tominboston

Maybe the blondes weren't great racers but they seem to be great people. I'm sorry to see them go. Will and James, please go away.

I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about the same time as Alex. (At the moment I'm still on my feet, but I know the prognosis for this disease.) Over the past year and a half, seeing him on TV five nights a week has been an inspiration as we both went through the unpleasantness of cancer treatment. As a longtime Jeopardy watcher, I will of course miss his presence on the show, but also as a fighting role model for us cancer patients. RIP Alex, and thanks.

It's a wonderfully silly show that's a great diversion in these weird times. Venus and Gronk are excellent in their roles as team leaders with a lot of personality on top of their athletic skills.

I know this is only a sitcom, but I just don't see how an overly earnest, college-educated white guy could make a credible run for city council in a mostly black, blue-collar neighborhood. I suppose the writers were looking for a plot that could carry over into next season, but I don't think it's going to work for me. Then again, since Calvin endorses Dave, I'm sure it will all work out. 🙂

I've enjoyed reading everyone's thoughtful comments this morning. After watching the episode I felt like I really needed to get some impressions from fellow fans. It was beautiful but also made me sad, by design I guess. I really would have preferred to see everyone living happily ever after in the Good Place, which after all had been their goal for the whole run of the show up to the end. Having three of the four humans decide to leave "paradise" for the unknown just doesn't seem right. But I can see that the ending seems to have resonated with a majority of you folks, so maybe I just need to watch the last to episodes again. The doorman and his frogs: wonderfully weird.

I guess I'm in a minority on this but I find the two lead characters to be highly likeable and the aunt and uncle are funny in an over-the-top way, so while this won'[t be my favorite show of the season I plan to continue watching it. The only problem I have is that sometimes I miss a line or two because I have a little trouble comprehending the Nigerian accents. Maybe I'll turn on captioning next week.

I knew that Chelsea/Gina was leaving the show and I wondered how they would send her off. Last night's plot worked for me because it showed Jake being so supportive of her ambitions. I know that a lot of folks found the Gina character grating, but as one who has spent a fair amount of time in New York City over the years I think she represented a certain sort of pushy, wiseass native New Yorker that I suspect would be found in any precinct house in the city. All of the other B99 characters are so conscientious about their jobs (well, OK, there's Hitchcock and Scully...) that Gina's general smugness and indifference was a nice comic balance. The show will do fine without her, but I'm not celebrating her departure.

Absolutely. She was amazing and then some. Kudos to the show's computer team as well for all the digital manipulation, which was pretty neat. So assuming that someone is in charge of the (real) Good Place, did he/she/it not notice that humans had stopped showing up there in recent centuries? And is the Judge in on the Bad Place scam too?

No. Right? I don't remember seeing any. So could the Puking Moose actually have been some sort of constructed supernatural space, rather than a real bar that the gang happened to wander into while waiting for Michael and Janet to finish their visit with Doug Forcett? How else would the demonic hit squad have known where they were?

I see several negative comments about Eden Sher as Penny/Sue Heck II, but I found the character reasonably amusing. The whole Cloud 9 crew is made up of oddballs, and adding a fast-talking hyperactive as another recurring character is fine with me. No, I wouldn't want a whole episode of her, but a scene now and then could be fun. The otherwise sane-seeming guy relieving himself in the middle of the store was a perfect ending. As for the postpartum plot, it had its funny moments -- the pumping/praying bit especially -- but more importantly I appreciate the point America Ferrera was trying to make about the difficulties faced by working mothers without maternity leave and/or decent health insurance. I love the show as a sitcom but it's fine with me if it occasionally makes a serious point.

I really want to like this show and loved the characters last season, but I too think it's starting to drift without focus. Last night's episode just felt off somehow, although I did like the way Martin made an effort to see Lena's side of things when he took on the real estate agent. C'mon writers, you can do better

I loved the football references this week -- Jason discovered fellow Jaguars fans in Sydney and Tahani dated Tom Brady! But as usual I have to watch the episode again over the weekend. The dialogue on this show often moves so fast that I think I miss some of the extremely clever references that the writers throw in. I do like the concept someone mentioned above that Simone could be an agent of the Good Place. Anything seems to be plausible in this show, and it makes sense that whoever runs the Good Place might want to help save these flawed but basically decent humans from eternal damnation.

I figured that any show with Cedric The Entertainer and Max Greenfield would have to be good, but the premier disappointed me. Cedric was pretty funny as the grumpy black guy, but Max/Dave is just SO nice and earnest and perpetually cheerful that he was unsettling. I'll give the show a couple weeks to find its footing and maybe get a little more subtle with the writing for the white characters, but I don't think it's off to a great start.

I was a fan of the original show and I'm very happy to have it back with the same cast, even if the beating of the orange-haired dead horse did seem a little forced at times. I expect that now that the basic premise has been established, future episodes will be a little smoother.

That was a nice sendoff, with an appropriately chaotic Nick/Jess wedding. I could have done without Russell, but otherwise it was fun, including Stoned Jess's plastic eyeball over her eye patch. And the flash forward to everyone living happily ever after with a big herd of kids was sweet. New Girl's best seasons were the early ones, but I always enjoyed looking in on these crazy folks and I'll miss them. Thanks to all involved with the show for a lot of smiles.

