Board 8 > I don't get The Good Place and I need help

(+) Yeah! (+)

Its got rave reviews, I can barely find a dissenting opinion. I feel like Im going crazy trying to understand the appeal.

This show is from the same guy who created P&R, yet Im 4 episodes into TGP and I havent laughed once. Not even once! WTF. I cant find whats good about it. I looooove P&R, possibly my favorite show. The creators Black Mirror episode is also one of my favorite BM episodes, if not my favorite. The guy can create excellence!

My issues with TGP:
- Everything is super corny. It feels like the shows dialogue is of a similar vein to fart jokes. Im trying to find the wit, the cleverness. Ive reasoned that the show isnt trying to be clever, but I also just dont see the humor, because...

- The dialog feels forced, kinda hollow. More like actors reading their lines then being in-character. I dont believe them. Its like theyre aliens intending to be charming, but almost intentionally unfunny. Was that a joke? I ask myself. I think they were trying, but it was rather obvious and kinda flat that Im not sure. Forcefully over the top. Including Kristen Bell who is the outsider looking in within the plot. I was hoping she might give me a reprieve from the weird interactions between everyone else, but she might be the worst offender after 4 episodes.

To those who like the show, what did you like about it through the first 4 episodes? What am I missing? I feel like Ive slipped into an alternate dimension where Ive lost a sense of humor, yet there I go rewatching P&R, The Office, Arrested Development, etc. being thoroughly amused.
---

Get through the first season before you write it off.

Shit goes down.

I don't want to say more
---

I wish I could describe the humour to you, but people have different senses of humour and I really am not sure it'd even be possible.

I'd suggest watching to at least episodes 6 and 7 before making a judgment.

well I guess I can sort of understand your second point

like the characters are still very much speaking their lines in a "hey this is my gimmick type way"

like tahani will always have roughly the same delivery for one of her "look this line shows how uptight i am" lines and chidi will constantly do the same "well i'm a philosopher and ethics makes me soooo nervous" thing and eleanor will always deliver the same type of "hey here's me sarcastically showing how bad of a person i am"

i can see how you'd feel those are forced, and like they're reading lines, because they do very much say their lines like they are aware of them being jokes

i'm really not sure if that ever changes. but you may get more used to it?

also i had no idea michael schur wrote a black mirror episode but from you saying that i immediately guesed nosedive and i was right

do you not feel nosedive was similarly "forced"? black mirror is clever sure but that episode was a very strong case of every single scene and every single line being VERY "hey look at this idea we had about people rating each other" "do you GET why it's bad" "notice how this character is being FAKE polite" "we've come up with so many clever scenarios where this rating thing would hurt people"

i would argue that nosedive is just as forced with it's premise and dialogue as the good place is, if not more. do you disagree?

To me, Nosedive felt intentionally forced. The characters felt alien and distant, but it was an effect of the technology. I was enamored with the premise. A lot of Black Mirror gives me that 'alien' vibe with its characters though.

The Good Place feels like it's trying to be funny. It's over the top in its delivery, yeah, but nothing they say is very clever or smart. It has a compelling premise too - such as in EP4 with the 'favorite meal' at the dinner bit, but then it devolves into a scene about Jason being a monk with robotic dialogue on the side, Kristen Bell destroying a cake, etc. A sink hole opens and the dude is hanging on inside it and then we get this cheesy bit about his favorite soup being stored in the fridge. I get what they're trying to do here, but it's so obvious, in your face, and delivered like being read off a script.

But it's like this with just about everything (so far)!
---

I think I'll try watching the show alone. I've been watching it with my wife who hasn't enjoyed it for a second. Maybe that'll change my thoughts in some way.
---

i mean i found the fantasy setting super-fun. like the nightmare resulting from eleanor stealing shrimp in ep 1.

also, i'm evidently just a bigger fan of really stupid humor because i crack up every time they try to say profanity and get auto-censored, and then get frustrated with it.

even if you don't like the humor (which at times can feel too gimmicky for sure), there's significant plot/character dev later on. changes the series but not necessarily the overall tone of of the show. but the uberhype of the show probably comes from the wacky plot, which obviously only the setting can allow.

tahani's gimmick makes me laugh my ass off, fwiw.
---

Yeah the fantasy setting is great

Like if you're expecting a series about fantasy heaven to be grounded and realistic then yeah this isnt going to work for you. The humor is in the absurdism of this heaven. That said for as much as I love season 1... This show changes rapidly and majorly as time passes. Just give it a shot.

