THE GOOD PLACE Roundtable: A Girl From Arizona, Part One

New Fall Prime-Time TV is back! Join us while we discuss the final season of The Good Place – starting with “A Girl From Arizona, Part One”

In the Season 4 premiere, Eleanor assumes the role of the architect; and the group adapts to the challenges facing them when four test subjects inhabit a new neighborhood under their supervision.

The Good Place

Roz Jason’s got a great point about introducing Chidi to Simone, but really the whole of Team Cockroach working together is amazing!

Also Simone singing “Semi-Charmed Life” was an amazing reminder that I’m probably the same age as Simone.

Cay: It was fun to see history repeat itself, but with 3/4 of the team aware of what is going on – love the symmetry with the first couple episodes – the video, the flying lessons, the frozen yogurt…

Christie: Team Cockroach/Brainy Bunch/Soul Squad is back and that alone is worthy of note!

Also, I enjoy Eleanor as The Architect. Big step in her development.

And the notion of Derek back as potentially a bad guy could be a lot of fun.

Also, a good thing, but also a sad thing — we never saw the inside of Chidi’s place originally. So I can’t help but wonder if Eleanor added extra bits, like being able to call up books with his mind, because she knows it would make him happy. And that makes me sad.

Leah: Can we talk about how much Eleanor has grown? She is “The Architect”! I just love how tight the group has become and I’m so excited to see where they are going to take this season.

Oh also – Luke Guildan (He was a Nice Boy of the Week) and he is as nice as he is easy to look at. His line about his shirt being stuck in the human suit and Eleanor yelling at him to leave it off cracked me up.

(Photo by: Colleen Hayes/NBC)

The Bad Place

Roz Brent is the worst! He’s what I loathed about Don Draper, but in 2019. Why do we need these men in our lives?

Christie: I don’t like how Eleanor threw Brent onto poor Janet.  Also I don’t like how they’re overloading Janet. Also, I don’t like Brent as a foil for Eleanor, feels like it’s too on the nose to have someone kind of like her who is a guy.

Also I don’t like Brent.

Leah: Mindy – she “kills” Derek a lot? Seemed like something I didn’t really need to know. Also – how is she still in the middle? She isn’t a good person – at all!

Cay: Yeah, I’m with Leah, now knowing about the points system failing to account for unintended consequences, how did Mindy ever end up in the Middle Place? She’s definitely not a better person that all the people who ended up in the Bad Place who should have been in the Good Place. So what’s her deal? I want answers! I also hate Brent (as we are supposed to!)

(Photo by: Colleen Hayes/NBC)

The Mediocre Place

Roz Simone’s denial is going to be extra for me, and I don’t even want her to be that awkward. To do what she did at the party was meh.

Christie: I feel like Simone being this into denial is off-character. On the other hand, I guess that it works as a breakdown of sorts.

Leah: I’m sure this has a payoff and I know Simone is there to get to Eleanor through Chidi, but meh.

Cay: Yeah, Simone is annoying! But it’s also clever to have her coming to pieces when the team thought she was a known entity.

(Photo by: Colleen Hayes/NBC)

Final Thoughts & Quotes We Loved

Roz The 1-877-Kars-4-Kids as the Bad Place Song of choice. Evil Earworms are the worst!

Leah: The riff on “Clear Eyes, Strong Hearts, Can’t Lose” was pretty funny! “Dead Eyes, Eat Hearts, Can’t Lose.”

Christie: It’s kind of a meh episode but it’s a two-parter so hopefully it’s all going somewhere.

Do I have to pick one quote? I can’t. I narrowed it to three, with no context:

“It does make me feel authoritative, like that chick from Law and Order? ‘Well boys, looks like we’ve got ourselves an SVU!'”

“Is Norway, like, the opposite of Florida?”

“Good luck saving humanity from eternal doom!”

The Good Place airs Thursdays 9/8c on NBC