What I’m Watching: The Good Place

The Good Place: Season 1, Episode 9 “…Someone Like Me as a Member” (B+)

This is the last we’ll see of this show until next year, and I’m still waiting hopefully for the news that it will be picked up for new episodes since it’s become one of the more entertaining new series this season. We’ve come to an interesting point at which we’re seeing particularly terrible excerpts of Eleanor’s totally antisocial and selfish behavior on Earth and a handful of people in the good place fighting for her to remain since they’ve become attached to her and her to them. We got to see why Eleanor, even at her worst, isn’t nearly as bad as these terrible people from the bad place. Trevor expressing his desire to eat the unicorn that Michael offered him as a gift was hilarious, and Bad Janet is fantastically unhelpful and mean. The descriptions of the punishments that Eleanor would get in the bad place, like having to attend neverending baby showers that she was somehow planning were great, and it was even better to see that the angelic real Eleanor, not to be confused with fake Eleanor, took it all so well and was still pretty much the best person ever. Michael telling the bad place people to get the fork out of there was a wonderfully triumphant moment, though I’m sure it will have problematic implications. My favorite part of the episode was Jianyu bonding with Janet because she was nice to him and he was able to help her by explaining what jalapeno poppers were. Unfortunately, Jianyu has gotten sloppy, and I can’t wait to find out what Tahani has to say once she hears him speak.