Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

I have zero goodwill towards CD Projekt Red and the Cyberpunk 2077 IP. I witnessed that game's disastrous release first-hand, from the crunch, to the delays, to the bugs and glitches, to the borderline unplayable PS4 release. The only reason why I'm watching Edgerunners is because I'm just that much of a Trigger/Gainax fan. They (and especially Hirouyki Imaishi) haven't let me down yet, and thankfully, Edgerunners is no exception.

From what I can understand, Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a prequel to the video game. It's about a down-on-his-luck street kid named David who decides to get a cybernetic implant, which ends up getting him involved in a crew of underground mercenaries. True to the cyberpunk genre, there's no real overarching villain that the crew has any change of defeating. Instead, Edgerunners is more about the crew trying to make money and survive, as well as David's surprisingly compelling romance with fellow mercenary Lucy. I think it's really the characters that make the anime for me, it's a really colorful cast. David and Lucy's chemistry is incredibly effective, Rebecca's cutesy crassness is a joy to watch, and Maine and Dorio are just the most lovable beefcakes. I also like the world-building... well, actually, a lack thereof would be more accurate. Putting the game aside, I'm well aware Cyberpunk is a TTRPG universe with a whole bunch of lore, and I like how Edgerunners just doesn't explain any of it to you. Despite being a prequel, it's not really a story of how the Cyberpunk world came to be or anything (like the other Netflix video game adaptation Arcane), it's just a fairly ground-level story that happens to take place inside the Cyberpunk world. It's pretty refreshing, though I do think the anime goes a bit too far in this aspect. The pacing can be blisteringly fast at points, and the short length means things do feel a bit more rushed than they could've been.

But let's face it, this is a Trigger anime, the real star of the show is that animation. The director of Edgerunners, Hiroyuki Imaishi, is pretty well-known for his bonkers action and sharp angular style, and it's at full force here. The action sequences are absolutely jaw-dropping, loads of blood and explosions all over the place in a gory, fluidly-animated spectacle. Even compared to the amazing fights in Kill La Kill and Gurren Lagann, I actually think the action scenes in Edgerunners are some of the best Trigger has ever done. From gun fights to sword fights to car chases to hospital gurney chases (?), there is a ridiculous level of variety here, and it's all fantastic. But even outside of the action, the direction remains inventive, from the cool depiction of David's time freeze, to the jarringly-harsh cuts between scenes, to the willingness to be goofy and cartoony while keeping the gritty feel of the world. However, Edgerunners isn't perfect in terms of its presentation, since between the logo popping in after every episode and the usage of songs from 2077, the anime really likes to remind you that it's based on a video game even if it breaks your immersion. Arcane has this issue too with the Imagine Dragons appearance, and it leaves the shows briefly feeling like blatant advertisements despite knowing they're way better than that.

Highlights: 

Girl On Fire: Well, this episode was borderline avant-garde. Edgerunners was always a bit experimental in its animation, but between the constant harsh cuts, the surreal depictions of Maine's cyberpsychosis, and whatever the hell the inside of Tanaka's mind is, Girl On Fire breaks some serious animation boundaries in the craziest way possible. It also happens to be one of the most important and climactic episodes in the series considering that it kills off the two leaders of the group.

My Moon My Man: Remember when I reviewed Gurren Lagann's ending and found it too bittersweet for what was otherwise an optimistic series? Well, My Moon My Man hits some very similar notes, and it lands a lot better this time around. Just like Gurren Lagann's finale, it has some of the most bombastic and best action in the series. Just like Gurren Lagann's finale, a main protagonist dies leaving their love interest in a not-too-great-place. But unlike Gurren Lagann, David's death is earned and he goes out fighting (even if he didn't stand much of a chance to Adam Smasher). Rebecca deserved so much better though.

Overall, Cyberpunk Edgerunners was actually pretty fun. Unlike Arcane, it didn't come even close to making me want to try out the game, but it did make me want to see more of its colorful cast of characters (even if most of them are dead, oops). It's a strong cyberpunk story with a nice balance of hope and hopeless, bolstered by Trigger's usual expressive animation and phenomenal action, even if it probably could've afforded to be stretched out another cour.

4/5 Stars

My ranking of the episodes:

1. My Moon My Man (Episode 10)
2. Girl On Fire (Episode 6)
3. Humanity (Episode 9)
4. Lucky You (Episode 4)
5. Stay (Episode 8)
6. Smooth Criminal (Episode 3)
7. Strength (Episode 7)
8. Like A Boy (Episode 2)
9. All Eyes On Me (Episode 5)
10. Let You Down (Episode 1)

