ELCOME! EVERYTHING IS FINAL.
Just a time-knife’s throw from Ponzu
Scheme, the stars of The Good Place
have gathered outside a familiar
frozen-yogurt shop to film one of
their last-ever group scenes. It’s hot-
ter than Hades (hmmm) on the Uni-
versal Studios lot, but a figurative
chill fills the air as the cameras roll on
yet another loaded goodbye for the
series finale of NBC’s ambitious after-
life comedy. “I can tell you’re sad,”
dopey, pre-successful Jacksonville
DJ Jason (Manny Jacinto) observes
of Team Cockroach. “You have the same look on your faces that my teachers did
whenever I raised my hand in class.” • Creator and finale writer-director Mike
Schur minds the minutiae, readjusting trays of oysters and a bong while tweaking
punchlines involving “concussion sauce” and “younger bodies.” “There’s a lot of
endings,” he teases of the finale, “and there’s a lot of resolution to a lot of the char-
acters’ stories in certain ways.” • Schur won’t reveal the fates awaiting our scrappy
in-limbo souls—reforming dirtbag Eleanor (Kristen Bell), overanxious ethics pro-
fessor Chidi (William Jackson Harper), self-consumed socialite Tahani (Jameela
Jamil), and Jason—or humanized Bad Place architect Michael (Ted Danson) and
ever-evolving database Janet (D’Arcy Carden). But there are scads of colorful
clues on set: a mini football field; people in matching outfits; a hybrid tanning
booth/karaoke machine (leisure
activity? torture device?). Oh,
and Shakespeare has done
something dramatic that’s the
talk of...wherever this is.
We can’t disclose what the
fork is going on, but it’s a cosmic
swirl of joy, melancholy, loopi-
ness, poignancy, and the pro-
found. Some actors fight off
tears. “It’s like, ‘Oh wait, we may
be acting sorrow, but it’s creep-
ing in here,’ ” says Danson. “But
there’s also a great deal of satis-
faction and pride in being part
of this chapter book about
morality and farts.” Adds Jamil:
“I’m in denial. I may never leave
and just walk the lot like a ghost.
I’ll dress up as Tahani and
haunt tourists.”
However you cope with loss,
prepare to bid farewell to one of
TV’s most inventive com edies—
one thoughtful enough to
↑ Clockwise from left
Kristen Bell, William
Jackson Harper, Manny
Jacinto, Marc Evan
Jackson, Jameela
Jamil, Ted Danson, and
D’Arcy Carden
W
T HURSDAY
74 OCTOBER 2019 EW ● COM
