The Good Place: The Brainy Bunch (3x03)

I love Trevor. I mean I hate him, but I love him. Adam Scott is hilarious and the character he's playing is so different from Ben Wyatt that it's extra amusing to see him play that role. Let's dive in.

Cons:

Uhhh. I think I'm going to be struggling to think of things to complain about with this show. It's freakin' on point, all the time. One thing I'll say I'm on the watch for is the character of the Judge. She's really, really funny, but what she isn't is threatening. I like the fact that Shawn adds comedic effect, but I'm also afraid of him and what he can do. With the Judge, I don't get a sense for the scope of her influence and power, even though I know on paper she could really fuck up our heroes' lives. I'm excited to see how her character develops.

Also, and this isn't a serious complaint, but these episodes are so dang short! I always want more, and I'm surprised when the episode is already over!

Pros:

I continue to be fascinated by the idea that these four people need each other in order to become better people. It's an interesting thought experiment, and it feeds in to this really encouraging, positive image of humanity. We're all a product of our environment, and while we often hear about that as a negative, it's also a positive. Everybody has the capability of being a good and truly amazing person, but maybe certain people and environments are better suited for some. I want to see Chidi make Eleanor a better person and Tahani make Chidi a better person and Jason make Tahani a better person, and on and on and on.

Janet cracks me up. It doesn't matter what she's saying or doing, she's always so freakin' funny. I love that she's annoyed that she can't summon anything, and she keeps forgetting it. In fact, as the episode ends, we see that she forgot so often that she tried to summon things constantly. I imagine that would be a really irritating thing to adjust to. The human equivalent would probably be like me if suddenly I didn't have the internet anymore. The convenience of that is hard to lose.

Also, I was sure last week that the frog thing with the Door Man would come back, and I love that it did, and so soon. He lets Michael and Janet go back to Earth against the Judge's wishes, all because he liked the little frog gift that Michael gave him last week. Ha!

This show is actually going to be deceptively difficult to write about every week, because it's just so... good. It's short, and pithy, and insightful, and clever, and I love it so, so much.

9.5/10