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Ever since I watched What We Do In The Shadows, I realized there's a whole rabbit hole of British comedies with a lot of the same actors and directors, people like Richard Ayoade, Jemaine Clement and Matt Berry. Obviously, the IT Crowd would be an easy first choice but then Graham Linehan happened, so I thought I'd settle for the next best thing: The brilliantly meta Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a short-lived horror show from the 80s made by the titular author. It's about a "brilliant yet troubled" doctor named Rick Dagless, played by Marenghi, who works at a weird hospital where a bunch of weird shit happens every episode. It's not very good. It feels very cheap, the acting is awful, and the writing is hamfisted. It's 80s excess at its very worst... is what I would be saying if this was at all a real show. See, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is actually a fictional show, and Marenghi himself isn't actually a real person. It's a bit tricky to wrap your head around at first, but Darkplace is a parody of cheap 80s horror shows that's purposefully made to be as cheesy and ineptly made as possible. To sweeten the deal, we even get commentary and interviews with the fictional cast and crew responsible for the in-universe version of the show, interspersed throughout each episode. I've said countless times that I love episodes and TV shows about film, so having an entire show use this meta premise of a fictional DVD special of a fictional bad 80s TV show is right up my alley. On its own, the fictional Darkplace show would be a funny comedy, but the show-in-a-show approach allows for way more jabs at filmmaking and storytelling processes that hold up especially well. 

But what really makes Darkplace (the real show) great is all of the effort that went into selling that cheesy 80s feel. The acting is obviously the highlight here. It's really hard to purposefully act badly, but the cast does it so convincingly that it's easy to think they're actually bad at acting, from Matthew Holness's Shatner-esque overreactions to Richard Ayoade's wooden line deliveries to Matt Berry's weird vocalizations. But it's even more impressive to keep in mind that the cast also has to act normally for the commentary sections. The writing is also fantastic, between the perfectly clunky dialogue in the 80s show and the aforementioned meta interview sections, but what's also clever is how the series works as a  character study of Marenghi. The way he shills for his own work in the writing, the way he never gives his character any flaws while pretending he did, the ridiculous amount of sexism, it's like you can learn everything about the guy just by watching the series. And of course, I can't go without talking about the production. From the synthy score, to the hilariously shoddy effects, to the uneven sound mixing, to the choppy editing, to the liberal usage of speed-up and slow-motion, Darkplace really feels like a cheap 80s show. There are so many filming mistakes and intentional oversights both obvious and subtle that I feel like I can watch Darkplace a whole bunch of times and find dozens of new errors every single time.

Episode Ranking:

1. Hell Hath Fury (Episode 2)
2. The Creeping Moss From The Shores Of Shuggoth (Episode 6)
3. The Apes Of Wrath (Episode 4)
4. Once Upon A Beginning (Episode 1)
5. Skipper The Eyechild (Episode 3)
6. Scotch Mist (Episode 5)

Overall, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is an absolute gem of a show, with a brilliant meta premise, fantastic acting, a massive jokes-per-minute ratio, and incredibly thoughtful production that nails the cheesy 80s horror aesthetic perfectly. I really don't have any complaints here, even the short length makes it feel all the more like a long-lost cult classic. I haven't seen too many British comedies, but out of the ones I have seen, Darkplace is now up there with Spaced as my favorite of the bunch.

5/5 Stars

The Americans (Season 4)

Season 3 of The Americans ended with most of the show's big lingering conflicts coming to a head, and most of the fallout not entirely being resolved. As a result, Season 4 is easily the most intense season of the show to date, and definitely the best one as well.

The first eight episodes of Season 4 forms the strongest streak of episodes in the entire series, mostly because all of the show's best storylines are going on pretty much at the same time. Nina's prison storyline finally gets resolved, albeit with her shocking and tragic death. Martha is predictably not in the clear despite Philip's best attempts and she ends up having to move to Russia in some similarly heartbreaking episodes. Pastor Tim now knows the Jennings are spies, meaning there's a chance they could be outed at any moment. And in case things couldn't get even more tense, the Jennings' newest mission involves a deadly pathogen, which forms probably my favorite out of the seasonal "saving the world" plots that is usually the least interesting part of the show. The pacing is so brisk and thrilling, and there's never a dull moment in any of these eight episodes. And you can tell the constant panic is taking a toll on Philip and Elizabeth, because the moment things finally die down and seem to get resolved in that eighth episode, they completely and utterly snap. It's fantastic.

But Season 4 isn't eight episodes long, it's thirteen episodes long, so what happens for the last five episodes of the season? Well, Philip and Elizabeth are forced to take a short break from work, and we get a time jump to after the break. It's not a super long jump, only seven months, but it had me worried that it would make the season come off as disjointed. Thankfully, while I would still say the pre-time jump episodes are mostly better, many of Season 4's major storylines still progress fairly smoothly despite the big leap in time. The bioweapon-stealing William returns with an even worse virus than the one before the time jump, Paige is still trying to keep Pastor Tim at bay, and seeing Philip and Elizabeth deal with getting a chance to take a break from KGB work fits in perfectly with their storylines about slowly becoming more and more discontented with work. However, I am left a bit mixed on the finale. It's definitely not bad and has a lot of great hooks for Season 5, but it resolves things pretty anticlimactically (once again) and lacks any punchy or tense cliffhangers like in the last two seasons.

