S04.E08: The Funeral to End All Funerals

[Zuleikha]

It is a reminder that Eleanor was a truly terrible person with no empathy, and she changed a lot, though!

They wrote a Brent who is in some kind of materials business, who has complained about "political correctness," who thinks of Janet as a secretary and sexually harasses her, who repeatedly ignored how his behavior was hurting others until Chidi finally snapped at him, etc.

People are projecting a lot onto Brent, and that's my problem with this set up in a nutshell. For whatever reason, the show implied a lot but didn't actually show us a lot. So it's not the projections are wrong per se because the show writers clearly intend us to see Brent as a particularly bad racist sexist a-hole, but it's irritating that IMHO, they instead showed us a socially clueless, self-absorbed person.

(And I don't see what's wrong with thinking of Janet as an executive assistant equivalent since that's what he's told Janet is and isn't that what Janet's actually supposed to be? Basically, the equivalent of a really great Siri?)

Simone never cared about how her behavior was hurting others either.

[aradia22]

Quote

People are projecting a lot onto Brent, and that's my problem with this set up in a nutshell. For whatever reason, the show implied a lot but didn't actually show us a lot. So it's not the projections are wrong per se because the show writers clearly intend us to see Brent as a particularly bad racist sexist a-hole, but it's irritating that IMHO, they instead showed us a socially clueless, self-absorbed person.

I agree with this. I think my projections are reasonable inferences based on the information we've been given. But the show has downplayed a lot of the specifics. I think they're more comfortable portraying him as a socially clueless, self-absorbed person because that person is easier to redeem. For the record, I do think people with terrible views can be redeemed. Heck, people who were in cults and former neo-Nazis get rehabilitated. But that's not what they wrote into The Good Place. 

However, I don't think the problem is thinking of Janet as a secretary, even if she's not one. It's that he thought of her as a secretary and therefore someone he could sexually harrass. That's something explicitly stated in the episodes. 

[possibilities]

I didn't remember that they said anything about having to submit people on par with Eleanor et al for the experiment. I thought the only restrictions were no boy band managers, and... I forget the other two things, but it was only three restrictions, at least as I remember it.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I didn't remember that they said anything about having to submit people on par with Eleanor et al for the experiment. I thought the only restrictions were no boy band managers, and... I forget the other two things, but it was only three restrictions, at least as I remember it.

It was no serial killers, no dictators and no one who managed a boy band. But those were just the examples given. The actual rule was that they had to be the same general level of badness as the original four. 

Edited November 19, 2019 by Guest

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 11/16/2019 at 2:28 PM, Affogato said:

I think she feels fixing the current mess isn’t worth it. Easier to start over and do better next time. Like with burned cookies. You can scrape the burned bits but that is a lot of work and they still will taste burned. 

12 hours ago, possibilities said:

For now on, I am going to think of people as burnt cookies. I like it.

And now all I can think of is Buffy's analogy about becoming a cookie:

Okay, I'm cookie dough. I'm not done baking yet. I'm not finished becoming whoever the hell it is I'm going to turn out to be. I make it through this and the next thing and the next thing, and maybe one day I turn around and realize I'm ready. I'm cookies. And then if I want someone to eat m- or enjoy warm delicious cookie me, then that's fine. That'll be then. When I'm done.

[Ray Adverb]

Tahani mentioned that was the first time she ever wore sweat pants.  Was that also the first time on the show that she wore any kind of pants?

[MissL]

3 hours ago, Ray Adverb said:

Tahani mentioned that was the first time she ever wore sweat pants.  Was that also the first time on the show that she wore any kind of pants?

No they made her wear cargo pants once when they were torturing her with the short soul mate and tiny house. And she ripped the best person sash off of Eleanor and set the party on fire too I believe during that ep.

[secnarf]

On 11/19/2019 at 3:29 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

And now all I can think of is Buffy's analogy about becoming a cookie:

Okay, I'm cookie dough. I'm not done baking yet. I'm not finished becoming whoever the hell it is I'm going to turn out to be. I make it through this and the next thing and the next thing, and maybe one day I turn around and realize I'm ready. I'm cookies. And then if I want someone to eat m- or enjoy warm delicious cookie me, then that's fine. That'll be then. When I'm done.

That's all I thought of as well 😄

[cleo]

I'm just watching these eps now. Like everyone, I thought this ep and last one were much better than the earlier ones.

Michael talking about how people could get better almost made me cry but I gotta say if this were real, I think the judge is right about a reset.

Every episode where they refer to Janet's void just sounds gross to me.

I'm sure this is massively unpopular but I think Janet and the actress playing her have become my least favourite. I don't think the actress is as talented as everyone else does, and I just feel like there is this constant focus on her character(s) as though they are just amazeballs the best, and to me she is ok, but that's it and the constant focus on her wears me out.