BobH

I swear I could watch a hundred hours of Good Place behind the scenes, highlights, deleted and alternate scenes. There better be a big box set released next year with multiple extra discs, and not make us wait for a twentieth anniversary re-release (though I do also want a twentieth re-release, maybe with multiple commentary tracks for every episode. Do TV box sets still do commentary tracks?).

From the Bad Place web series “The Selection” leading up to season 4 Val: Joseph Stalin? Shawn: No. Bambadjan: Ooh, what about Joseph Stalin? Shawn: Wait, Val just said that. Bambadjan: Yeah, but I wasn’t listening because she’s a woman. Shawn: Oh, good point. Wait, why was I listening?

Lamorne Morris, Lil Rel Howery, Thomas Middleditch, Mike Colter, Sara Foster and Erin Foster guest. I know they record all these years in advance and to air in any order, buy why have Jane do an introduction to every episode which makes it sound like a season opener, even when aired this deep into a season? Also, kind of funny that Jane made a comment about the first time having siblings on the show, when in our timeline they just did two weeks back. Okay episode, nothing too egregious in the gameplay, but nothing spectacular either. The final round was a bit heartbreaking, but really no-one to blame but herself on how long it took to get David Letterman, which should be a gimme. It was surprising because she got a few of the other ones pretty fast with not as great clues.

Yeah, Joel would have been a better choice. He was always quick and motivated in all the games. And I couldn’t believe she picked Sherri “Flat Earth” Shepard over Oliver Hudson, who played pretty good throughout and she said she was a fan of his from Dawson’s Creek. Both of them definitely know a movie Jennifer Lawrence was in, which is a pretty low bar to clear...

Given how long ago they film these, I was surprised most popular websites didn’t include CompuServe and Prodigy, and they didn’t ask most popular Friendster accounts... That final round was painful. This is when I really miss the podcast, as Tara and Joe would have had no lack of material to mock in that one.

Have to admit, I was predisposed to dislike the Bella sisters from my limited exposure to them (mostly ads during BUSY TONIGHT I think), but they were kind of charming. Total dummies for the most part, I’d love to see the train wreck of them doing the final round (but no contestant would be crazy enough to pick them, unless the other choices were complete HGN no-stars), but kind of funny. I didn’t even mind the over-acting sibling rivalry of them mocking each other all the time. But overall kind of lacklustre episode. Don’t know if one team has ever swept Smash The Buzzer before. Final round was definitely winnable with some better gameplay. Civilian had no one to blame but himself, though, not getting Colbert off the bat pretty much doomed him.

Man, if they’d gotten the band to do “Poison” for Donald to dance to I’d have forgiven the show any number of past transgressions...

It was the usual five games, but yeah, there did seem to be some extra chat bits. I wonder if they record extra bits for every episode so the editors have something to use if the games don't fill up the time. I notice that multiple instances of celebrities playing with the band coming out of commercials occur in every episode now, as well. Pretty decent episode. I think the only new game was "Who Are You Wearing", although they've had variations of that before. It seemed to be pretty easy, with both teams getting all four with lots of time to spare. Good final round. I think Donald realized halfway through that he was going to be mostly superfluous in the face of Lauren's skills, and the civilian was really on top of it, quickly passing on the one she didn't know. Well earned win.

Comicon panel highlights. There’s also a new blooper reel for s3

Tara and Joe return for a Show and Yell for this week's episode (it seems like they missed this one) over on the Extra Hot Great Patreon extras feed. Sounds like they're only doing the single episode for auld lang syne, not a regular thing. I liked this one quite a bit. I was rooting for the Good Place team, since I love that show and the cast members, but I the guys on the other team were pretty good and earned that come-from-behind win. I think Whipflash was the only new game, and I thought it was pretty clever, with a good fundamental game beneath the goofy gimmick you need to make it work on TV. The other games were all pretty good old stand-bys. Matt Iseman was definitely the MVP of his team. I think I would have gone with Marc over D'Arcy, but that was a tough call. Painfully close final round, they could definitely have gotten there with a bit of better gameplay. Skipping Dalai Lama and Rachel Bloom when the civilian didn't get them right away (and I loved CRAZY EX, but I'm not sure Rachel Bloom is a big enough name to use in that game) would have bought enough time. Rare episode where I'd be happy to have any of the celebrities back. Looking at the opening montage, there are a few celebrities I'm looking forward to, and one or two I'm dreading.

Well, it’s no Entourage movie podcast, but Marc is filling the long hiatus between seasons with interviews with celebrity fans of the show, starting with Busy Philipps. He’s also asked for guest suggestions on his twitter.

