The paradigm shift in The Good Place Season One Finale is modern TVs best and maybe the best ever.
The following contains massive, Earth-shattering, life-changing spoilers for season one ofThe Good Place.
Shyamalan has rightfully become synonymous with last second twists in cinema, withSplitbeing no different.
Shyamalan, himself, has come to prefer the termparadigm shiftover being the twist guy.
Paradigm shift is a little more specific.
Eventually Michael finds out that both Eleanor and Jianyu (who turns out to be a grimy D.J.
This is all a strong enough concept for a show as is.
Afterlife bureaucratic nightmares are almost always funny (see: Albert BrooksDefending Your Life).
While the four are debating among themselves, Eleanor comes to an important realization: this is torture.
She confronts Michael with her theory: this isnt the Good Place at all.
This is the Bad Place.
Michael smiles a literally devilish smile and admits that she is correct.
In the case ofThe Good Place, the answer is an emphatic no for the most part.
It seemed even more likely that serialized weekly TV shows would stop trying as well, given that A.V.
Likewise season two ofMr.
Robotwas seemingly nothing but twist after twist.
Even TBSSearch Partys resolution, while not being a twist or paradigm shift, was shocking and satisfying.
The Good Placethat we watched in season one was excellent.
ButThe Good Placethat we were unaware we were watching in season one was somehow even better.
A twist or a paradigm shift cant just switch things up for the sake of switching things up.
It has to leave the story in a better place than it found it.
That is absolutely the case for season one ofThe Good Place.
Theres also a newfound level of empathy and brotherhood there.
It turns a show about a bureaucratic slip-up into a show about humanity attempting to defeat sin through friendship.
And if that sounds too heady for a half-hour comedy on NBC, you clearly dont know Michael Schur.
Sure, the twist in someways invalidates what came before it.
We werent watching what we think we were watching after all.
But the hours preceding the twist are entertaining.
In both goals it is successful but particularly the letter.
In that way, its kind of revelatory.
For years weve looked to dramas and the Shyamalans of the world for our narrative innovation and trickery.
And a lot of the time, its left us feeling, well…tricked.
