yeah I uh don’t do that
and neither do like 90% of people
which ig is why the office is so popular
I watch The Good Place for the plot
I don’t even like all of the jokes but I find the characters compelling and the story to be enjoyable
it’s a good story even if it’s not as funny as PandR or B99, though it does get close at points
something something The Good Place had a unique problem in that it couldn’t include a common element to both PandR and B99, “Character with a nonsensical backstory”, because while some of the jokes about Tahani and her namedropping come close we nonetheless have to take these characters with a sincerity that other shows don’t require.
so like we can’t go for the classic “Rosa DIaz has another nonsensical addition to her disturbingly fluffy hidden side” jokes or the “who the fuck is Ron Swanson” jokes because if either of those characters showed up in the Good Place, we wouldn’t be able to actually take any sense of their morality seriously
and being deprived of a classic element to create comedy, being that characters’ backstories are incredibly absurd despite the show taking place in what appears to be reality, does weaken some of the Good Place’s humour a bit
like is it funny that time in the afterlife is measured relative to the name Jeremy Bearimy? yes, sort of, but after a while the comedy is dampened by the sense that the afterlife is just Like That
Leslie was a strong character at the start
her utter devotion to her job was funny
but like she’s not that great later on
there’s also the problem that by the end there aren’t really any straight edges left in the show
by the final seasons there’s no more Ann, Ben is characterised as a nerd far less than his original characterisation as an outsider to Pawnee, and Ron Swanson has opened up to become an almost exuberant character, sometimes even expressing the idea that he might actually like somebody else
and while not having a designated “what the fuck this is so weird” character is a valid technique, and something that works way better in B99, it’s not carried off the best in PandR, so by the end it becomes nonstop “woo look at me i’m a weirdass character here’s a really funny line”
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is much more purposeful in not having a single character who isn’t a fucking weirdo, and in any given situation any one of the detectives can act as an outsider, which is something that the show carries off really well.
I mean, I’ve said this before, but Jake and Holt’s interactions are priceless, because either one of them can act as the straight man (you can laugh at this hillarious pun now) to the other depending on the situation, even within the same conversation, and because of the characters’ personalities it all comes off completely naturally.
jake/holt interactions are great
the dynamics of b99 in general are pretty great
3 Likes
You can laugh at Holt being normal compared to Jake being a hot mess, but also laugh at Jake’s
incredulous reactions to Holt’s bizarre opinions about Barbara Streissand being a rock singer because she sings in English in the same conversation and it won’t come off as unnatural, and that makes their interactions very dynamic since both of them can be the butt of the joke at any time.
1 Like
holt/kevin is also one of if not the best TV couples as well
I love kevin as a character tbh
2 Likes
he got my full respect after his reaction to learning that there are good Nic Cage movies
2 Likes