erik lundegaard

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Tuesday April 09, 2019

Best Thing About The Good Place is The Bad Place

What's hell? Bro-hams, Axe Body Spray and “Transformers.”

Last month, when Patricia and I were both sick with the crud, we watched the first two seasons of “The Good Place” on Netflix. First season was good; second season was better. But the third-to-last episode of the second season? Where they all try to sneak through The Bad Place? Brilliant. 

How do you torture humanity? It's already being done. We‘re being tortured daily with our own crap. 

You get that sense throughout the series, but it’s this episode where the show's creator Michael Schur and his writing staff really let it all hang out, with slams on IHOP, the “Pirates of the Carribean” movies, and Hawaiian pizza, as our heroes wind up in The Museum of Human Misery: Hall of Low-Grade Crappiness:

Jason: Is there a gift shop?
Michael: Jason, this is hell. Of course, there's a gift shop. 

There are animatronics of douches: the first person to floss in an open-plan office; the first white man with dreadlocks; and the first man to send an unsolicited picture of his genitals. 

But my favorite moment is when Michael (Ted Danson), nominal demon turned nominal good guy, arrives and consults with his superior, Shawn (Marc Evan Jackson): 

Shawn: (tossing a small canister of Axe Body Spray to Michael) “Welcome home. Axe up!”
Michael: (faux-excited) “Oh! New scent! ‘Transformers.’”
Shawn: “Yes. It makes you smell the way ‘Transformers’ movies make you feel.”

The kicker was when Michael later runs into the humans he's helping:

Eleanor: (making face) Ughhh! How do you smell loud and confusing?

Longtime readers will know I'm not exactly a fan. So despite the crud, I felt better after that. I felt less alone.

Posted at 08:06 AM on Tuesday April 09, 2019 in category TV