couldn’t be operated. Janet really is a fantastic character, and I love that she announced before anything happened that she was programmed to beg for her life if anyone tried to shut her down, and she did just that, even holding up a stock photo with three kids on it to play to their emotions. The sheer absurdity of it all, namely that they could forget that she wasn’t actually human and was just making all this up, worked particularly well in this context. Of course, Jianyu’s disappointment wouldn’t be that he forced Chidi’s hand and made her inadvertently push the button but instead that he didn’t have the pleasure of pushing the button himself. His back and forth greetings with Janet were a great moment too. Seeing into Chidi’s life and how just one lie ate away at him so much showed just how much a problem keeping Janet’s murder a secret was going to be, but I didn’t expect Eleanor to stand up and throw herself on the fire, and I’m very eager to see what happens now that she’s said enough to make it impossible to take back.