The Good Placeis not like any other show on online grid television.
Their memories could be reset at any time.
And all for a little dramatic flair.
Credit: Trae Patton/Yahoo/Sony Pictures Television; Colleen Hayes/NBC
This is why both it andThe Good Placehold the rare distinction of being unpredictable broadcast comedies.
They transcend their sameness by interrogating it.
InThe Good Place, this has become especially clear in season 2, which premiered in September.
Colleen Hayes/NBC
(He fails, thousands of times.)
Michael tries assuring her, Denise is a good part with a great backstory.
Its no coincidence that our Good Place creator shares a name with his ownGood Placecreator, Michael Schur.
The Good Placestands out in the same way thatCommunitydid before it.
The symmetry of that particular episode andThe Good Placeis undeniable.
Where we once had the darkest timeline, we now have the bad place.
The darkest timeline meme was born and has survived.
My Dinner with Abed and other bottle episodes still resonate.
Finally, real lifes vast complexity fit into a tight, 22-minute sitcom.
It just had to be about TV.
The Good Placeis now occupying a similar space.
It stands in dramatic contrast to the rebootedWill & Grace, which airs a half-hour later on NBC.
(Karen: Now a Trump voter!
Its predictable in its wild unpredictability.
And its uniquely prescient too.
The world has sharpened considerably sinceCommunitypremiered, of course, which makesThe Good Placefeel like a naturally devious successor.
As Eleanor realizes again and again: This is the bad place.
The Good Placeairs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.