Highlights:

Chloramphenicol: Chloramphenicol is a tense episode that brings that opening storyline about the glanders virus to a head by having the Jennings get themselves infected. I like how the fact that they had to quarantine in secret left characters like Martha and Paige thinking they disappeared, it gives the event consequences even if no one dies. Well, except for Nina, who's appeal to leave prison is denied in the cruelest possible way.

Travel Agents: As a fan of puns, this is one of my favorite episode titles ever. You think it's about Philip and Elizabeth's cover, but then you realize it's about Martha (who's frequently called an agent) being forced to travel to Russia. It's hard not to feel really, really bad for Martha the moment you realize what the Jennings were planning for her, and that there's no real way out of it. 

The Magic Of David Copperfield V: The Statue Of Liberty Disappears: This was that eighth episode I mentioned, and it's easily my favorite one in the series to date. Even if Martha leaves pretty early on and most of it focuses on dealing with the fallout of that event, I actually think the fallout is more interesting. Philip and Elizabeth are really at the end of their rope here and seeing them snap at Paige, their past victims, and each other led to some really impactful scenes, and the acting is better than ever. That time jump scene at the end was also super smooth and left me really wondering how the rest of the season would play out.

Dinner For Seven: This was definitely my favorite post-timejump episode in the season. The titular dinner with the Jennings, Pastor Tim's family, and Stan was so brilliantly awkward and nerve-wracking, I kinda wish it went on a bit longer just to see how far things could go. The final scene where Paige sees Elizabeth kill was also pretty shocking, in case the poor kid wasn't traumatized enough.

Overall, Season 4 was the best season of The Americans easily. The first eight episodes were especially fantastic, with all of the show's greatest storylines coming to a pretty explosive head. But even the timejump was fun, being smoothly integrated into the Jennings' character arcs while not mucking up the pacing too much.

5/5 Stars

The Americans (Season 3)

The Americans has had a lot of secrets in the air these past two seasons, and Season 3 is the point where they finally start to get revealed. I think that was what the show really needed.

Season 3 of The Americans mostly focuses around Paige. Philip and Elizabeth are both told by the KGB that they need to reveal their true identities to Paige and start trying to recruit her. Of course, this almost immediately leads to division between the two parents due to their different ideologies at this point. This is a great hook for the season and the conflict between Philip and Elizabeth regarding what they should do with Paige is really compelling, however, there really isn't that much else to latch onto during the first half of the season. Season 3 is a slow burn, for sure, and aside from a few neat subplots about Stan's divorce and Nina's imprisonment, there just really isn't much going on for those first few episodes. The most noteworthy moment at the start of Season 3 is a tooth pulling sequence that was probably a very good scene, if I didn't have my eyes closed for most of it due to my own squeamishness.

It's not until Episode 7 when this season starts to actually gain some energy, and it's all because of Martha. There's been this whole subplot about Philip marrying the FBI's secretary so that she can plant a bug in the office, and in this season, that bug is finally discovered. I never cared too much about Martha, but her attempts to stay calm and not get caught with the FBI under investigation was incredibly tense and gripping. I especially loved the investigator Walter Taffet, his actor's performance feels just off as to make him incredibly unnerving. And of course, that's not it, because soon after, Philip and Elizabeth finally tell Paige that they're spies. It's a big moment and Paige gets a lot of episodes that deal with her struggle with this revelation. Between these two storylines, the second half of Season 3 is easily the best stretch of episodes in the show to date, though the fact that the finale doesn't really resolve a lot leaves me to wonder if the season really needed that slow burn at the start where nothing really happened.

Highlights:

Walter Taffet: As mentioned above, this episode was the big turning point in the season for me. The entire sequence where Gaad finds the bug in the pen is incredibly compelling and tense, and was the point where Martha almost instantaneously shot up near the top of my favorite characters list.

Do Mail Robots Dream Of Electric Sheep?: We needed an episode like this. Elizabeth was always the less sympathetic character compared to Philip due to her greater allegiance to the Soviet Union, but especially this season since she tries to go behind Paige's back and prepare her for recruitment, so having an episode where ends up getting attached to a victim of one of her missions feels really important. Also, I love that this entire episode is centered around a running gag.

Stingers: If you've seen this episode, you already know why it's on here. Paige learns about Philip and Elizabeth being spies, and it's absolutely heartwrenching.

Overall, Season 3 is yet another great season of The Americans, though it's also easily the most uneven one. The first half is incredibly slow and lacking in any sort of drive, but once Martha gets in trouble and Paige learns about her parents, the season really kicks into high gear and results in some of the most compelling episodes in the show to date.

4/5 Stars

What We Do In The Shadows (Season 4)

I adored the first three seasons of What We Do In The Shadows, especially the second and third. I was very happy to call it one of the funniest shows in years. Unfortunately, Season 4 didn't just hit the same for me. It's a big step down from prior WWDITS.

