Tetraneutron

You're right. They signed two year contracts during the sixth season, not the 7th. It would have ended for both at the end of this year. https://deadline.com/2019/02/mom-renewed-season-7-8-anna-faris-allison-janney-new-deals-cbs-1202549041/ I still wonder why Anna Faris jumped ship with just one year left. I suppose we'll never find out. I just checked wiki, and the ratings did drop this year. They were in the 6-7 millions last year, and the 4-5 million this year. Maybe since they'd have to renew Allison Janney again this year, and since Chuck Lorre gives CBS a new show every year anyway, and it's not like they'd get any more from syndication, they decided not to bother. It's too bad. I don't watch a ton of TV but it's cool that there's a show all about middle-aged women.

OK, what's going on internally with that show? Last year they renewed Faris and Janney for two more years, so they were clearly planning on going to at least nine seasons. Then Faris quits out of nowhere, but the ratings don't drop at all. Now they're ending it even though, minimum, there's a year left on Janney's contract? And if the actors are circulating a petition it's clear they want to keep it going. So what the hell is going on?

Although neither did Jason or Eleanor. All three of them spent their time selfishly on earth. Arguably Chidi too, in that he was too in his own head to actually constructively help anyone. (Same with John the gossip blogger and Eleanor's trashbag friends and probably Chidi's too, who had great jobs but didn't exactly spend their spare time running soup kitchens). I think it had to be Tahani because if you asked people "What's paradise like" a lot would say "Have a chance to learn everything in the world" and well, Jason's not that character. And we do see old people - Doug Forcett. Chidi even comments that he chose his young body. And the rapists and killers would make their amends in the test period. Also, it's a sitcom. Do you really want to see rapists and killers in a sitcom? The test is the middle place where you work everything out until you become perfect. The Good Place is the world's best party where you can do literally anything.

They addressed that in a pervious episode. Yes, everyone. The really evil people will spend far longer in the bad place than the good people. But they'll all learn eventually. She didn't mention her father because her mother was more of a character on the show. I don't think the door is really like suicide although I get the comparison. Once you've lived basically forever, experienced all, learned all, and there's nothing left, you're done. You either end it or become a bored mush-brain like Patty or there's something else. It's like finishing. Or like Michael. What was he supposed to do for eternity. (One assumes Tahani would eventually enter the door too). Of course people on Earth do need goals to feel useful so you figure there would be a lot of people trying to become architects. Every system in the world eventually has loopholes.

Sure she will. Bearimy time isn't linear.

That's what Michael said a few episodes ago. Everyone on earth gets tested and it takes as many tries as they need until they've learned enough to go to the Good Place, then once they're in the Good Place they do whatever they want until they're ready to go through the door. And since time is meaningless we all hang out with our loved ones once we get to the Good Place. That's why Tahani's sister, for example, got in before her parents. Her parents needed more work. We only saw a bit of the tests, with Brent not understanding why telling women to smile is gross. They were also doing the backlog of deaths in batches, apparently, with Roberto Clemente and Zora Neale Hurston and the other ones being mentioned in the meting we saw.

Also apparently now you can choose what age you’ll be in the afterlife? Only Doug Forcett took advantage of that though. I thought his jokes were the funniest and probably truest parts of the episode. If you spend your whole life desperately following the rules so you can have your reward, when you get to heaven you’ll want to party. I also feel like a lot of people would take the Tahani option. Eternal happiness WOULD get boring, but suicide is nihilism. Just get a nice middle class office job.

It reminded me of the ending of Parks and Recreation. The real conceptual ending was last week and this was kind of an extended Happily Ever After. Bring back all the recurring characters, and it's 90 minutes of warm fuzziness. It was sweet but I'm glad the show ended when it did. I'm not sure how I felt about Michael becoming human since, he didn't really? He still has all the memories and knowledge from his previous "life" so he's very different from every human on earth. He also starts "life" in his 60s or thereabouts. It's a cool idea though. Also did anyone else think of the afterlife being kind of like "San Junipero" in Black Mirror? Death is a big party and you can stay as long as you want, and when you're ready to leave you get to leave.

It makes more sense for him to be jacked like that than for Eleanor and Jason to have the bodies they do, looking like hot actors instead of trashbags who we've seen eat terribly. It's pretty easy to see Chidi come to the conclusion that maintaining his health is a moral necessity. We've seen how he obsesses over almond milk.

I wonder if /how they’ll cope with everyone they even knew being, technically, dead for centuries. Simone? Dead. Larry? Dead.

Yeah I meant Ted Danson. He's obviously still attractive and fit, but older than the rest of the cast. Now I feel really really mean for putting it like that. And his body's way better than mine. I hope the show, even though it's technically sci fi, sticks to being about philosophy and about the characters, and doesn't get sucked into the vortex where they have to have a whole system worked out that makes sense. It's morality and the afterlife. No one on earth has figured that out and trying to make sure the rules follow logic will just suck away energy from the show. It doesn't matter beyond what they need to drive the plot and make their point and I hope they don't get caught up in it. Eh, money isn't that interesting. They can easily handwave that by using Janet's accumulated knowledge to keep them winning lotteries or picking stocks. Getting bogged down in the details isn't fun unless it leads somewhere. Like in the first season, where once they revealed the twist, all the little details about the Good Place, like the frozen yogurt, made sense. And I think so far Eleanor's the only one who changed. Tahani didn't give away money out of an affirmative desire that it would make the world better, she just gave up. She's a lot like Chidi in that they need external validation. I hope the show goes somewhere with that.

The best joke in the episode- the cinnamon rolls made with pizza dough. A reference to Mario Batali’s “apology” for sexual harassment. Also for a show where 5 of the 6 actors have amazing bodies, it’s impressive they don’t have them in their underwear in every episode. I guess they’re saving that for later seasons when they run out of ideas. I’m wondering where they go now. It sounds like Groundhog Day the series. When it looks like you have eternal life you find meaning by helping others.

To me the problem wasn't that it took an hour (you exaggerate in sitcoms, and that's the whole point of his character) but we didn't see WHY he was indecisive. There was no context for it. In earlier episodes we saw why he'd take an hour tp choose a muffin and that was the point. His indecision comes from the fact that he's looking for certainty, to make the morally perfect decision, and he will never have a clear answer. No, but 15 years ago when Paris Hilton was everywhere I certainly would have recognized the name.

I thought Trevor was the best of the recurring characters so I'm glad he's back. The Tahani stuff was great. My favourite joke was "I was such a tomboy when I was younger!" I hate that starlets always say that in interviews. I suppose I just love all the little throwaway jokes about the specific ways people are awful. I know this is nitpicky, but does anyone think Chidi is being written more broadly than he used to be? The point about his indecisiveness was that he thought he had to follow a perfect moral code, like eating the right foods that don't exploit workers or harm the planet, of planning a perfectly unproblematic bachelor party. Now it's just that he has no filter, which was never the point. It's that he was too analytical. Jason is still the weakest part of the show. And everyone's talking about the accent thing but I'm glad the show addressed the inconsistency of Tahani being the sister of what supposed to be one of the most famous women on the planet, a celebrity-socialite in her own right, and no one ever knowing who she is.