The Good Place Season 3 Review

Episode Guide

Everything Is Bonzer
The Brainy Bunch
The Snowplow
Jeremy Bearimy
The Ballad Of Donkey Doug
A Fractured Inheritance
The Worst Possible Use of Free Will
Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By
Janet(s)
The Book Of Dougs
Chidi Sees The Time-Knife
Pandemonium

After two solid seasons of imaginative and quirky afterlife comedy, The Good Place returns to whence it all began – Earth. While not quite as witty and unpredictable as the previous two seasons, The Good Place still delivers the goods before really turning the screw late on and producing some incredibly satisfying episodes. These final four episodes are easily the best of the season too, ending things on yet another agonizing cliffhanger ready for the next season.

With a largely unchanged cast, the third season begins after Michael’s reset, forcing Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani to return to the moment of their death. Instead of being killed however, each are saved with the hope that this would be enough for each of them to grow and gain enough points on their own accord to get into The Good Place. As things start to go awry, Michael and Janet step in with a variety of hilarious and awkward moments to try to get them back on track. For most of the season this charade is kept up until late on when a big plot reveal throws everything sideways.

It’s at this point where everything really kicks into gear. As residents of The Bad Place, The Judge and a new group of people enter the fray, alarming developments are brought to light that point to inconsistencies in the way points are gained on Earth. All of this culminates in a really clever end goal that sets things up really nicely for the fourth season while delivering a concise and well written plot arc in the meantime.

One particular episode late on called Janet(s) is worth a mention and is easily the stand out of the entire season. I won’t divulge the contents of what happens but suffice to say it really shows off the acting caliber of D’Arcy Carden who really comes into her own this season as the AI, Janet. The rest of the cast does well too and play on their wacky character tropes from the previous two seasons to good effect. The only difference now being they’re all actively trying to be good people rather than just pretending to fit in.

This changed focus does slow the pacing down somewhat and the predictable setting of Earth rather than Michael’s neighborhood or the actual Bad Place does remove some of the unusual and bizarre elements of the show. At times, this season does feel like it lacks that somewhat, devolving more into a routine sitcom than something that’s truly different but thankfully the latter half of the season does rectify that as more developments come to light.

With a largely unchanged cast and a truckload of humour still inherent in the show, The Good Place remains one of the best sitcoms on TV right now. The characters are all likable and the situations they get in are as outlandish and imaginative as we’ve come to expect from this show. It’s just a shame then that the season lacks that unpredictable edge that made the first two such enthralling watches. It’s still good stuff though and there’s plenty of laughs to be had here, just don’t expect to be laughing quite so hard this time around.

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