The previous season of WWDITS ended with a series of cliffhangers, Laszlo is left at home alone with a baby version of Colin, Guillermo is sent to London with Nadja, and Nandor is traveling the world alone. There was a lot of potential for a fun globe-trotting season that split up the cast, but then Season 4 starts with the cast immediately reuniting at home, wasting pretty much all of it. It's not like the storylines Season 4 did end up settling for were all that great either. Lazslo was the highlight as usual, as he spent the season taking care of Baby Colin. It's definitely the best storyline of Season 4, but it's dragged down by the (purposefully) ugly baby CGI and the fact that Baby Colin is just not as interesting as his adult counterpart. Nadja finally gets a storyline, which is nice, but it's just to start a nightclub that ends up failing by the end of the season. It feels really one-note. But worst of all is what's going on with Nandor. Having gotten 57 wishes from a genie, he decides to revive and remarry one of his dead wives, only to repeatedly make wishes to change her appearance. I get that Nandor's supposed to be a bad person and this is likely to be a big cornerstone in a character arc for the guy, but I'm sorry, this just crossed the line. The entire Marwa storyline was mean-spirited at best and borderline racist at worst (Nandor turns his Iranian wife into Guillermo's white boyfriend, how is that okay?!).

So the story didn't work for me this season, but how is the comedy? Well, thankfully, it's still as great. It's so easy for a mockumentary to start deviating from its origins and presenting more like a standard TV show, both The Office and Parks And Rec did this, so it's great to see WWDITS still has a lot of fantastic camera-related gags. The cast is also still on point, even in the weaker episodes, and Matt Berry in particular is probably at his absolute best. But probably the biggest thing, when WWDITS puts the plot in the background and focuses on comedy, it ended up giving us some of the best episodes in the whole show. Episodes like Private School and Go Flip Yourself show that WWDITS never really declined in quality because it's just as funny as it's ever been, if not even funnier. Instead, I'm left thinking that WWDITS would probably just be at its best if it focused less on telling a dramatic story and focused more on just being funny. But that's strange since I thought Season 3's story was really good, maybe the show just can't balance out those two sides of itself.

Highlights:

Private School: This is peak WWDITS. It takes a simple premise of the main group interviewing for a private school and cranks it up into complete and utter insanity when they decide to repeatedly hypnotize the headmaster until they get things just right. It also doubles as a hysterical commentary on crack shipping, with not a single pairing left unreferenced.

Go Flip Yourself: This is my favorite episode since On The Run, it captures that same unhinged energy, disconnected from the rest of the show. On top of that, it's a parody of reality shows (more specifically home improvement shows), which is something I can always get behind. I don't think anything topped the shock value of Nadja killing one of the hosts mere minutes into the episode, but Laszlo's fandom, the bleeped curse words, the "bad news" cut, and of course, that brilliantly ridiculous twist at the end came really close.

Overall, Season 4 of WWDITS isn't a bad season of television, not in the slightest. The writing, acting, and comedy is still on-point. Season 4 is just dragged down by a really lackluster story, which sucks since it ended up having some of the best episodes in the series whenever it put it off to the side and focused on the comedy.

2/5 Stars

The Americans (Season 2)

I enjoyed Season 1 of The Americans, but Season 2 is a definite improvement. While it doesn't really raise the bar that much higher than its predecessor, it does pretty much everything just a little bit better.

Season 2's main storyline is already a bit more fun and intriguing than that of Season 1. The season starts with a couple of KGB agents just like Philip and Elizabeth being murdered, and the rest of the season has the main duo try to figure out and track down who killed them. That's right, this season is a murder mystery, and you probably know how much I love those by now. But honestly, it's not really the mystery that had me hooked, it's the feeling that Philip and Elizabeth are in constant danger and could be killed at any time by whoever the culprit is. However, once again, I actually thought the spy stuff was the least interesting part of the season, and once again, I actually preferred the storyline of Stan's informant Nina. Season 1 ends with Nina double-crossing Stan and working for the KGB again. It's start off pretty fun watching Nina play both sides, but then it actually turns really tragic between Stan getting turned and Nina's eventual fate.

What I really like about Season 2 compared to its predecessor is just how much more it's willing to explore its characters and themes. The most obvious example is how the kids are treated and utilized. In Season 1, Paige and Henry were mostly put on the sidelines since the season had put more of a focus on their marriage. In Season 2, Philip and Elizabeth's relationship with their kids is given more of a focus. You get to really see how Philip and Elizabeth's outlook and job reflects on the fact that they are truly awful parents (poor Paige), and Paige and Henry are also put in danger quite a bit more often this season. It's really made clear that there are personal stakes if the titular spies mess up. It's more than just the kids though, Season 2 also focuses more on Philip and Elizabeth's increasingly different outlook, particularly how Philip is beginning to feel more and more awful whenever he has to kill an innocent person. 

