The Good Place was a comedy series that aired over four seasons on NBC from 2016 to 2020. The primary cast included Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, D'Arcy Carden, Manny Jacinto, and Ted Danson. The supporting cast included many recognizable actors, including Tiya Sircar, Adam Scott, Marc Evan Jackson, Jason Mantzoukas, and Maya Rudolph. The show was created by Michael Schur, who was a writer on The Office (and also played Dwight's cousin Mose), as well as an executive producer of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks and Recreation. While this show is totally different from either of those, you do get some cameo appearances by some of the actors from those shows, as well as some SNL alums. The series was relatively short, with 13 episodes per season, and just 4 seasons.
It was a show about the afterlife that managed to avoid discussing religion or its implications. The premise is that during your time on Earth, you earn or lose points through your actions and that depending on your point total at death you end up in The Good Place, or The Bad Place. Bell stars as Eleanor Shellstrop, a person who was essentially a horrible human being and ended up in The Good Place due to a clerical error. Ted Danson plays Michael, the architect of the neighborhood that Elanor lives in during the afterlife. D'Arcy Carden plays the afterlife version of Alexa or Siri, named Janet. William Jackson Harper plays Chidi, a recently deceased professor of ethics and moral philosophy. Jameela Jamil plays Tahani, a rich British socialite. Manny Jacinto plays Jianyu, a monk who has taken a vow of silence. There are a lot of twists and turns throughout the course of the series, and not everything, and everyone, is as they seem. I will not go into too much detail to keep from spoiling anything, but the show (and the characters) go through a ton of change and development over the course of the series. However, the main themes narrow down to what it means to be family, what it means to be friends, and what it means to be a soulmate. The show also explores what makes a good person good and a bad person bad, and whether a person can improve themselves to become better. And of course, a take on what happens after we die. It is primarily a serial comedy, where events in each episode build upon those in previous episodes, but it also includes some drama, especially in the final season. The series finale was one of the best I have seen for any show. The writers found a way to perfectly end the series and give a great send-off to all the characters. The finale was the one episode of the series with almost no comedy. It was really an hour-long, very sad goodbye to both the fans of the show and the characters and actors who played them.
The Blu-Ray set is a nine-disc set stored in a large keep case that can be stored in a slip cover. The set contains two discs per season, each featuring only the episodes, and a ninth disc with bonus material. The extras were carried over from the individual season DVD releases and include gag reels, special effects reels, a 50-minute long portion of the 2019 Comic-Con panel, and the after-show that ran on NBC after the series finale. Apparently, the extended episodes that are included here are not the same as those that can be streamed on the NBC website or that were included in the UK Blu-Ray releases, nor were there the episodes (which sound like web shorts) that bridged seasons three and four. So, while what was included was good, it is not complete. In the US, the show is only available on Blu-ray as a complete series set; individual season sets are only available on DVD.
The series itself was fantastic. The show was well served by having a shorter run of episodes per season, and it ended before it got stale and repetitive. The acting and writing were top-notch. It was very cleverly written, and the writers did a good job making a series about the afterlife that managed to steer clear of any real discussion of religion and never endorsed or took shots at any particular religion. I think a special shout-out has to go out to D'Arcy Carden, who not only had to play different versions of her own character but, in one season-three episode, had to play most of the other characters on the show as well. I would describe the show as PG-13 plus, as there were definitely sex and drug references, although the show did cleverly find a way to get around swearing. Although, the gag reels had a ton of swearing in them. While I cannot guarantee that everyone will love the show, if you are looking for a good comedy to check out, this one is definitely worth it. And, while getting this Blu-Ray set does require a lot of people to double-dip who likely bought the individual season sets on DVD for seasons 1-3, and the extras are not as good as they should have been, I believe it is still worth picking up on Blu-Ray.
The Blu-Ray set is a nine-disc set stored in a large keep case that can be stored in a slip cover. The set contains two discs per season, each featuring only the episodes, and a ninth disc with bonus material. The extras were carried over from the individual season DVD releases and include gag reels, special effects reels, a 50-minute long portion of the 2019 Comic-Con panel, and the after-show that ran on NBC after the series finale. Apparently, the extended episodes that are included here are not the same as those that can be streamed on the NBC website or that were included in the UK Blu-Ray releases, nor were there the episodes (which sound like web shorts) that bridged seasons three and four. So, while what was included was good, it is not complete. In the US, the show is only available on Blu-ray as a complete series set; individual season sets are only available on DVD.
The series itself was fantastic. The show was well served by having a shorter run of episodes per season, and it ended before it got stale and repetitive. The acting and writing were top-notch. It was very cleverly written, and the writers did a good job making a series about the afterlife that managed to steer clear of any real discussion of religion and never endorsed or took shots at any particular religion. I think a special shout-out has to go out to D'Arcy Carden, who not only had to play different versions of her own character but, in one season-three episode, had to play most of the other characters on the show as well. I would describe the show as PG-13 plus, as there were definitely sex and drug references, although the show did cleverly find a way to get around swearing. Although, the gag reels had a ton of swearing in them. While I cannot guarantee that everyone will love the show, if you are looking for a good comedy to check out, this one is definitely worth it. And, while getting this Blu-Ray set does require a lot of people to double-dip who likely bought the individual season sets on DVD for seasons 1-3, and the extras are not as good as they should have been, I believe it is still worth picking up on Blu-Ray.
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