I assume that the writers have a plan that leads to a reasonably happy ending for this mess next season -- after all, the show is a comedy -- but at the moment I'm wondering where the hell they're going with this. I know that America is pregnant in real life, but I don't see any warm fuzzies coming in where the show is taking Amy, and they could easily have continued with the Amy/Jonah/Kelly/Amy's delivery guy boyfriend whose name I don't remember thing without a pregnancy complication. I feel really sorry for Kelly, who's a sweet person who is getting shafted, and even for Jonah, who as he said towards the end of last night's episode, waited two years for Amy before moving on and then she makes a move. The season finale episode should be interesting. C'mon, writers, I like these characters and I don't want to see simmering anger carry over. Thankfully, the show remains a must-see for me... I love all of the other characters and the quick sight gags and the generally surreal goofiness of Cloud 9. And I can deal with the product placements if, as someone wrote above, they helps keep the show on the air.

Wow. I know that America is pregnant IRL, but I wish they hadn't decided to incorporate it into the show... to me it just messes things up with respect to Amy/Jonah and Amy's life in general, a dynamic that I though the show was developing nicely. Now it gets dark. But I suspect that America wants to make the point that unplanned pregnancies can be a life-altering experience for low-paid retail workers. Having said that, I'll add myself to the folks who are complementing Lauren Ash on a great writing job. I noticed that there was something a little different in the general tone this episode, pregnancy reveal aside. The various mothers describing the pregnancy experience and Dina's reaction were especially funny, plus the quick sight gag of guys signing up on the "sex w/Amy" whiteboard. I hope they let Lauren write some more next season.

Aww, poor Kelly. The Amy/Jonah scene at the end was sweet and they're obviously meant for each other, but Jonah was a total jerk for blowing off the special date he had arranged with Kelly without even calling her. She really needs to ditch him. Nice to see Myrtle again, cheerful as always. I love her and I was afraid that the character had been written out of the show.

I liked the pilot and I'll watch at least the next couple episodes to see where it goes. The concept of a divorced couple who don't absolutely hate each other is pleasantly unusual for a sitcom, and I've been a big Jenna Fisher fan since The Office... when she does that sad/lonely look I want to reach into the TV and hug her. Yes, there were a couple rough edges in the pilot, but most shows seems to take a few episodes to hit their stride. And there were centipedes!!!

I don't think there's any danger of Cheyenne being written out of the show. I think that bit just made the point that many retail workers have to hold multiple jobs to make enough money to get by on minimum or near-minimum wage. Am I the only one who feels a little sorry for Kelly? She seems really sweet, if socially awkward, and Jonah seems to be with her just because she's pretty and available and he's afraid to commit to Amy. But the furniture scene was pretty funny.

I agree that Sandra is an absolute delight. This show has done as good a job as anyone since The Office with casting and writing characters for a workplace comedy. And speaking of "secondary" characters, I finally got around to looking up Linda Porter, who plays Myrtle, who always makes me smile (especially since she sometimes reminds me of my very elderly mother!). She's 85 in real life!!! Wow, good for her.

I know that the issue of legal immigration versus fake IDs is an important one in the real world these days, but as far as I'm concerned this show takes place in Sitcomland so I'm happy to accept whatever situation the writers present for Mateo. Glad he got some money out of the giant monster corporation, though. Poor Amy. I see that the show has been renewed for next season (hooray!!!), so I assume this season will end with some sort of Amy/Jonah/Kelly cliffhanger. Given that Kelly seems really sweet but is an intellectual lightweight, I assume that Jonah will eventually figure out that she's not a good long term match for him.

That was reasonably amusing and I'll check out episode 2, however when I read the A. J. Jacobs book on which it was based a while back I though the book was definitely funnier. I suspect that some of Jacobs' wry, self-aware humor (and his frequent references to Judaism) had to be toned down so as not to offend a mass network audience. I do recommend that anyone who likes the premise of this show consider reading the original book as well.

I understand why Amy felt the need to prove to herself that she was still attractive, but given that she is one of the two fairly normal people in the store (along with Jonah) I just don't see her going to town with the shady, creepy pharmacist rather than finding a way to get back in touch with the hot groundhog guy who was flirting with her. Oh well, it's Sitcomland. One of the things I love about this show and The Good Place that follows it is that I have to watch them twice to catch everything that the writers have but in there... just so many lines and sight gags going by quickly. Great stuff!

I've been thinking along the same lines, again keeping in mind that this is just a sitcom. Tahani was raised by horrible parents, and it's amazing that she turned out as well as she did. Chidi suffered from an obvious anxiety disorder that might have responded to psychiatric help. Poor Jason just isn't very bright. None of those three was an evil person on earth. Eleanor actually was, at least at times... she was selfishly nasty and had little regard for others, although as many have mentioned she's the one who has changed the most in the afterlife. Last season Michael said that only some tiny fraction of people went to the Good Place; I forget the number but it was like one percent. With judging standards like these I can see why! After last season's finale blew up the whole premise of the show I was ready to write it off but watched the season 2 opener anyway and immediately got hooked again. I'm looking forward to whatever weird twist this season ends on. And can I admit that I was just a little disappointed that the judge was not in fact a sentient burrito?