Highlights: 

The Deal: The Deal was a super-sized episode of the show, longer than your standard episode, so that's how you know it's going to be great. Most of the episode really just revolves around the Soviets and Israel making a trade deal that Philip just happened to get in the middle of, but the really impactful stuff was the way it impacted Philip's character. Both captives involved in the deal had interactions with Philip, and both interactions seemed to have left a pretty massive impact.

Arpanet: This episode was just plain fun. Arkady and Oleg coaching Nina into passing a lie detector test was a ton of fun. Philip performing a heist with an alcoholic KGB member was fun (at least until Philip had to kill another innocent). Arpanet as a whole is just a really slick and enjoyable episode of The Americans that probably did the best in terms of the spy stuff.

Echo: Now this is a slam-bang finale. The Colonel was decently satisfying, but Echo was tense, thrilling, and even pretty shocking. Between the several character deaths, the brutal final fight with Larrick, Jared's reveal as the murderer, Stan letting Nina get taken away, and biggest of all, the Paige cliffhanger, Echo had a lot going on and it left me very excited for what Season 3 has in store.  

Overall, Season 2 doesn't completely blow its predecessor away or anything, but it just simply takes everything that made the first season so good and improves on them and fleshes them out more.

4/5 Stars

The Americans (Season 1)

It's funny that I'm watching both The Americans and Spy X Family (can't wait to talk about that one) in the same year because they have very similar premises about a secret agent family in the Cold War. But what's especially interesting is that despite their drastically different tones and mediums, they prioritize telling a story about their respective families over a simple spy thriller.

The Americans is a show about two KGB agents (Philip and Elizabeth) undercover in the US pretending to be a standard suburban family, two kids and all. They spent much of the season going on missions and interfering in the currently-occurring Cold War, all the while trying to keep their cover and not getting caught by their new neighbor, Stan, who happens to be an FBI agent. There's a decent chunk of The Americans that's basically a spy thriller, with a bunch of gritty Bourne-esque action scenes and a decent main storyline about the threat of Reagan's infamous "Star Wars program". But personally, all of the episodic missions and that SDI storyline was probably the least interesting part of the season for me. Personally, the best parts of the spy storyline involved the more personal conflicts. Subplots like Philip and Elizabeth almost getting their cover blown by Stan, Stan's mole-turned-love-interest Nina, and Philip and Elizabeth's shady new KGB supervisor Claudia (played excellently by Margo Martindale) were a lot more interesting to me. Speaking of which, it's hilarious that the first thing I saw Margo Martindale was Bojack Horseman, where she plays a complete parody of herself, because it means I keep getting surprised that she's actually really great at acting.

As I mentioned earlier on, The Americans isn't primarily a story about spies. In its simplest form, The Americans is about marriage. Philip and Elizabeth's relationship gets the most focus here, and Season 1 takes a lot of time to really delve into their complicated feelings towards their technically fabricated marriage. Philip and Elizabeth are very different people, with the former getting attached to America and the latter having a fierce loyalty to Russia, but they both end up getting more attached to their family, which ends up causing things to completley spiral out of control between the two as the season goes on. Starting in Episode 6, where the couple gets tested by the KJB to make sure they're not moles, Season 1 of The Americans really starts to get gripping and intense entirely because of the personal drama between Philip and Elizabeth, amplified even more when they start contemplating "divorce" a few episodes later. Also, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I actually like their children Paige and Henry. It's so hard to get children right in TV shows but these actors are really solid and their sibling dynamic is genuinely really fun to watch. 

Highlights:

Safe House: Easily the most tense episode of the season, Safe House kinda just keeps spiralling further and further into insanity, right from the moment Phillip runs into Amador and knocks him out. It all culminates in Amador's increasingly inevitable death, though it still came as a shock since we hadn't really had any major characters bite the dust yet.

Only You: And then right after Only You, we get the death of yet another side character in Gregory. This episode wasn't as chaotic as Safe House and I didn't care about Gregory quite as much, but I'd be lying if I said his suicide by cop didn't hit hard. Maybe it was the music.

The Colonel: While it doesn't really end up resolving much, The Colonel was still a great and action-packed way to bring the first season to a close. The final car chase that culminated in Elizabeth getting shot was super intense and fun, and the last few minutes toss in cliffhanger after cliffhanger after cliffhanger, hopefully setting up an even better Season 2.

Overall, though it took a few episodes to really get going and the main threat isn't super compelling, The Americans still got off to a pretty great start in its first season thanks to a fascinating and well-developed core duo, some great action, some incredibly tense moments, and a killer score

3/5 Stars

The Good Place (Season 4)

I'm glad that The Good Place only went on for four seasons. It's nice when a show gets to end on its own terms and doesn't overstay its welcome, but also this was easily the weakest season of the bunch.

