SEASON PREMIERE: Last season,
The Good Place pulled off an end-of-season surprise that was the most unexpected, sneaky and clever plot twist since the Mel Brooks
The Producers season of HBO’s
Curb Your Enthusiasm. In
The Good Place, the entire season had presented Kristen Bell’s Eleanor as being a person sent mistakenly to heaven – the titular good place – and trying to either fake or earn her way to permanent residency there. Ted Danson played the “angel” presiding over this particular patch of divine real estate – except that the stunning reveal at the end of Season 1 was that Danson’s angel actually was a devil… and the good place actually was a new version of hell, dreamed up as a devious new way to torture Eleanor and the others in the so-called “good place.” So how to proceed with Season 2? With Eleanor and her new neighbors’ memories wiped, and some given new identities and occupations, to reboot the idea, and the torment, all over again. Eleanor, though, left herself a clue about the place’s, and the host’s, true character. But will she be able to decipher it now? I watched, and enjoyed, this comedy all last season, and expect to enjoy it even more now.
For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.