While other sit-coms make hay with dating problems, marital squabbles, and workplace shenanigans, each The Good Place episode revolves around whether or not its protagonist can honorably navigate an ethical challenge, either making progress at living in a way that’s more considerate of others or leaving a trail of evidence that she does not belong. The Good Place treats everyday decisions of Eleanor’s—how she speaks about people, behaves in the yogurt line, does or doesn’t do her share of the chores—as moments that matter.
Further, The Good Place’s entirely works-based model for gaining a happy eternity is satirized as unattainable and exhausting. In this grace-stripped something-like-heaven, the work of being good is never complete.
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