Thursday, March 8, 2018
The Good Blog - noncore post
Last week I finished the first season of The Good Place and I’m pretty into it.
This show reminds me of Heather Hendershot’s article on Parks and Recreation as a cultural forum for negotiating controversial issues. While I’m a bit critical of the sort of idealized politics of debate and reconciliation Hendershot attributes to Parks and Rec, it might be interesting to look at how another Michael Schur show could also be seen as a cultural forum.
We might think of The Good Place as a forum for engaging with literature and philosophy. Many of the episodes revolve around a philosophical question or problem that becomes the conflict the characters attempt to resolve. The ethical stakes increase as the season develops, where hypothetical problems of philosophy take on increasing importance. The show addresses old questions without being weighed down by jargon or pandering. The visual dramatization makes it understandable and the antics are very domestic and nonthreatening despite being a show about death and the threat of eternal punishment. The show ultimately believes that people can reflect on their mistakes and grow which, like Parks and Rec, provides a refreshing break from cynicism and irony.
The show has a lot of questions I want answered: Who decided the moral point system? Will the characters question this? And, why did everyone die so young!? But, overall, I think this show makes a good argument for TV as a public forum.
(I have now seen season 2, but I’m only going to comment on season 1 because spoilers)
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One thing that I think adds to the understanding of The Good Place as a forum for engagement is the way that reading groups have formed based on the books read on the show, both in person and online. It makes sense in a certain way: Eleanor was a terrible person, and she becomes "better" by studying philosophy. The books are real, so reading them appears as a tangible, somewhat credible, way to become a better person — which has some interesting implications in relation to governmentality.
ReplyDeleteAlso: hooray! All the baseline moral philosophy that I learned coaching high school debate has finally proven valuable! My bold prediction for season 3: Miguel de Unamuno's conception of immortality is referenced.