The Good Place
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If I could remove one word permanently from the vocabulary of all TV writers, Id pick trust.
I cant trust you any more, they say to someone who lied to them or let them down.
And then the action becomes people talking through their problems, rather than doing something exciting.
This weeksThe Good Place, miraculously, executes a trust story line that works, for two reasons.
First, the show doesnt linger on the trust issue interminably.
Its introduced at the start of the episode and is then (mostly) resolved by the end.
More importantly, this particular complication isnt about someone struggling with a bruised ego.
This is actually a matter of life and death … or, more accurately, afterlife and eternal torture.
Eleanor doesnt want to believe Glenn,except…
This big reveal forces Michael to admit that hed already been told about the existence of Vickis Michael suit.
Is Glenn on the up-and-up?
And he correctly declares that Shawn is just a big bully, who yells at everyone all the time.
and How do you plead!
But hes too ashamed.
Hes actually 6,000 feet tall, with flaming tentacles and teeth everywhere.
His neck is long and, theres a smell … And lots of juice… Theres so much juice.
Again, all of this is both funny and legitimately nerve-racking.
When he calls Janet girl and she doesnt respond not a girl, he knows somethings amiss.
The thing is, though,The Good Placehasnt entirely buried the trust question when it comes to Michael.
In other words: Thats good TV storytelling.
John is treated to a living version of Mariah Careys lower-back butterfly tattoo.
(I wrote my college thesis on that back tattoo, he boasts.)
(Bad Janet later describes how it was killed: I had to twist her head off.
There was thrashing.)
The terribleness of this gradually washes over Simone, who just keeps saying, Oh, no.