Season 4's first half is probably my least favorite part of the whole series. The main premise is the group is trying to run an experiment just like that of Michael in Season 1 in an attempt to prove that the right people can help each other improve. In theory, this sounds like a neat idea to bring the whole show full circle in its final season. In reality, it's kind of a repetitious bore. I think the big problem here is that I just don't care about most of the new characters, which kinda comes with the territory when you introduce a bunch of new faces in a show's final season. My favorite episode in Season 4's first half is Tinker, Tailor, Demon, Spy, the only one to mostly focus on the established cast that we already know and love. My other big issue is in regards to Brent, one of the test subjects who's a very blatant alt-right dude who's easily the hardest for the cast to improve. While I'm always fine with a show taking the piss out of the alt-right, he comes off as frustratingly one-note. He never changes, he never develops, he spends the entire first half of the season being incredibly unfun to watch and only makes a change in the final minutes of the experiment.

Just like in Season 3, though, the season does get a lot better after the halfway point. After the experiment ends, the Judge rules that the system is flawed... only to decide to restart the universe, so the last few episodes go back to focusing on the characters we all know and love as they try to pretty much fix the entire afterlife system, once and for all. While there aren't too many big surprises here, I still think most of the solutions the characters come up with are clever and well thought-out, and simply getting to focus on the important characters for once really brings this part of the season above the first half. But then there's the last two episodes, which are easily the most divisive parts of the show. So, the group finally arrives at The Good Place only to find that everyone there has become bored zombies since they're basically stuck there eternally, so they decide to create The Door that lets people leave The Good Place (to who knows where) whenever they choose. People seem to have interpreted this in a lot of different ways, whether it's applying it to their own religion, or more problematically, feeling like it gives a pro-suicide message. Personally, I like this plot point, I think it's a great solution to the issue of eternal boredom and wouldn't at all compare it to suicide since the show implies people leave through The Door when they're content with their time in the Good Place and not if they want to escape it.

Highlights:

The Funeral To End All Funerals: This episode gives off Best Self vibes, a more low-key and introspective outing as the characters wait for some big event that happens at the ending. In this case, most of the episode has the cast hold each other's funerals to show off just how much they've grown throughout the show, and the ending has the Judge plan to reset the universe only for Janet to hide the button and Michael to restore Chidi's memories so that he can help them find another solution.

What's Changed, Man?: What's Changed, Man? feels like the climax of the whole show, a pretty tense episode where the group figures out how to fix the afterlife system for good. Once again, I think the solution they came up with, having the Bad Place perform afterlife experiments on a person as many times as needed until they improve, is pretty clever, and seeing Shawn and Michael finally be on the same footing about something felt pretty satisfying. Also, Timothy Olyphant's guest appearance was pretty great.

Whenever You're Ready: Regardless of what you think of The Door, I still think The Good Place has one of the most rewarding and emotionally impactful finales any sitcom has ever had. Every single character doesn't just get an ending that feels earned, but they also each get their own individual goodbyes. Tahani becoming an afterlife architect was pretty clever, Jason being the first to leave despite having the most plans for The Good Place was pretty interesting, Chidi's farewell to Eleanor was a pretty massive gut punch, and Michael getting to live life as a human is a perfect ending to who is probably the show's best character.

Overall, if Season 3 was a mixed bag and Season 4 is even mixier. The opening story arc is fairly dull and repetitive aside from a fun subplot about a mole, but once the experiment ends, I think the season does a good job delivering in an emotional, morally interesting, and satisfying end to the show.

3/5 Stars

My ranking of The Good Place seasons is:

1. Season 2: Easily the best season of the series, expanding on Season 1's big twist, fleshing out the cast, experimenting a lot, and ramping up the pacing to the point where every episode is fresh and fun.
2. Season 3: The first half isn't the best, but once the cast leaves Earth, Season 3 has some of the absolute best episodes in the series.
3. Season 1: A fantastic build-up to a fantastic final episode, though it probably holds a lot more merit overall as a rewatch due to all of the foreshadowing.
4. Season 4: That first half is really not that great, but once again, the season picks up again in the second half, and the ending is fantastic.

My ranking of The Good Place finales is:

1. Michael's Gambit: I adore this finale. The twist is just perfect, incredibly well-foreshadowed, impeccably executed, and filled with so many ramifications that even if you were spoiled or saw it coming, there are still plenty of surprises in store.
2. Whenever You're Ready: As mentioned above, this is one of my favorite season finales. It's satisfying, emotional, complex, and thought-provoking, and it stands tall as one of the best episodes of the show.
3. Pandemonium: While it doesn't really resolve much, Pandemonium packs a serious emotional punch and I like that it doesn't mindwipe the entire cast again. Just Chidi this time.
4. Somewhere Else: While I like the idea of the Earth twist, I hated the fact that everyone lost their memory again, especially since the episode hurriedly paired up all the couples right before that happened just to rub it in.

