What I’m Watching: The Good Place

The Good Place: Season 2, Episode 12 “The Burrito” (B+)

I said I was excited to see who would play the judge, and I wasn’t disappointed. The fact that the four of them thought that the burrito itself might be the judge was hilarious, and that left the door open for Maya Rudolph to pleasantly waltz right in, exhibiting some of the token jolly sarcasm about things as serious as death that we’ve become accustomed to on this show. Changing all their clothes into exactly what they’d like to be wearing was a good start, and explaining that she likes to learn as little as possible – unless she gets bored – so that she can remain impartial makes a lot of sense in this absurd world of illogical things. Jason having to be play a video game against his team and Tahani having to ignore what people are saying about her were solid tests, and Chidi having to pick a hat was a bit simplistic since his indecisiveness doesn’t really make him a bad person just an irritating and unproductive one. As usual, Eleanor managed to pass by realizing that she wasn’t really interacting with Chidi, and then she bit the bullet and pretended that she too had failed along with her three colleagues. It was fortunate that our Janet played along so that she could pose as Bad Janet and take Sean out just as he was about to condemn Michael to an eternity of not reading New Yorker magazines, suggesting that our friends might just be in for a bit of salvation thanks to whatever Michael might propose to the judge and take us into a whole new world of season three.