- Title: The Good Place – Pilot
- IMDb: link
Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) wakes up in the afterlife to learn she’s died and made it into an exclusive community in heaven simply called “the Good Place” where her soulmate Chidi (William Jackson Harper) is waiting and she can look forward to a blissful eternity. There is however one problem. It seems Eleanor only got into heaven because of a clerical error. Sure, the saleswoman was no murderer, but she did sell fake medicine to old people (among other flaws), and didn’t exactly earn her cushy spot in paradise.
Ted Danson co-stars as the architect of the neighborhood, his first created on his own after a 200-year apprenticeship. With no one aware Eleanor is the problem, things start to go haywire in the community with giant animals randomly appearing and wreaking havoc. Pulling on her reluctant soulmate’s heartstrings, Eleanor gets Chidi to keep her secret. However, if she has any hope of making a home in paradise she’ll need the ethics professor’s help in learning to be a good person.
Directed by Drew Goddard, the show’s “Pilot” proves to be a lot of fun as Eleanor is as much creeped out at her surroundings (the odd clown house and an inability to swear) as she is amazed. The revelation that Eleanor can adversely effect her surroundings simply by being herself presents a secret to hide and a problem for her soulmate (who is actually the soulmate of someone currently roasting in Hell) who agrees, reluctantly, to keep her secret and try to help her… at least for now.