Favorite Episode: Michael's Gambit

Episode Rankings: The Good Place

The Good Place is hands-down one of the best shows from the last few years. It's a brilliantly creative fantasy-comedy that manages to deal with ethical themes in some really unique ways. It also happens to have the greatest plot twist in all of media, a twist so good that the rest of the show isn't quite able to top or even match it. Here's my ranking of its episodes:

1. Michael's Gambit (S1.13) - I repeat, this was the best twist ever.
2. Whenever You're Ready: Parts 1 & 2 (S4.13)
3. Dance Dance Resolution (S2.03)
4. Janet(s) (S3.10)
5. Chidi Sees The Time-Knife (S3.12)
6. Everything Is Great: Part 2 (S2.02)
7. Rhonda, Diana, Jake, And Trent (S2.11)
8. Most Improved Player (S1.08)
9. Mindy St Claire (S1.12)
10. Don't Let The Good Life Pass You By (S3.09)
11. Chidi's Choice (S1.10)
12. The Funeral To End All Funerals (S4.08)
13. Best Self (S2.10)
14. What's Changed, Man? (S4.10)
15. The Eternal Shriek (S1.07)
16. Everything Is Great: Part 1 (S2.01)
17. Everything Is Bonzer: Part 1 (S3.01)
18. Tinker, Tailor, Demon, Spy (S4.04)
19. Derek (S2.08)
20. Pandemonium (S3.13)
21. Patty (S4.12)
22. The Burrito (S2.12)
23. Jeremy Bearimy (S3.05)
24. Someone Like Me As A Member (S1.09)
25. The Book Of Dougs (S3.11)
26. Team Cockroach (S2.04)
27. Everything Is Bonzer: Part 2 (S3.02)
28. Somewhere Else (S2.13)
29. Help Is Other People (S4.07)
30. What's My Motivation? (S1.11)
31. Leap Of Faith (S2.09)
32. Tahani Al-Jamil (S1.03)
33. The Worst Possible Use Of Good Will (S3.08)
34. The Trolley Problem (S2.06)
35. The Ballad Of Donkey Doug (S3.08)
36. A Girl From Arizona: Part 2 (S4.02)
37. Everything Is Fine (S1.01)
38. Mondays, Am I Right? (S4.11)
39. The Answer (S4.09)
40. Jason Mendoza (S1.04)
41. Janet And Michael (S2.07)
42. A Girl From Arizona (S4.01)
43. What We Owe To Each Other (S1.06)
44. The Brainy Bunch (S3.03)
45. Existential Crisis (S2.05)
46. A Chip Driver Mystery (S4.06)
47. Flying (S1.02)
48. The Snowplow (S304)
49. Category 55 Emergency Doomsday (S1.05)
50. Chillaxing (S4.03)
51. Employee Of The Bearimy (S4.05)
52. A Fractured Inheritance (S3.07)

The Good Place (Season 3)

Season 3 is generally considered to be the weakest season of The Good Place, and I definitely understand why. A lot of time is spent on Earth with is way less interesting than the afterlife. However, I think Season 3 has a lot going for it, and would definitely say it's better than people give it credit for being.

Season 3 starts with the cast back on Earth, given another chance to improve their morality. Michael tries to manipulate things by going to Earth and getting everyone to meet, only to get stuck there and forced to find a way back. Look, there's a lot of great stuff in this storyline. Michael struggling to adjust to Earth life? Hysterical. All of the subplots fleshing out the cast pre-death? Fantastic. The Good Place is still as funny and sharply-written as it ever was in Season 3... but you can tell something's off. Part of why I like The Good Place is the colorful and surreal afterlife world, and to be perfectly frank, Earth is kind of a boring setting in comparison. Sure, it's novel at first but the longer you have to wait until the characters go back to the afterlife, the more Season 3 feels like it drags. It's this reason that I understand why many fans think this one is the weakest, the Earth storyline has its good moments but it's generally pretty dull and goes on way too long.

Thankfully, once the characters leave Earth, Season 3 kicks into high gear and never lets up once. In the course of five episodes, we get some of the best plot twists in the series, probably the only ones to even come close to topping Michael's Gambit. Essentially, it's revealed that the Good Place system is incredibly flawed, and that hardly anyone has made it in, not even the guy who predicted it, Doug Forcett. So, these last few episodes really revolve around the cast trying to think of a new solution and prove that they deserve to be in The Good Place, culminating in the decision to recreate Michael's original experiment. It's the show at its most morally fascinating. But even better are the surprising emotional beats that happen in this part of the season. All of Season 3, even the Earth stuff, had a pretty heavy focus on Eleanor and Chidi's relationship, but it's in these last few episodes where everything really pays off for them and it ends up feeling incredibly impactful.

Highlights:

Don't Let The Good Life Pass You By: This is the point where Season 3 really gets good. Most of the episode involves Michael visiting the real Doug Forcett only to learn that he's basically driven himself crazy trying to do everything he can to get into the Good Place, which is already a great storyline on its own, but then the episode ends on a crazy bar fight that ends with Janet dragging everyone from Earth.

