This Is The Worst Season Of The Good Place According To IMDB
What does it mean to be a good person? How can one be ethical in an inherently unethical world? How do we form meaningful connections with others? These are questions you might expect to come up during an intro course on philosophy, not on NBC primetime. It's just one of the many reasons why "The Good Place" stands out as one of the best sitcoms in recent memory. In between jokes about Arizona and giant shrimp flying through the sky, the series was a meaningful exploration on being a good person. The first season of "The Good Place" stands out in particular for its brilliant writing and the way it handled the concept of introducing a highly unethical person — Eleanor (Kristen Bell) — who believes she's been sent to what's essentially heaven. She has to learn how to be a better person from her soulmate, Chidi (William Jackson Harper), until it's ultimately revealed that the central cast of characters has actually been in a version of Hell the entire time.
It's a major cliffhanger, but somehow, the show managed to carry on for three more seasons, exploring even wilder storylines with the universe and all of morality at its disposal. It's impressive looking at the show as a whole because it never really dips in quality, leading to an appropriately emotional ending of "The Good Place"; however, every show has some slight bumps in the way, and fans seem to think one season in particular is the weakest of the bunch.
The Good Place season 3 has some of the weakest episodes in the entire series
It really says something about the quality of "The Good Place" that the weakest season is still far superior than some shows' entire runs. However, when looking at every year of episodes back-to-back-to-back, it's clear fans don't have as much fondness for the third season. That's not to say there aren't a few gems among the bunch. When you look at the ratings on IMDb, Season 3 has some of the highest rated episodes of the entire series with "Jeremy Bearimy" and "Janet(s)" receiving a ton of praise.
But, as a whole, Season 3 had more dips than any other season. When you look at the 10 lowest-rated episodes of "The Good Place" on IMDb, Season 3 takes up four of those slots (via Screen Rant). One likely explanation for this would be the vast change in scenery; Season 2 ends with Michael (Ted Danson) and Janet (D'Arcy Carden) sending the four main humans back to Earth after they have been dead for the previous two seasons. Several episodes proceed with the four reuniting, but without much interaction from Michael, who's guiding them along supernaturally (for the most part) from the other side. Not only does it retread territory we've seen before with Eleanor and Chidi falling in love all over again, but it splits up the central cast, meaning there are fewer personalities in the mix.
Naturally, everything goes back to normal with the main cast getting back together once the four return to the afterlife. At the very least, Season 3 of "The Good Place" isn't a slog to get through as there are still plenty of fantastic jokes and wonderful character development. Season 3 also gives us this incredible moment of Chidi adding Peeps to chili, so it can't have been all bad.