The Good Place

After pretty much not watching TV all last season I'm going to try it again. Last night was the two episode premiere of the new sit-com The Good Place. The premise is that a very selfish woman finds out that she has died and been sent through mistaken identity to a heaven supposedly only for super-good people. The only option apparently being The Bad Place, she tries to mend her ways, rather than inform the angel/manager of this-slice-of-heaven of the mix up. I went in thinking it would be pretty much a one joke show, and not thinking it would last long. After seeing two episodes I have to say it wasn't the one joke I expected, and I still think the show won't last long. Problem? It's not funny, certainly not enough for a prime time comedy. It's more zany than funny, if you know what I mean. Lots of grandiose 'humor' that was mildly amusing at best. I don't know how they sold the pilot to the network.

The mini-heaven setting, even without the misplaced soul causing chaos, is pretty much a cross between the Island of the original The Prisoner and a Fro-Yo filled purgatory. They went to extremes to get a diverse set of characters. They spent heavily on costumes and set design. They hired a lot of actors. Considering this weak show, I can't imagine why. Score F+

Bull

Night two of my adventure into this season's new shows.

Bull is about a psychologist Dr. Jason Bull, who runs a jury analysis business. Basically the firm tracks down everything they can find about every person in the jury pool, suggests who should be picked from the pool and then Dr. Bull makes suggestions to the lawyers about how they should proceed with the case given the sitting jury.

I am of two minds about the show. As a TV show I found the first episode quite an interesting story. It's a procedural with all that genre's strengths and weakness. The flow of the show worked well, the writing was snappy and the resolution was satisfying. But, the show is not without warts. Bull could also stand for BS. The talent Dr. Bull has for reading people is the sort of thing many high school seniors, who haven't taken any psychology yet, think they will get from majoring in psychology in college. Bull can figure anybody out from a few data points or a long glance into their eyes. In the show Bull is backed up by tech mumbo-jumbo and a seemingly infinite working budget. The show ignores the fact that both sides in a trial can reject potential jurors, and assumes that one could easily hire absolutely any type of person to simulate the real jurors on short notice to take part in a series of practice/mock juries to test out trial strategies. At the beginning of the episode the audience is warned that normally only the wealthy are going to be able to afford Bull's services. Dr. Bull's firm seems to have not only infinite financial resources, but infinite personnel resources. It's a little hard to swallow, unless you decide to ignore it. I would say the biggest flaw of the show is the character of Dr. Bull. He's a constantly grinning smart aleck and he admits he hates lawyers, which would make most people question his line of work. They make a big deal of him making an instant analysis of a person and then telling that person how to address him according to that person's personality.

Frankly if you don't take it too seriously, I think it was a good episode of a good show. Bull is probably not the kind of thing I want to keep watching, but a show a lot of people might get into, and with good reason.

Score B+