The Good Place Roundtable: How Did Season 2 Stack Up?

The Good Place ended Season 2 on a high note and a plot twist.

In this roundtable we’re going to discuss our favorite characters, storylines, what we want to happen, what should’ve happened, etc…

Tell-Tale TV writers Allison Nichols, Janelle McCammack, Christina Cerutti, Cade Taylor, Lacy Baugher, and Caralynn Lippo discuss this season below.

• Allison Nichols (@AllisonBlairN)
• Janelle McCammack (@schoolsoutlaw)
• Christina Cerutti (@teen_hale)
• Cade Taylor (@cadehtaylor)
• Lacy Baugher (@LacyMB)
• Caralynn Lippo (@Caralynn_marie)

1. What was your favorite thing about this season?

Christina: Honestly, one of my favorite things to see was Michael’s character development. That the lessons really changed him and he got to know what true friendship was like and how to be good. Even for a demon, he turns out to be really sweet with a huge heart. (If demons have hearts?) I loved his friendship with Eleanor, especially.

Allison: I loved Team Cockroach. Michael teaming up with the humans was a lot of fun. We were able to really dive into Michael’s character, as Christina mentioned, and we got to see Michael form friendships with everyone. This was something completely unexpected, and it ended up taking the season in a great direction.

Lacy: Another vote for Michael’s overall arc. After Season 1’s big twist, I was afraid that ultimately they’d have to write Ted Danson out, or otherwise find some way to sideline the Michael character giving everything else that was going on, and our eventual goal of getting everyone out of the Bad Place. The show really surprised me here – not that they went with this twist, but that, in the end, they made it feel so organic and natural to Michael’s character.

Caralynn: Definitely Michael. Ted Danson is such a gem, and like Lacy, I was pleasantly surprised that the reveal that Michael was a villain at the end of Season 1 didn’t mean he’d be written out. Michael’s reformation opened up so many new and interesting ways for the show to go.

Janelle: I also loved every bit of Michael’s journey this season, but my absolute favorite thing was Janet! The complicated ethics of an inhuman and perfect being falling in love (with Jason of all people) provided a foundation for the hilarious moments of the season. Janet’s creation and maintenance of Derek brought me to tears.

On the finale, when Janet recognized that she’s more than just a robot, but not quite human either, I rejoiced at the complex commentary on humanity accomplished right under our forking noses. 

Cade: I think it’s pretty clear here that Ted Danson is one of the best things on The Good Place. I agree with everyone else, Michael’s character progression is my favorite thing on the show and I love that he was a key player.

2. If you could change anything about this season, what would it be?

Christina: Tahani and Jason being together was a strange pairing I never really got. It seemed like they were just thrown together because they were the only two left. They both deserve companions who truly, deeply understand them. Like, I think Janet and Jason are just perfect.

Tahani deserves to be with someone wonderful who just understands her and can relate to her.  So, I would really change them being together at all. They could’ve developed a strong friendship of sorts, but the romance was too off.

Allison: I wish Eleanor and Chidi’s romance were handled differently. I never really got the shipper sparks watching them together. I wish Eleanor found out in some other way than Mindy showing her a creepy sex tape.

Eleanor and Chidi are a couple I really want to love and root for, but they haven’t quite won me over yet.

Lacy: I wanted a little bit more focus on Janet. Not just because I love Janet, but I think in her own way she’s undergoing as profound a change as Michael is – from a robotic AI system to what seems perilously close to a real person with obvious feelings and emotions.

That feels kind of unprecedented, and I wish we spent a little more time on how that works and what it means for all the other Janets in the system.

Caralynn: I loved pretty much everything about the season. I think all I’d have wanted more of is more of the amazing guest stars we saw, like Derek and the Judge.

Janelle: I would add more scenes and emphasis to Eleanor and Tahani’s romantic connection. It seems obvious to me that they have great natural chemistry-more than Eleanor and Chidi or Tahani and Jason. I would have loved to see an entire episode of a reboot where Eleanor and Tahani fall in love.

Cade: I agree with Janelle 100%. I wish that we had gotten to see more of Eleanor and Tahani together. I think that they make a better pairing than Eleanor and Chidi, but I know that I probably won’t happen.

Also, I don’t like Jason. The only importance that I can see from his character is that he helps further along Janet and Tahani’s storylines. Other than that, I got nothing. I would get rid of him.

3. What was your favorite episode of the season? Why?

Christina: I think my favorite episode is Season 2 Episode 8, “Leap of Faith” because Mindy St. Claire finally gets her cocaine.