Also I just realized you're so early that like Jason hasnt really emerged as Jason yet. Like yeah... It gets so much better even though I was myself instantly hooked.
---

I dont expect the show to be grounded or realistic. Like Ive said, the humor is just a little too over the top, too forced. It has almost no subtlety. I get the jokes theyre going for, but the delivery, the timing, its all too manufactured.

I guess others just dont feel the same. Im surprised not many others feel this way because I tend to find my opinions lining up with the average.

My wife is British and she tells me this is the most American show weve watched together. She enjoys prodding me and using that as an insult, though she likes a lot of American TV.

Tahani annoys her greatly, which is amusing from my perspective. Whenever a British/Aussie character pops up in American television, shes oftentimes thrown off because they tend to pander to American audiences in a cringy way. Tahani is a good example with her absurdly posh accent and mannerisms. My wife knows who she is IRL (some radio host) and has trouble accepting her acting ability.
---

No subtlety seems to be a fair criticism to me. The show is definitely very manufactured. I think what makes it okay (for me) is that it's always coming from the character's essence (what makes them funny), not totally irrelevant jokes being delivered robotically. If that makes sense. If it's not your style, then it's not your style.

But oh well. Like I said, I'd suggest getting to episodes 6 and 7. Not that anything massive will change by then, just that some new plot points get introduced, and some of my favorite sequences are around that point.

I felt the same way.

The show is short enough, and the payoff imo big enough to just push through.

I dont wanna say anything else
---

Dels posted...

No subtlety seems to be a fair criticism to me. The show is definitely very manufactured. I think what makes it okay (for me) is that it's always coming from the character's essence (what makes them funny), not totally irrelevant jokes being delivered robotically. If that makes sense. If it's not your style, then it's not your style.

But oh well. Like I said, I'd suggest getting to episodes 6 and 7. Not that anything massive will change by then, just that some new plot points get introduced, and some of my favorite sequences are around that point.

so always sunny but bad?
---

I hated the show completely when I first started watching it. For the reasons you described, but also the plot writing itself is just too stupid. People told me to continue and I did, and it doesn't really ever get good in those regards. It DOES get better though, I would say give it through 3-4 episodes into S2, which I would say is its peak.

I didn't know he also wrote Nosedive but it makes a lot of sense. They both definitely have the forced kinda writing you're talking about, but the plots themselves are also way too shallow for the amount of time and gravitas they pretend to have. It feels pretentious more than anything.

Like, a Community episode did Nosedive much better and with 1/3rd the time. That's how The Good Place feels too, even at its best. Like, did this really need to take this many episodes?
---

Peridiam posted...

I think I'll try watching the show alone. I've been watching it with my wife who hasn't enjoyed it for a second. Maybe that'll change my thoughts in some way.

That might work. You need to REALLY give the show the benefit of the doubt to try to enjoy it. There's too much bad stuff in it to ignore if someone is pointing even the littlest thing out.

Jason is a good example. Totally broken character but if you don't think about it at all, he's pretty fun.
---

foolm0r0n posted...

Peridiam posted...

I think I'll try watching the show alone. I've been watching it with my wife who hasn't enjoyed it for a second. Maybe that'll change my thoughts in some way.

That might work. You need to REALLY give the show the benefit of the doubt to try to enjoy it. There's too much bad stuff in it to ignore if someone is pointing even the littlest thing out.

Jason is a good example. Totally broken character but if you don't think about it at all, he's pretty fun.

He is my favorite character, but you have to realllllly not think about it
---

The season one finale really brings it together.
---