TV: The Good Place (Season 1)

I have been debating for quite a while whether or not I was going to start doing reviews on TV shows I've watched and decided to just start with this and see how it goes. The series just recently ended with its fourth season earlier this year, and with that finally releasing on Netflix, I have recently finished watching the whole series! Anyways, we are going to start with season one and make our way through the rest of the seasons in the coming weeks. 

The series revolves around six characters: Eleanor Shellstrop, Chidi Anagonye, Tahani Al-Jamil, Jason Mendoza, Michael, and Janet. It starts off with Eleanor waking up in an office waiting area and Michael coming out to greet her, having her come into his office. He informs Eleanor that she is dead and that she has arrived in The Good Place. Soon, he shows her around the neighborhood, her house, and her soulmate, Chidi, a philosophy professor. As soon as Michael is gone, Eleanor confides in Chidi that she doesn't belong there, chaos then ensues... 

(SPOILER WARNING! START)

Eleanor has Chidi promise her that he would stick by her no matter what before exposing herself to him, explaining who she is and that she doesn't belong there in the neighborhood... in The Good Place. With Chidi being a philosophy professor, he follows Kantian principles, meaning that he must uphold his promise to Eleanor and stick by her no matter what. With this, a whole bunch of chaos starts. 

That same day, they meet their neighbors, Tahani Al-Jamil and Jianyu the mute monk. They inform Eleanor and Chidi that they are going to be hosting a "Welcome to the Neighborhood" party that night.

As the party goes on, Eleanor is trying to convince herself and Chidi that not all the people in the neighborhood were top-notch tier do-gooders and so they go around asking everyone what they did while on Earth. Goes to show, all of them did something outstanding in one way or another, truly showing that Eleanor doesn't belong, so she gets drunk and does a bunch of stuff like hog all the shrimp. The next morning happens and everything that Eleanor did and talked about magnified. There were giant flying shrimp in the sky and Ariana Grande was blasting in the background, she had told Chidi the day before that she really liked Ariana Grande. Anyways, all these things pointed to her being the black sheep in the flock, so to speak. 

After this point, she asks Chidi to help her be good, teach her about philosophy and morals and things of that nature, so that she can prove that she belongs. Their philosophy lessons start and then Eleanor gets a mysterious note under her front door that says, "you don't belong here." Freaked out, she goes to meet the person at the allotted time and place, finding out it was Jianyu, the monk, who sent the note. Turns out, while Eleanor was drunk at the party, she told Jianyu that she didn't belong because he couldn't speak, having taken an Oath of Silence while he was alive. 

Then, Jianyu reveals that he wasn't Jianyu at all but a guy from Florida named Jason Mendoza! Jason is confused at what is going on and think they are on a TV show about to get punk'd. He literally has zero clue on what it going on, which is insane considering his personality. Eleanor was completely surprised that he wasn't caught yet. Anyways, Jason ends up joining their little philosophy study sessions and Eleanor becomes the smartest student in class, which is saying something.

The rest of the season focuses on trying to keep Eleanor's and Jason's true identities under wraps while taking moral philosophy classes with Chidi and Eleanor helping Michael fix the neighborhood from the the disasters that she instigated. That's all it is in a nutshell. 

Eventually, Eleanor and Jason are exposed and it is revealed that there is another Eleanor Shellstrop that got sent to The Bad Place in place of our Eleanor that we've grown attached to. Anyways "real" Eleanor is brought to the neighborhood by Bad Place demons and Chidi and her bond. While all this is happening, "fake" Eleanor decides to give herself up and go to The Bad Place and during an argument between the four of them, Tahani is included now, Eleanor realizes that they weren't in The Good Place at all. 

They were in The Bad Place... 

Michael then resets their memories for take two, leading into... season two!

(SPOILER WARNING! END)

When this first released years ago, I really wanted to watch it because I thought it looked really interesting, which it turned out to be! Evidently, I did skip over explaining all the relationships in this season, but they only started budding and will flourish as the seasons continue, so don't worry about that. 

This is really an amazing series and you will fall in love with the characters because I know I have. It's quirky, it's funny, and there isn't a show quite like it with this specific approach about the afterlife. Although, if I am wrong please tell me. I absolutely love the bonds created between these characters and in later seasons it just becomes stronger! This is a very feel-good wholesome show that is nearly guaranteed to lift your spirits up if you're feeling down. 

I highly recommend you watch this, all four seasons are currently available to watch on Netflix. Next week, we will be taking a look at season two and the hijinks that ensue! Thank you guys for reading and I hope you all will come back next week in anticipation of what happens next to this ragtag bunch of souls. Please comment below what you think! Are you interested in watching? Have you watched before? Let me know!

PS. Sorry that in the last few posts the pictures have been crappy. Blogger has changed its interface permanently and now there's a lot of things that need fixing. I can't resize the GIFs and pictures anymore so now they stay in the middle of the page, huge as heck! Also, I can't move them how I want to anymore so the words can't wrap text like before so the images just stay in the middle now. I am waiting for Blogger to fix these things and maybe things will be better, but for right now, this is what I got to work with and I am so sorry.

PSS. My favorite characters are Chidi and Eleanor. Eleanor is just really awesome and I find Chidi to be a great advisor.