What happens when you die? Where does your spirit and/or consciousness go when the flesh has given up? There’s plenty of theories and quite a few people have declared their vision of the after life as the definitive way. Most people think you go to a shining city where you get to meet all the people who died before you so you can finally find out why Abraham Lincoln didn’t just stay at home and read a book. The Good Place dares to find the comedy in the after life as we follow four spirits into the hereafter. The first season has them arrive in heaven that’s an amazing sunny little village with Ted Danson in charge of the experience. This makes sense because heaven should be run by the bartender from Cheers. Don’t we all feel good when watching a Cheers marathon? Why not trust him as the guy that keeps his section of heaven happening even if there’s an occasional glitch? Well as we learned at the end of first season, The Good Place might not exactly be heaven.
The show is also not the conventional network sitcom. Instead of 22 episodes, the series only runs 13 episodes a season. Thus each season feels like an extended comedy movie when you watch it on DVD without those pesky commercial interruptions. The first season was about Kristen Bell)Eleanor Shellstrop (Frozen‘s Kristen Bell) dying and waking up in heaven. She’s amazed at this land where she can’t even cuss when she tries. She discovers her soulmate is Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper). They are friends with the glamorous Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil) and her soulmate Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto). But these heavenly bodies question why they were allowed in heaven while others were rejected since they didn’t live the most angelic of lives. Well that gets answered at the end of season 2. Not wanting to spoil the series, we’ll skip over what happened during season 2 except to say, it’s worth the watch and perfectly sets up the 13 episodes on The Good Place: The Complete Third Season.
The third season brings the cast back to Earth to see if the lessons they learned in the Good Place can change them. Ted Danson first saves them from their mortal end like a reverse Final Destination. But he must do even more interfering in their lives including finding odd ways to bring the foursome together on Earth. When they are together will they remember these life together in the spiritual realm? Has being brought back really worked or just prolonged their true selves? We learn even more about the Good Place and the Bad Place.
The Good Place is a series that I watch on DVD for two reasons. First is that the addicting quality makes it so much easier to just hit play all and marathon the episodes. There’s no waiting a week or fast forwarding through commercials. It’s just lay back on the sofa and contemplate how Ted Danson will meet me in the after life. The second big thing is the versions on the DVD are extended from the shorter broadcast versions. Who doesn’t want more Ted Danson in their life? The series is wrapping up at the end of the upcoming fourth season so catch up on the goodness of The Good Place.
The video is 1.78:1. The resolution brings out the fun special effects used on the show. Sure they’re back on Earth, but that doesn’t make the series anymore realistic. The audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 to get the heavenly tones wrapped around the room. The episodes are Closed Captioned.
Gag Reel (8:50) has a fine spitting out the shrimp moment.
Visual Effects Reel (2:28) lets you understand what it takes to make a centaur on screen.
Shout! Factory presents The Good Place: The Complete Third Season. Starring: Ted Danson, Kirsten Bell & Jameela Jamil. Boxset Contents: 13 episodes on 2 DVDs. Released: July 30, 2019
