Theology of The Good Place

"Ethics is a buzzkill."

Ever popular 7 years after its pilot debut, this philosophical comedy series features Kristen Bell in the afterlife where language is universal and each person meets their soulmate upon arrival.

The series is—admittedly–as goofy and tricky to follow as an existential comedy sitcom could hope to be. There's more intellectualism to be found than a lecture in hermeneutics, although both the irony and the world-building elements follow the structure of both orthodox and protestant Christian theology.

Debuting at the peak of the 2016 US election season, The Good Place has inspired deconversion and deconstruction stories all across the r/exvangelical to r/exchristian pipeline. The search term reaches its peak in Utah, the US state with a high concentration of LDS members.

Synopsis

Right on cue, we’re introduced to a white-headed man named Michael who assures Eleanor that despite Heaven and Hell not existing as taught by organized religion, she is in The Good Place.

Eleanor is introduced to her soulmate Chidi Anagonye, a Senegalese-Nigerian ethics professor. Aside from being a perfect square, he’s a pretty cool guy. His golden retriever energy provides the perfect balance for Eleanor's antagonistic nature.

Trusting Chidi to keep her secret, Eleanor reveals her past as a pharmaceutical saleswoman from Arizona. After weighing the ethical and moral implications, Chidi agrees to help.

The only immediately omniscient being is Jenny, who represents an AI of sorts to carry out Michael’s bidding.

Eleanor is introduced to her neighbors, Tahani and Jianyu. Tahani is diplomatic, yet whimiscal in a way reminiscent of Cassie from Skins UK.

Eleanor is the only character to acknowledge a flaw within Michael’s community design, but she isn't the first to perceive it. While first introduced as a Buddhist monk from Taiwan, Jianyu breaks his vow of silence to reveal his real identity as Jason Mendoza, a disc jockey from Florida.

Works-Based Salvation

Eleanor makes an effort to change by picking up trash during flight training to set the universe back to rights, but she still hasn't broken her old habit of cutting corners. As karma for hiding the leftover garbage in an attempt to get some air-time, trash begins raining from the sky. After digging herself out of the hole, she tries the good old Salvation-by-Works method by holding the door for townspeople in an attempt to earn points.

In the Season 1 finale, Eleanor realizes that the townspeople have actually been in an experimental Bad Place all along, chosen by Michael to emotionally and psychologically torture each other for eternity.

In this life, Eleanor writes a Facebook post about how she’s going to try to become a better person. She quits her job selling fake medicine and joins the environmentalist. She apologizes to her friend for tearing her dress and gets kicked out of the apartment. Eleanor learns that being a good person doesn’t always produce pleasant results.

Season 2 wraps conclusively enough that the series could end here... until Eleanor goes to the bar where Michael is waiting for her. After explaining to him the plot of Kangaroo Jack, Michael plugs Chili’s YouTube channel for Eleanor to binge-watch.

There are countless instances of humans getting caught in the mental gymnastics of a religious or even ethical paradigm. Everything is a test. Chidi is forced to choose between a white and brown hat and takes 82 minutes to come to a decision. Michael McKean (Chuck from Better Call Saul) makes an appearance as Doug Forcett, a philanthropist spiraling into OCD trying to earn enough points to reach the Good Place.

Total Depravity

Calvinism rears its head throughout the series run, but the human condition is finally addressed head-on at the end of Season 3. While there's no canonical concept of original sin, an experiment is posed to determine whether humankind is inherently good or evil.

The series wrapped in 2020 at the conclusion of the 4th season.

Where to Watch The Good Place:

The Good Place is available for streaming on Netflix and Apple TV.