Janet(s): And in case the last episode wasn't amazing enough, Janet(s) is an easily contender for best The Good Place episode period. Since most of it takes place in Janet's void, pretty much every character is played by her actress, D'Arcy Carden, and she nailed every single personality to a tee. Even more, we learn that not even Doug is getting into the Good Place, Chibi and Eleanor officially get together, and the episode ends with the group finding themselves in the actual Good Place.

Chidi Sees The Time-Knife: This episode probably came the closest to topping Michael's Gambit in sheer plot-twistery. In the course of a single half hour, the Judge is convinced that the system is flawed, Shawn is brought in and forced to work with Michael, the group plans to re-do Michael's initial iteration as an experiment to prove people can improve, and the episode ends with Michael having a panic attack forcing Eleanor to take over for him. I swear, watching this live was wild.

Pandemonium: Compared to the first two finales, Pandemonium was a bit more low-key, trading in crazy plot twists for sheer emotional gut punch. Shawn brings in Chidi's love interest from Earth, Simone, to be one of the participants, so Chidi decides to get a mind wipe at the cost of having to break up with Eleanor. While I may have been a bit tired of mind wipes at this point, the tragic feel of the episode and the fact that only Chidi suffered from it this time still left me liking it. 

Overall, Season 3 is a mixed bag for me. Its first half, while still fun, lacks the creativity and spirit of the earlier seasons due to taking place on Earth. However, once the characters leave Earth, I'd say the second half of Season 3 is probably the best stretch of episodes in the whole series, packed with fantastic twists and strong emotional punches.

4/5 Stars

The Good Place (Season 2)

Season 1 of The Good Place ended on one of the greatest twists in all of television, to the point where many feared that it was so good, the show would be a one-trick pony. Thankfully, that's not the case, and Season 2 is absolutely fantastic.

After the big reveal that Eleanor and her friends were in the Bad Place the whole time and that Michael was orchestrating their torture, Season 2 starts with a series of loops as Michael repeatedly tries to wipe their memories and start the experiment over again. After hundreds of iterations, Michael decides to form an alliance with the humans to break out and try to make it to the actual Good Place, basically kickstarting the main storyline for the rest of the show. Season 2 is a far more propulsive and action-packed season than the first, nearly every episode has some massive change in the status quo and every time you think something couldn't possibly happen, it does, even down to the last few episodes having the team sneak into the actual Bad Place. The level of quality in pretty much every single episode is off the charts, and I was pretty much hooked throughout.

Though even with all of the crazy storylines, Season 2 doesn't let go of what made the first season so fantastic, and if anything, expands on it even further. Even with the memory wipe, all of the characters are still great and well-developed, with Michael once again being a massive highlight. His whole redemption arc is really as fun as it sounds, and is elevated by Ted Danson's still fantastic performance. This season is also really funny, and it isn't afraid to put the characters in weird scenarios. There's a bunch of bottle episodes, an episode about Janet and Michael only, the debut of some incredibly goofy side characters like Derek and the Judge, and a legendary roast sequence. The philosophical elements are also there in spades, since one of the core tenants of the main storyline is the cast trying to figure out how to enter the Good Place. My only gripe with this otherwise fantastic season is actually the finale. It has a fine twist (though it obviously doesn't stack up to Michael's Gambit), but I hated how it had to wipe the characters' memories again. It was fine the first time because it was a shocking and interesting twist, but now it just feels like the characters are being reset every season.

Highlights:

Everything Is Great: This two-part premiere feels like a fantastic microcosm of the first season, containing pretty much all of its character development and big moments into a tight, tense hour. I also think it's hilarious that in Michael's second experiment, the cast figured out the truth about the Bad Place even earlier than the first time.

Dance Dance Resolution: The opening of Dance Dance Resolution is probably my favorite sequence in the entire series. That montage of alternate iterations and experiments, and the wide range of Eleanor's potential soulmates is absolutely hysterical. The ending where Michael asks the humans for an alliance was also a pretty great shock.

Best Self: Despite basically being a bottle episode that takes place in the "Good Place" town, Best Self was easily one of my favorites in the show. It's very low-key and introspective, as the team struggles with not being able to find a way to the Good Place. It also works as a nice farewell to the town where the show started, since we end the episode watching it disintegrate.

Rhonda, Diana, Jake, And Trent: As mentioned, the final few episodes has the team try to sneak into the Bad Place and find the Judge, and Rhonda, Diana, Jake, And Trent is easily the most tense and fun of them all. It's practically a thriller, with the cast deep in "enemy territory" and trying to blend in, not to mention all the insight on how the Bad Place works is really fascinating. 

Overall, Season 2 is easily my favorite in The Good Place. Following Season 1's fantastic ending, it's fast-paced, tense, exciting, and ambitious, all the while keeping the great character work, fun comedy, and philosophical elements that made the previous season work.

5/5 Stars