S03.E05: Jeremy Bearimy

[possibilities]

I don't think we've been told that she's "as bad" as Eleanor or Jason. They all failed to make the cut, but it's a pass/fail system, and within the fails there is surely a range of points. And then they were selected to be put together for Michael's experiment, specifically because they were deemed suitable to torture each other.

[SailorGirl]

Fun fact:

prior to this episode, when I would come in the house and say hello to my pets, I would say " hello my little babies." Almost without realizing it, I have now taken to calling them "my little chili babies." 

[ByTor]

On 10/27/2018 at 11:45 AM, Loandbehold said:

On 10/27/2018 at 1:15 AM, Zuleikha said:

That was clearly not about her own ego because it didn't aid her ego. On the contrary, it was personally painful and required her to do something selfless.

Except that Tahani was trying to raise the most money so she would look good.

Yep, her parents told her the amount she raised was embarrassing, and IIRC they suggested adding the date with Kamilah to the auction.

[aradia22]

Ah! There it is. There's my show. Burst out laughing as soon as Michael said "My name is special agent Rick Justice."

I thought he was going to draw a teddy bear. Just writing Jeremy Bearimy in loopy script was so much better.

Chidi being sprayed by the sprinklers was perfect comedic timing. Are they ever going to explain why he's so fit for a college professor?

Broken Chidi was hilarious. It was nice to see the actor get some different material.

I feel like the first few episodes were just filler and this is the real reset for season 3. 

[aradia22]

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Chidi's nihilism wasn't precisely the same in effect as his usual dangerous indecisiveness, but the net effect of his breakdown was the same.  Selfishness. He's still selfish underneath his airs of helping people with their ethics, or in this case acting loony tunes because it's clear now he's not really helping for the right reasons.

I wouldn't call it pure selfishness but I do think they're holding back on exploring Chidi beyond a moral philosophy professor and an anxious person. I think it's closer to what Simone was talking about. Chidi is still too motivated by Eleanor and the group. I do think he believes that writing his thesis and thinking about ethics will be beneficial for the world vs. how Tahani wrote her book for glory and attention. But when the possibility of getting into The Good Place is taken away, Chidi loses motivation and I don't think they've really explored that because the plot usually takes a turn and the show resets when he might be confronted with it. 

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Tahani was clearly giving away the money, even anonymously, because some part of her still thought she could buy her way into The Good Place.  Even after being told she couldn't. this was her breakdown.

I disagree. I don't think it was purely altruistic but I don't think she was trying to buy her way in. It was more of a petulant sort reaction. Childish resentfulness. It's similar to how she gave away her clothes and went to the temple at first. She's just trying to remove the things that seem to be hindering her. But she's not actually doing work on herself and confronting her need for attention, jealousy of her sister, etc. She's still thinking in superficial terms instead of looking inwards.

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Jason was just Jason.  He's usually externally motivated no matter what, by the most trivial of things.  No breakdown, but no progress.

I agree this is a problem. Maybe they need to drop Jason off at a daycare so he can learn at his level.

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I had to think about it for a minute, and I'm guessing Ted Danson? He goes to the gym though, I'm sure he's still looking pretty good, especially for his age.

Me over here basically thinking about how handsome he is for a good portion of every episode. I blame Cheers reruns.

[Virtual]

The Jeremy Bearimy timeline for the afterlife, and whole explanation of it did the exact same thing to me as it did to Chidi. My mind was going, "WTF?! How does that make ANY sense at all?!?!?"

But I suppose it did provide for some necessary comedy. Chidi teaching class with a pot of chili (with Peeps!) and the little speech he gave about "life's test" was hilarious.

[dovegrey]

On 9/1/2019 at 5:27 AM, aradia22 said:

But when the possibility of getting into The Good Place is taken away, Chidi loses motivation and I don't think they've really explored that because the plot usually takes a turn and the show resets when he might be confronted with it.