Allison: Probably Season 2 Episode 6, “The Trolley Problem,” because I could not stop laughing while watching it. Michael making Chidi actually live out the trolley problem and murdering a bunch of people is just amazing.

It was nice to see Chidi not just discuss classic ethical dilemmas but actually have to work them out in very real, yet fake, scenarios.

Lacy: I have to echo Allison and pick “The Trolley Problem.” I thought it was not only a hysterical episode, but really handled a complicated philosophical problem in a thoughtful, but still entertaining way.

I remember thinking afterward how positively stunning it was that a mainstream network comedy was able to pull something like that off so well. (And I still can’t think of another that has.)

Caralynn: “Dance Dance Resolution” was hilarious. I must have watched that episode 10 times and the rebooting montage never fails to get me.

Janelle: I loved the episode where Team Cockroach had to pretend to be demons. Jason throwing the firebomb was one of my favorite things of the season. I also really loved Dax Shepard’s cameo as a bro-tastic demon, hitting on Eleanor.

Cade: My favorite episode has to be “Derek” because it’s centered mainly around Janet and her brand new homemade boyfriend. I think this episode was one of the funniest throughout the season.

4. Whose storyline did you love the most?

Christina: Going back to question one, I really adored Michael’s storyline. So interesting to see a demon take lessons from Chidi and end up really caring for the humans and learning to be a better version of himself.

Allison: Definitely Michael’s. I love watching him grow. He experienced an existential crisis and learned how to deliver amazing human burns like calling his boss “basic.”

Lacy: Is it cheating if I say everybodys? I think Season 2 did a phenomenal job at giving everyone’s story equal weight and making us care about all of their journeys. (I don’t know about you all, but I almost cheered when Jason figured out one of the simulations.)

While I’d probably also say Michael if I had to pick one person and one alone, I think the growth of the entire group — both as individuals and as friends — was fantastic to watch.

Caralynn: Janet malfunctioning as a result of her repressed feelings for Jason and eventually dealing with her love for Jason. D’Arcy Carden is a comedic gem, and anytime she and Ted Danson worked together prominently, I loved it.

Janelle: Other than everything Janet, as I talked about earlier, I adored the escape from the Bad Place story-line. It was so fun to see Eleanor figure out that Michael was sending messages and for the whole team to learn that they care about each other. And then, we got Maya Rudolph as the Judge! 

Cade: I think my favorite storyline would have to be a tie between Michael and Eleanor. The both of them showed tremendous character growth throughout the season, and it made me really connect with the characters. The fact that Eleanor won’t know that Michael is helping her in Season 3 upsets me.

5. In your opinion, who had the best character progression?

Christina: Eleanor by far. Especially since in “The Burrito” she really proves herself by passing the test. She’s come a long way, especially with her intentions. She wants to be good at the beginning for many different, selfish reasons.

Yet as she starts to understand the lessons more and as her time continues in “The Good Place” she really grows to want to become good. She tries her hardest, and it pays off.

Allison: I’m going to agree with Christina (again) and say, Eleanor. The fact that Eleanor passes the Judge’s test at the end speaks volumes. She was the only one who earned a spot in The Good Place and then lied to make everyone else believed that she failed like them. The old Eleanor would have gloated about passing the test and left her friends to go to The Good Place.

Lacy: As much as I completely agree about how far Eleanor has come, I think I have to actually say Michael here, though my reasons why could probably work for both of them. (That said, he’s a literal demon, so that seems to be a somewhat tougher row to hoe, as it were.)

At any rate, I think The Good Place is phenomenal at showing how difficult change can be, and how much hard work actually goes into being a good person. So many shows in the era of Peak TV show us the stories of how good people fall; it’s refreshing to see one that’s about people choosing to become better than they were before.

Caralynn: It’s definitely a toss-up between Michael and Eleanor, but I’ll have to go with Eleanor. She’s the main character, after all, and we’ve already gotten so invested in her journey. Echoing Allison, the a-ha moment that really proved once and for all how much Eleanor had changed was when she pretended to have failed the test to earn a spot in the Good Place.

Janelle: I agree that Eleanor has had the most character progression and that she is a magical, incredible character. But, I think the best character progression is Tahani’s. It was epic for her to face her parents and tell them that they could not dictate her self-esteem any longer.

It was also such a joy to see her trying out fun and impulsive things that her image-conscious self would never have allowed back on Earth.

