BobH

Well, I didn't expect that. Figured it was just a straight anthology, but I guess the style these days is to have a season finale that ties everything together... The new story in here was... okay. Not really given a lot of room to do anything innovative, and mostly standard rom-com tropes. Then it turns out that this was all an extended version of one of those Garry Marshall holiday movies, RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK or something. I did wonder what that scene in the window was with the manic pixie straight girl was, so that explained that. That one worked, and the extra scene for the doorman episode was okay. The rest of them were pretty superflous, increasingly so as they went along, kind of robbed the power of the ending of a few of the episodes. Don't think the show needed it. I guess it does justify using New York as a setting for everything, but I think it might have been a better show if they moved it around a bit. It's a bigger world than just New York, which has had enough TV shows and movies set in it for a hundred lifetimes. I'm not sorry I watched it, but I doubt I'd be back for another season unless I hear really good things.

Well, at least we got the gay content that I was briefly faked out about on the previous episode. Unfortunately, the gay couple are very much he supporting cast to the straight woman whose child they're adopting, and they seem to go out of their way not to have them be overly affectionate. It's like something out of the 1990s. Didn't work overall, except as a vast improvement over the previous episode. The characters just didn't ring true, especially the articulate but vaguely troubled homeless pregnant girl, who might want to jump back a few episodes and talk with Anne Hathaway about her problems. This just did not feel like any sort of real world.

Well, that drained the good will cup that the last episode filled pretty quickly. At the beginning I was thinking hey look, lesbian couple. That's a welcome change from the straight show we've gotten so far, especially for a show called MODERN LOVE. But no, it's another straight story, another white straight story (though we have had more colour so far than a show like this 20 years ago would have), and just a really creepy story. Did not like, almost turned it off a few times, and if there were more than two episodes to go (and one actor I really want to see) coming up I might have given up on the show. Prediction, this is going to be the consensus low point of the season.

This one was pretty good, and the first that felt like a complete piece in itself rather than a half hour carved out of a standard 90 minute rom-com. The characters seemed fleshed out, there was some growth and change, it didn't feel like there needed to be anything more to do at the end. First really successful episode, and a welcome tonic from the previous one. Am kind of getting sick of New York as the setting though. I guess that has something to do with the New York Times column that they mention at the beginning as the source material, but it's kind of an overdone setting for TV shows and movies at this point.

I'm not sure why I just watched this. Why am I supposed to care about this couple? Is it that important to know that boring people have have lives too? Also, there is a massive acting level disparity between Tina Fey and John Slattery. I'll be polite and not specify who's on which side of the gap, but I think you can guess. I did get a few laughs in the middle with a few scenes involving the kids, but other than that, yawn. Even the goddamn tennis metaphor title of the episode annoys me. This is all the stuff I hate about rom-coms distilled into 30 minutes. Stopping for now. If a night's sleep has me remembering more about what I liked in the first three than hated in this one I might finish up the show over the weekend.

Well, this one is a roller-coaster ride, which I guess might be intentional given the overall theme. I really hated the opening bit, to the point that I had to turn it off and walk away for ten minutes before deciding whether to continue or not. After I got through the musical number, I kind of really liked it for a while. Then I couldn't stand it again, and very nearly paused it again before deciding to soldier on. And then, because I'm in the end I'm a mark for Hathaway being emotional, it very nearly made me cry. And then I kind of didn't like the ending too much. Is this what being bipolar is like, condensed into a 30 minute film? Overall I'd give it a positive review, but I wish it had been better, and felt less like a PSA for mental health care. And I kind of think that a lot of it was done better over in CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND over the years.

Quite a letdown from the first episode. Noticed from the production numbers that they were flipped, this is 101 and the first episode is 102. A good choice, I'm not sure I'd have continued if this was my first exposure. It was pretty well made, I always like Catherine Keener especially, but the stories just sat there, waiting for some wider context to make me care. Like the first episode, it felt like a stripped down classic rom-com formula, only this time they cut out too much of the heart. And honestly, making me care about a social media developer is an uphill climb at the best of times, and Dev Patel just sometimes comes across as smarmy when he's trying to be likable.

I guess it's because I watch much more in thrillers and horror than I do romantic comedy, but I spent most of the episode expecting things to break bad in some way. I think they invited that with some of the framing early on, especially the sniper sights in one scene. It was pretty good, sort of a striped down Nora Ephron film, taking out all the supporting characters and subplots. And most of the comedy, unfortunately. The lead role was definitely someone Meg Ryan would have been playing twenty five years ago. Pretty solid, I'd have liked it if it was just one aspect of a longer film with all the usual Ephronisms.

That was great, well constructed and clever, and makes the preceding episodes much better in retrospect, as you see the clues and false clues that they were planting. I especially always like a revelation that depends on a shibboleth, ever since I learned that word from the WEST WING episode of the same name. The only thing that might have improved the episodes is if Michael used that actual word, to Jason's befuddlement. Actually, if Chidi was still part of the group I could see him using the word. Any confirmation yet if they're going to run straight through thirteen weeks without a break (putting the finale the week before Christmas) or do the usual break before US Thanksgiving and hold back a few for January? (edit to add, looks like NBC has the night game on Thanksgiving, so almost certain we'll see a split season. Motherforking sports)

Jason : Michael said there's nothing he could say that would make you realize he's really him, but Janet does have a thing she can say that does make me realize she is really not her. Eleanor : What? [though that doesn't do justice to Jason's weird word emphasis]

I know they want to play up the "Live" in the title, but I always wish they would at least put the audience reactions way down in the mix on pre-tape bits like "Grouch". My actual preference would be to cut the crowd noise completely from those bits, or at least make a clean version available on-line. It was a good piece, but would have been better without the over-laughing.

