THE WEATHER IS miserable, the nights are drawing in, and there’s not much for doing other than curling up on the couch of an evening.
But what to watch? Well, Netflix’s latest US import, The Good Place, should do the trick.
What’s it all about?
Eleanor Shellstrop wakes up to find herself in the Good Place, a heaven-like utopia where all good people go when they die as a reward for a life well lived. She soon realises that she was sent there by mistake, being actually kind of a shitty person, and resolves to better herself so she can stay there. Hilarious scrapes ensue.
The Good Place was created by Michael Schur, the man who gave us The Office US, Parks and Recreation, and Brooklyn Nine Nine.
This show is a hair more ambitious than the others, however, with lots of chat about morality and mortality and what it all means. Don’t worry though, it happens to be extremely funny and heartwarming too.
Who’s in it?
Kristen Bell gets her best role since Veronica Mars as Eleanor, a ‘medium’ person trying to learn how to be better (even if she still finds truly ‘good people’ a bit insufferable).
Ted Danson – veteran of Cheers, Becker, CSI, basically everything really – is brilliant as Michael, a heavenly being and architect of this particular Good Place. He delivers lines like this with genuine glee, and it’s hard not to love him:
You may recognise the woman in the above picture as former E4 presenter Jameela Jamil, who plays a recently deceased, uber-posh British philanthropist. Yep, she’s an actress now.
Do I have much to catch up on?
The whole of season one is already up on Netflix for your viewing pleasure, with new episodes of the second season going up every Friday.
What’s nice about it is all the episodes are less than 25 minutes long, making it exceptionally easy to binge and perfect if you just want something short and sweet.
Best get into it now before someone inevitably spoils it for you (yep, there are twists galore). Hurry!
