What I’m Watching: The Good Place

The Good Place: Season 3, Episode 7 “A Fractured Inheritance” (B)

I’ve commended this series for constantly recreating its premise as it goes on, but I found this episode to be among the least engaging this show has produced. Part of that is because, when it tricked us in the first season into not realizing that there were only four human main characters, we had unintentionally grown attached as an audience to them. Now, we have all these new characters who are just showing up for an episode as our friends help to get them into the good place. I was excited to see who was going to play Eleanor’s mom without realizing that she had actually already appeared in two episodes in previous seasons, and while I’m not familiar with Leslie Grossman as an actress, I do like Andy Daly a lot, who played her boyfriend Dave, who Michael bonded with because of the so-called architect’s code. Michael trying to be Eleanor’s father figure was entertaining, and he made a good point when he noted that both he and Eleanor had changed, and therefore it wasn’t so out of the question that her mother had too. Helping to convince her that she should invest in this life without an exit strategy was sweet, and it was a win for Eleanor as a person too. Kamilah really did seem horrible, closing down an omelet-as-art station because Tahani refused to order one and offering no refunds, but Tahani realizing that their parents had always pitted them against each other and that she just needed a hug was sweet. I enjoyed Chidi being so happy that Kamilah had taken all of his fears before he got them right back, and Janet was pretty proud that she got pulled over and commended for her perfect driving. Now, I’m quite eager to see what Eleanor does with this new information about her brief relationship with Chidi.