I liked it, but the season to date does feel a bit disjointed. I get the feeling that when they set up the finale to season 3 they didn't know how much longer they'd have, so left it open that this might be the new status quo for as much as a full season, and then when they decided to wrap it in four they had compress the story of the four newbies into three chapters to get to the needed twist before the endgame. LOST has been on my mind lately as I've just started a watch/re-watch of it (I watched it on-and-off during the original run, so maybe a quarter of the episodes will be all new to me), and my memory is that it might have had a comparable but opposite problem. Towards the middle I remember it seemed to meander a bit, as they didn't know how long it would last, but was a big enough ratings hit that it could go on indefinitely. Then they got a date-certain for the end, and it seemed to regain some focus for a while, but it turned out to be too many episodes and there was a lot of filler leading to the end. Which had it's own problems. Hopefully they can stick the landing on this show.

So, who's this now? I guess it's possible it's someone completely new, never mentioned before, but it's kind of late in the game for that. Is it the real Michael or Janet, having been replaced on the train in the season opener? Is it Trevor, back from being tossed off the bridge by the Judge? Jeff, the doorman? Last we saw he seemed to get off without punishment for letting Michael and Janet escape to Earth. Gwendolyn from the Good Place post office, with a special delivery? Trent, the torture master demon who looks just like Chidi? Someone from the Janet warehouse who finally noticed one of the their Janets was missing? Someone from accounting, maybe? Was that accountant sealed up in the obelisk the real deal, or maybe replaced by Shawn? Monk, from the TV show MONK? Luke Skywalker?

So, for some reason my DVR picked up a repeat of some season 1 episodes on the Family Channel. I took a quick look at one of them, and it was just bizarre to see Mindy tell her life story with every reference to cocaine edited out, especially since I've seen it often enough that my mind automatically fills in the missing dialogue. But what that did remind me of was that Shawn refers to Elinor's case as "Case #00003". Obviously we know now that he was lying, but at the time I guess we were supposed to think one of the two previous cases was Mindy. Has there been any reference to what the other case might be, presumably (but not definitely) before Mindy's? Is there a chance that'll factor into the endgame for the show?

Michael : Do you know why I forced you to act like a monk in the original Neighbourhood? Jason : Does it have to do with the TV show "Monk"? Michael: No.

Hm, yeah, I can see that from the way Danson delivered the line. In any case, that's going to be head canon unless they actively contradict it as some point.

When the series is over they need to do a super-cut of all of Eleanor and Jason's high fives. It was definitely an hour long opener cut in half. That makes it more conspicuous that they haven't done anything with Tahani and John yet, which will probably come next week. Then we'll probably get some big switch-up. Can't help but notice the accountant obelisk is very conspicuous there in the background. Not sure how I feel about the revelation that Michael's breakdown was all an act. So, Janet only calculated they had a 9% chance of success going in?

It’s 322 people in the neighbourhood, so she and Derek would have created 314 (taking out the original four and the four new subjects).

I sometimes wonder if it's at all possible to reconcile what we're told about Janet. I guess we have to sort of handwave that Michael managed some sort of restraining trick on her originally to prevent her from realizing that they were really in the Bad Place and all the residents but four were demons, and prevent her from having knowledge of any previous reboots. I don't think they've acknowledged it specifically, but at some point I guess she got back all her memories and now knows the details of every previous version (the closest they've come is saying that she saved every previous reboot in the episode where Eleanor re-lived some of them). But are there any remaining restraints? Shouldn't she have known that one of the residents was a demon in disguise? Looking at the previous seasons, it looks like the tendency is to have a three act structure, with one major game changing revelation at the end of the third or fourth chapter (Season 1, Jason also doesn't belong, Season 2, Michael proposes they team up, Season 3, they discover Michael and Janet at the afterlife door) and then another around seven or eight (Season 1, Eleanor confesses, Season 2, Shawn shows up to end the experiment, Season 3, leaving Earth for Janet's void and the afterlife). So I'd expect that next week will have some surprises seem to set up a new status quo, which will completely be upended within two weeks, then another shift about a month later which should set the premise that drives towards the finale. I think the next shift will have something to do with the accountant who was assigned in the most recent episode, and maybe Mindy.

Hm, with the talk of possible doppelgangers, I just remembered that we know about the existence of a certain torture-master named Trent who's a dead ringer for Chidi.

The watch Marc mentions in last week's mini-episode. I love the idea that Michael Schur asked the writers room if they could punch up the engraving but they couldn't.

Maybe Disco Janet? You don’t introduce the concept of Disco Janet in chapter 40 and not show her by the final act...

I’m wondering if they expected a one hour season open like they’ve had every previous year? Looks like it was produced as such, with a part 1 / part 2 title and same writers/director for both parts. Given that, I’ll reserve judgement, and I have the feeling that next week might really flip the table, using stuff set up this week.

I think I'm going to have to go cold turkey on The Good Place for the next three days. I spent most of the weekend watching the on-line clips or watching episodes, often having them on in the background while doing other things. I think just one more viewing of the season three finale and then I'm done until Thursday night. Well, maybe just the first episode again... And I have to watch the Bad Place shorts again...