Cade: I agree that Eleanor has had a huge amount of character progression, possibly the most on the show, but I really enjoyed Janet’s character progression the most. Because of that progress, Janet ends up saving everybody’s lives in the very end. I think that her being able to impersonate Bad Janet and Shawn not notice is enough evidence to validate how far she has come.

6. How do you think Season 2 compared to Season 1?

Christina: There’s something so special about Season 1 in general. It was all fresh and new filled with exciting, endless possibilities and frozen yogurt. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and their new life after death. With Season 2 the curtain was lifted from the performance, and we as an audience get to see more depth, more twists, and turns. Also a lot more character development-stronger friendships, romantic relationships, etc.

Allison: I think Season 2 manages to stand on its own and deliver all the same caliber twists that delighted us about Season 1 without repeating what Season 1 did. It’s the next chapter in this series, and like Christina says, we are able to go more in-depth and explore things that Season 1 introduced us to like The Bad Place and the demons who run it.

Lacy:  I think that both seasons are really great, but for me, Season 2 is even better than Season 1. I admit that following the twist at the end of Season 1 I was a bit skeptical about whether the show could pull off something that was essentially so paradigm-shifting for the show as a whole. But it did and, as a result, got to explore an even bigger, more challenging story.

Caralynn: I also enjoyed Season 2 more than Season 1. I liked Season 1, but in the back of my mind throughout it, I kept thinking, “How are they going to keep this going?” The original premise didn’t seem like one that had legs, but the Season 1 finale twist opened up so many doors and Season 2’s various twists and turns throughout were so much more entertaining.

Janelle: Holy shirt! I feel that Season 2 blew Season 1 out of the water! From the Season 1 finale on, I felt like the show really revealed itself. During Season 1, I was saying “this is such a fun show, and I’ll watch anything Kristen Bell does.” All of Season 2 I’ve been saying “This show is one of the absolute best shows I have ever seen! It is layers upon layers of brilliance, and I need to watch it over and over!” 

Cade: I think that Season 2 absolutely obliterated Season 1. I agree with Janelle, the show was good in Season 1, but the Season 1 finale and on is where it has really found its footing.

In Season 1 I wasn’t constantly trying to give it free promotion because it was that good, but now I want to scream from the rooftops that The Good Place should be a required viewing because it’s that good.

7. What are the top 3 things you’d like to see in Season 3?

Christina: 

• I’d like to see more of Eleanor and Chidi’s relationship
• The real Good Place
• Adam Scott to return as “Trevor.”

Allison: I know we focus, at least during the finale, on Eleanor’s time on Earth, but I’d love to also explore Jason and Tahani’s and see how they find their way back to the group. I’d also love for Janet to pop into Earth for a minute to try to guide people along like Michael did Eleanor. Lastly, I’d love to dive further into how people’s scores are calculated, and if Michael is right and the system is flawed and needs to change.

Lacy: I too am really hoping we can see the actual Good Place at some point next season. (Part of me also hopes that it turns out to be NOTHING like the demons’ conceptualization of it, too.) I’d also like to see more about how the entire afterlife system works, since the end of Season 2 indicates that it’s a lot more complicated re: the scores and whatnot than I’d originally assumed. For example are other people stuck in a kind of Middle Place like Mindy St. Claire?

Caralynn: 100000% agree that I want to see Adam Scott return again. In addition, I’d also like to see more new guest stars, since the show has been so amazing with those so far. And I’d like for Tahani to get a love interest! It’s not fair that she’s left out of all the shipping.

Janelle: I second Adam Scott’s return as Trevor! I am looking forward to seeing how the entire Team Cockroach finds each other on Earth. Season 2 focuses on Eleanor and Chidi’s connection, but I think there are more love relationships within the group. I am also really looking forward to seeing Janet on Earth! If Michael can do it, I am assuming she can too. I am also just generally looking forward to being entertained by the unpredictable and genius writing and acting!

Cade: I agree that Adam Scott needs to return as Trevor! One thing that I’m looking forward to is how they’re going to get all of them to meet up in real life. Eleanor and Chidi is much easier of a connection than getting Eleanor and Tahani together.

I would love at least two episodes dedicated solely to Tahani in Season 3 because I feel like she will be the hardest to convince to change her ways. As for relationships, I agree with Caralynn, I want Tahani to have a new love interest; one that’s not Jason.

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What did you think of this season of The Good Place? Respond to our roundtable questions with your own answers in the comments below! You can also catch up with our review of the season finale, “Somewhere Else,” right here.

The Good Place will return sometime in 2018 on NBC.

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