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The Good Place: Patty

“We’ve invented cosmic Coachella!”

Let’s start with the most important part: Nonei and Sunbunny were right. Although last week’s episode may have been a bit blah, “Patty” returns The Good Place to its wacky planning shenanigans.

Because, despite containing candy that gives you all the energy you had when you were twelve, some great Instagram sunglasses, and everything you always wanted to know about Karli Kloss, the Good Place is not that great.

Turns out perfection isn’t paradise. As Eleanor reminded Michael: “Every human is a little bit sad all the time, because [we] know [we’re] going to die.” Without any stakes or any end in sight, everyone becomes a happiness zombie. A joyless husk. A Coachella attendee. So even infinite bliss needs an end-date.

Our team needs to take a few trips around the monkey go-kart track to realize that, though, which gives us a chance to get to know Hypatia of Alexandria. Played by Friends alum Lisa Kudrow, Patty—as she is known—is a delightful example of a smart person who has taken too much existential CBD after a famed career as a think-book-woman. (What are they putting in those stardust milkshakes?) Kudrow’s idiosyncratic delivery sometimes irks and sometimes delights me. With this episode, I was as delighted as a refurbished unicorn.

And that leaves me excited for the last two episodes of the show, both of which air next week. How will Patty help Team Cockroach expand and enjoy the Good Place and make it better for the incoming flux? How much cool stuff can Schur and company cram into a mere 45 more minutes? Will we get to see the hippos on the go-karts? And what sort of happy ending do we want for our heroes, beyond the happiness they’ve already attained?

You Want Me to Hold Your Weed?:

• Chidi: “I’m going to ask her so many questions pertaining to grand ideas about the universe, like ‘Why?’ and also…‘How?’”

• Eleanor: “Hi, I’m Eleanor. This exuberant weirdo is Chidi.” Is it strange that I’d love for someone to introduce me that way?

• Patty described math as “the one with the number piles.” Yes, Patty. Yes.

• I’ve been to the Good Place! And I don’t just mean the Getty, which is where most of this episode was filmed. I mean: I was at the Getty on the day they were filming this episode. That’s right. I’m basically Hypatia of Alexandria, or at least Josie of Doux. So much cooler than Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—they don’t even have an “of” in their names!

• There were so many fabulous Easter Eggs in this episode that I can’t list them all. Instead, I’ll just mention the candy rings that give you the ability to fully understand the meaning of Twin Peaks.

Four out of four flying puppies. Just a little further!

Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)

6 comments:

  1. I, too, would love to be able to introduce someone as "this exuberant weirdo." Great review for a great episode.

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  2. A lovely review, Josie. Of a lovely episode whose concept of heaven made perfect sense.

    I think I was too distracted by the fact that they filmed nearly the entire thing at the Getty Center, though, since I went there often when I lived in Los Angeles.

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  3. It makes perfect sense that constant, endless joy is bound to become boring and turn people into zombies, but I'm not sure the fix Michael proposed is the right one. The main problem isn't that it lasts forever, but that heaven doesn't have any challenges or stakes.

    Why not have the residents of the good place help the humans who will go through the new improvement system? That would give them purpose and hopefully rewire their brains. Also, the prospect of several new residents is a good one, because it will shake things up and turn the Good Place into a more dynamic place.

    It's not that I disagree with the idea of an end date for existence, but more that that solution isn't enough, especially since people can get their brains cooked before they ever considering going through the door of finitude.

    But maybe that's why there's still a big finale left, because there are a few things left to solve. I'm guessing we will see Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani and Jason live their good lives until they decide, either as a group or one by one, it's time to go through the door.

    This season has been a mixed bag, but I'm not ready for this show to end.

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  4. Yay a shoutout :)

    I agree, that it wasn't enough to fix the issues with eternal happiness. I hope they were celebrating too early and the "fix" that seemed to fix everything wasn't, it was more a relief.
    Really, when you can do anything there's nothing to do.
    In Michael's neighborhoods and in the human test they had events and things to do, even that could get old without actual things to work toward.

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  5. MCCOY: Well, that's the second time man's been thrown out of paradise.

    KIRK: No, no, Bones. This time we walked out on our own. Maybe we weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way through. Struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums.

    SPOCK: Poetry, Captain. Non-regulation.

    KIRK: We haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti Three, Mister Spock.

    SPOCK: I have little to say about it, Captain, except that for the first time in my life I was happy.

    ReplyDelete

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