If you know me in real life, you know I am obsessed with NBC’s sitcom The Good Place. It’s airing its final season right now, and I cannot wait for it to come back and finish up after the mid-season break.
If you haven’t seen this show, I cannot recommend it enough. It’s so smart, funny, and delightfully full of questions that make you think deeply while still being entertained. This combination of joy and genuine contemplation is rare, and I think it’s a brilliant piece of meaningful art.
The premise of the show is that Eleanor Shellstrop (a self described “dirtbag” from Arizona played delightfully by Kristen Bell) wakes up to find out that she has died on Earth and is now in the lounge of the “Good Place,” a heaven-like place where only the exceptionally good people of the world end up after they’ve died. Most, however, go to the Bad Place.
I won’t spoil the show for you, but I will say that Eleanor quickly realizes that she doesn’t actually belong in the Good Place, and her questionable choices on Earth quickly start to catch up to her—sometimes painfully. The characters that she meets along the way are wonderfully dynamic and entertaining, and the group is left grappling with big questions like what it means to be a good person, what responsibility we have to improve ourselves, and—above all—what do we owe each other?
This last question is the premise of the show as well as the title of a book by the real-life philosopher who helped inspire the entire project. T.M. Scanlon wrote What We Owe Each Other in 1998, and his exploration of humans’ responsibility to one another is a foundational question of the show. Creator Michael Shur (famous for his work on The Office and Parks and Recreation) also consulted Clemson University professor Todd May throughout the show’s creation.
If that’s not enough to convince you that this show has real academic chops, consider this: the cast of the show actually studies the philosophical ideas their characters explore! That’s right. These actors are spending their spare time reading dense philosophical texts to better prepare for their roles.
Common Sense Media rates the show as appropriate for ages 12 and up, but I’m going to let you know that watching it with my almost-9-year-old daughter has been the absolute highlight of our week together. While there are some jokes about adult topics like sex, drugs, and masturbation, I definitely think these minor moments of potentially inappropriate humor are more than balanced out by genuine discussions about how we should carry ourselves through life. All that to say that I think it’s good family fun, but use your judgment about what’s best for your family.
If you’ve got a fan of The Good Place who would love to dive deep with some other people, I’m so excited to be teaching a new class themed around the show. We’ll start with Season 1, but I’m hoping to add the rest of the seasons as we go. This class is for ages 13-18, but I’ll be making the curriculum available for purchase soon so you can lead discussions in your own home or co-op classes.
Hope to see you there!