Did they change the aspect ratio of the show, or is that just something weird from the W Network in Canada? I thought the 2:1 aspect ratio was already a bit off for a standard lawyer show (it makes more sense for STAR TREK DISCOVERY and some of the Netflix shows that use that format), Now at what looks like 2.4:1 it just looks strange. Other than that, decent episode. Some of it was over-the-top, but that's kind of a trademark of the show. The Trump stuff is kind of ridiculous, as noted his base either wouldn't care about an abortion story or just wouldn't believe it, as they willfully deny everything else. Not sure what their endgame will be dramatically, if they'd have Trump tossed out of office on the show-world even if he isn't in the real world.

I only started listening to the podcast a few weeks ago, and quickly went through all the back episodes (some of them multiple times) and for the last few weeks it's been the second most eagerly anticipated thing of the week for me. Marc does a good job of keeping to the show's style of completely obliterating the line between the sublime and the ridiculous. I hope they decide to continue it in some form during the eight months (EIGHT FORKING MONTHS!!!!) that we have to wait for the next season. Maybe bring in some of the cast and crew for a more general discussion rather than an episode-specific one. Or maybe just talk about the Entourage movie every week...

Rewatching, just noticed in the background on the bridge that Trevor is still floating there from when the Judge tossed him earlier this season. Also noticed that Tahani completely vanishes in the second half of the episode. I don't think she appears once after they move to the Medium Place.

Michael: If you eat anything in this IHOP you will literally explode. Jason: Yeah, I know. It's IHOP. [Elinor and Jason high five]

I'm pretty sure "Neighbourhood 2.0" is going to end up being a very temporary thing. First season finale we started off thinking they were in the Good Place and Shawn was a judge, completely flipping reality right in the middle. Second season finale we started with them in the Judge's chambers waiting for a decision on Good, Bad or Medium Place and quickly wound up back on Earth. So wherever we'll be 167 hours from now, I'm almost sure it won't be close to where we'll be 166 1/2 hours from now. I'm not going to pretend to be able to guess, but my money is on something involving the time knife. Basic storytelling, you don't introduce a time knife in episode 38 if it's not going to cut something in episode 39...

Wow, this show does manage to get a lot stuffed into under 22 minutes. Even with only two episodes left in the season I think there could still be two or three complete flips of the status quo for the season finale. Glad we're finally going to see the Inter-dimensional Hole of Pancakes ("you don't really eat these pancakes, it's more like they eat you").

"This is how I always got out of escape rooms. If you break enough stuff they open the door and kick you out."

"Hi Chidi, I'm Eleanor. I'm Arizona shrimp horny." "That's not what I sound like, Jason!"

Yeah, that was painful. “Radio morning host, shock jock, Sirius”. Nothing from that, pass. No way should you waste more than five seconds with Stern.

I'm a bit disappointed it looks like the podcast isn't coming back, as that was more than half the fun of the show. As it is, it might just be fun enough to watch, but I'm not sure it will be when one of the more annoying guests come on. This one was pretty much free of really annoying behaviour. Have to say, now that Jason Ritter is about the age that his dad was when HOOPERMAN was on (which is oddly where I know his dad best), it can get pretty distracting how similar they look at the right angle. I think I'd have gone with Jason Ritter and Shiri Appleby for the final round. It really was a general failure on all parts, though. How long they took to get Kanye West, and failing to get Meryl Streep? I was amazed they did as well as they did in the second half to pull out a six.

I liked this one overall. I did wonder why Janet would be surprised by Doug, since her knowledge of all thing in the universe (up until she stepped through the door) should have included everything about Doug, as he clearly didn't just go over the edge in the last year. Maybe they're in the wrong letter of "Jeremy Bearimy" for her to know... The fight was a lot of fun, especially watching it again after listening to the podcast, which had the stunt coordinator on. Hilarious that Janet's stunt double was also one of Wonder Woman's stunt doubles. Am I the only one who thought, when Janet went through the portal and then Janet came out seconds later that maybe it wasn't the same Janet, similar to the Good Janet / Bad Janet fakeout last year (which also resulted in Shawn being thrown across a room). Maybe another Bad Janet, or maybe a different Good Janet working for the Judge? Probably not, but that's going to be in the back of my head next episode.

Even worse than I thought, if the schedules I just checked are right, they're skipping two weeks, coming back with just one episode, then off for a month before coming back for the final three, in a new time slot. How does that make sense?

"Dude, we can get mythical animals? Maybe I'll get a penguin." "Penguins are real." "That's the spirit, Eleanor. They're real to me too."

What the fork, NBC? Show's only 13 episodes, with a double episode opener, you really can't give it 12 consecutive weeks, you have to put a two month gap in there?