What I’m Watching: The Good Place

The Good Place: Season 4, Episode 6 “A Chip Driver Mystery” (B)

I’m not sure exactly where things are going at the moment, though Michael seems confident enough, and releasing Bad Janet out of the kindness of his (demon) heart shows that he might just have a plan up his (human suit) sleeve. While John is an unrepentant gossip, Brent is the truly deplorable resident of the good place, so obsessed with his own superiority that he’s blind to anything going on around him. His three-and-a-half-themes book seemed truly awful, and his desire for praise from everyone revealed a need to be respected, something that he’s now only starting to see isn’t even close to true. I like that it was Tahani and not Simone who had an outburst and shared her sincere opinions with him, though it appeared to bounce off of him since he’s entirely unable to hear any criticism since he believes that he’s actually in the good place. I’d love to see these characters, particularly Chidi and Simone, realize just like Eleanor that they’re actually not in the good place, but it doesn’t seem like that’s likely. Chidi stepping in to interfere was unexpected, and it’s always nice to see some atypical behavior from a character who tends to revert to certain tendencies. Jason was full of only mildly useful and mostly terrible ideas, namely setting himself on fire, and I think that Brent isn’t even capable of being tricked into doing something good for someone else. With the final season almost half over, this team could use a win, one they’ll probably get from Shawn coming undone after reading Michael’s triumphant manifesto.