What I’m Watching: The Good Place

The Good Place: Season 4, Episode 2 “A Girl from Arizona Part 2” (B+)

While there isn’t quite as much intrigue about what’s going on anymore on this show, now the question is whether our friends will actually be able to succeed in turning these very difficult dead people into moderately reformed decent humans. I think the only thing that I’ve seen actor Benjamin Koldyke in previously was the horrific 2012 ABC pilot “Work It,” and he’s much better as Brent, the jerk so obsessed with himself that he thinks that he belongs in the best place rather than just the good place. I like that Eleanor opted to use a technique that had worked on her to help her realize that she wasn’t a good person, which backfired entirely with the hapless Brent who is almost more terrible than the demons from the bad place. Eleanor’s leadership being questioned was hardly surprising, and it’s good that it managed to pump up her ego in the end as she realized that Michael had faked his freakout so that she would take charge. She achieved their first bit of success in a while with Chidi opening Simone’s mind to the possibility that maybe he’s not just a projection of her subconscious and that it wouldn’t hurt her to be nice to those around her even if they’re not actually real. Janet breaking up with Jason was a low point of the episode, and hopefully watching him wallow will make him just as entertaining as he’s always been, ready to give a necessary high-five to Eleanor because he can’t not even though he’s feeling crushed.