I feel like a Bad Place jerk for quoting something from 2019 but I'll chalk it up to being somewhere in Jeremy Bearimy time... Just now watching this series on Netflix and am enjoying catching up on the old discussion on the threads here. With Chidi and this episode, I don't know if it was necessarily him giving up motivation to do good/moral things because the Good Place was taken away from him, so much as Chidi accepting that everything he has ever believed, taught, researched, studied, and committed himself to is absolutely meaningless. I didn't see it as him wondering what the point was for him - but what's the point of morals and ethics for anyone? Which is exactly what I struggle with the most on the show. This next paragraph or two is just a general thought I've had since pretty much the end of the season 1 and not a response to anyone.

What the show, up until this point, tells me is that people are sent to the Bad Place regardless of circumstances, abilities, and differences, and so nothing I have professionally studied, researched, and practiced in a career of helping people matters. I understand why Chidi was absolutely done with his life in this episode, as it's kind of why I've checked out of the premise and am along for the constant resets and usually funny jokes. Jason is almost certainly intellectually disabled and does not have the mental capacity to problem solve or adaptively respond to most situations; he is mentally a very young child with very limited resources as a chronological adult and was sent to hell for it. Chidi was sent to hell due to what appears to be a crippling anxiety disorder with compulsive tendencies who "selfishly" adversely affected people in his life (that's what Michael said in season 1 and JFC AYFKM). Eleanor was sent to hell for not being born with enough resilience to, completely on her own, overcome what appears to be a significant lack of attachment to and from her neglectful parents and then be a selfless, trusting person who is able to be vulnerable long enough to give herself freely to people (which is near impossible to do when your brain didn't wire to do that in early childhood via a secure parental/maternal attachment). Tahani was sent to the Bad Place for effectively being Rich Eleanor with similarly distant/emotionally neglectful but wealthy parents and a different kind of built-in response to being judged by people (Tahani over-pleases, while Eleanor lashes out).

I really enjoy this show. It often has me internally debating whether it's the characters' faults for not being self-aware enough to seek improvement as adults (except for Jason - seriously, just leave Jason alone), or if the entire in-show premise was 100% hijacked by the Bad Place (because I'm hoping the writers see the injustice). But I totally understood Chidi just going "fork it all" in this episode (also, like, Finals Week...). Because what's the point when absolutely nothing matters and pretty much everyone ever is going to hell no matter what? Thanks for coming to my less-than-three-hour TED talk.

Spoiler

I more or less know how the show ends. Got spoiled when the finale aired a few years ago. But I still needed to rant about this LOL.

[aradia22]

@dovegrey I don't remember the context of this episode well enough to respond but I do think that ultimately the show wasn't as smart or capable of radical thinking as it could have been. Even though people loved the Soul Squad, the show kept drawing us back to Eleanor and Michael and an individualistic narrative. In a way, overthrowing heaven and hell is like overthrowing the government. I don't think the writers were able to think of a community-based solution of establishing order to the universe. 

[Beccaa]

I'm a somewhat surprised that this "The Good Place" thread is dead I know it doesn't have that many seasons compared to regular shows but I'd think it did create a decent fan base. In a way, and ironically, it seems that here it really turned into "The Bad Place" mind the pun  😋

[possibilities]

Ethics, morality, and goodness aren't supposed to be about getting a reward, though. It's supposed to be an inherent value. So for me, the fact that the show's universe is not engineered to reward and punish in some orderly way does not cancel out the value of being good and growing as a person.

In a way, the lack of a just system for heaven/hell just removes the external motivation and throws you back on what you really, truly value without it hinging on what some external force tells you is right or wrong. 

Knowing that you'll be tormented whatever you do is a pretty rough forever to face, but it also seemed to me that the characters were able to form bonds and find joy together even though they were supposedly being tortured. And that had to be because they did find an internal sense of things that didn't hinge on the external structure they were being forced to live within.