Every few years, a comedy show will come along and instantly develop a cult following. Shows like Schitt’s Creek and The Office changed how comedy was shot and written. Mockumentaries like The Office paved the way for shows like Abbott Elementary. Satires like Schitt’s Creek reminded audiences they should be laughing out loud at people who are completely unrelatable. A common thread between all comedy shows’ success is with the actors, typically led by a comedy legend and many budding comedians.

From the mind of Michael Schur (The Office) comes The Good Place, starring Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, among others. The show follows a quartet who have since passed away, trying to accept and move through the afterlife. During its four seasons, The Good Place teaches its audience some valuable lessons about death and how to make the most with the present. With the growth each character goes through in the afterlife, should they be applied to real life, the idea of death is easier to accept.

Social Credit Score

Jason Mendoza portrayed by Manny Jacinto, is one of TV’s finest himbo characters, devoted to his family despite their seemingly superficial bonds and the root of his suffering. When Jason and his friends in the afterlife are tested to prove they have truly changed, he must face his family. His friends also face their families, but Jason’s family is different. Unlike his afterlife friends, Jason puts his family first because they are the only people he has on Earth. His real test in The Good Place was to put himself first. Jason landed in the Bad Place because he put himself in danger for his family, which was the ultimate cause of his death. The “social credit score” shifted for Jason because he finally saw his family for who they truly were even though it meant letting go of the only people he held dear on Earth. While ‘self-love’ is a popular narrative, it has life-altering implications. Self-care and self-love goddess Lizzo wrote for NBC, “I don’t think that loving yourself is a choice. I think that it’s a decision that has to be made for survival.” Both Jason and Lizzo teach us that life is not the train dilemma where you choose who is more valuable but rather it’s the oxygen mask procedure on a plane.


Related: Here Are Kristen Bell’s Best Performances, Ranked

New School of Thought

Former ethics and morals philosophy professor Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper) seems like the least likely person to be in The Bad Place. He dedicated his life to understanding and teaching ethics philosophy after all. Yet, the problem Chidi faces is the debilitating anxiety that comes from his knowledge of doing the right thing. Unlike Eleanor, Jason, and Tahani, Chidi spent his life on earth trying to be a good person for the sake of being good. However, when a decision or immoral issue arose, he would get stuck mentally, attempting to find the best answer which is what led to his death. While knowledge may be power, in Chidi’s case in The Good Place, it led to debilitating anxiety, stress, and panic disorders, even in the afterlife. As/Is details how panic attacks feel, “[Being trapped] in your own head while floating somewhere outside, looking back at yourself wondering what you’re doing.” Chidi is a beacon of hope for those who are anxious, stressed, or panicking. Before he exits The Good Place, he learns to accept that his indecision was inconsequential, that sometimes things just happen, and they are completely outside our control.

Related: How The Good Place Explores Buddhist Principles

The Devil on Your Shoulder

Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) and Michael (Ted Danson) are two peas in a pod. They’re both incredibly selfish and are determined to make others suffer, whether it’s intentional. Of course, they differ in that Michael is a demon who virtually has no choice in his evilness, while Eleanor is a human who learned at a young age that it doesn’t matter what you do, the world is awful. She isn’t trying to be good and joins Chidi’s ethics master course to cheat her way into The Good Place. Yet, she’s resourceful and grows to be one of Michael’s confidants. When the team finally gets into the real Good Place, Eleanor and Michael work together to transform the entire system, so people can find true peace in the afterlife. In this clip from NBC, Eleanor describes a more positive human experience cementing that even the worst of humans and demons can find redemption.

Prim but Not So Prissy

Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil) is the most prim and proper of the humans in The Good Place. She is the friend you call to go shopping or to help fundraise $6 billion for your charity. However, she ultimately has selfish intentions behind her good deeds. On Earth, her parents praised her sister so much that Tahani did everything she could to out-do her sister, but it was never enough for her parents. In an interview with GQ, Jamil revealed her true feelings about Tahani: “More often than not, there are sad people, not bad people. Who then do bad things.” Loneliness is a big motivator for people, and as Tahani reveals to Eleanor, she never had a true friend until she died, crediting Eleanor for being the catalyst for her growth and change. Through death, Tahani was able to remove the mask she wore while she was alive. When the Good Place is revamped, Tahani is the only human to stay behind. In her heart of hearts, she has a deep sense of empathy and compassion for others. When she decides to stay behind to help people, it comes from someone who found a way to love attention for the right reasons.