The Good Place Season 4 - Review

The Good Place was one of my favorite shows to watch. The first two seasons captivated me with their creativity, pushing the boundaries of audience expectations and surprise. Then, the third season brought everything down as I was disappointed by the disingenuous attempts at maintaining the status quo. Going into the final season, I was worried that the show would continue down the path it set itself on in the season prior rather than being a return to form. With this final season, The Good Place has cemented itself as a show I will hold dearly as its ending burrowed its way into my heart.

Having an ending insight might have led to a reinvigoration that was needed to keep the show at a high quality. Working towards how every characters' story would end probably gave the creatives room to work with how they would end up there. Essentially starting from a reboot, the season takes the audience on quite a ride as nothing seems phoned in. Just like the first two seasons, there was a sense of escalation that's felt episode-to-episode while still keeping you guessing what could happen next. By the end, everything feels earned, and while you might not be 100% happy with how everything ended up, it feels right.

This final season has all of the callbacks and revisits everything that made the show a hit in the first place. It has the character relationships that you crave, the cameos you didn't know you needed, all while making you laugh. It's in the first half of the season where most of this is happening since it's in a familiar setting. It all works thanks to the strong characters that have been built up and the audience being invested in how everything will pan out. But there are more surprises in store.

Halfway through, the season takes a drastic turn that plops the cast in a familiar yet unique circumstance all its own. From this point on, the fate of the universe will hang in the balance... again. Wild developments will occur as the audience will be guessing how the entire show will end in just a handful of episodes. One of the best parts of that uncertainty is the fact you don't have toxic fandoms guessing what will happen next. There is a purity to the direction that the show is headed that will captivate you till the last episode. 

There will always be a legitimate feeling of finality to shows that end before they outstay their welcome. The Good Place achieves this as the ending doesn't make me wonder what could have been. I feel satiated, happy that I had been along for the ride, and mostly delighted how everything ended. It's something that most high profile shows don't get to enjoy, which makes this ending so much sweeter. At this point, if you've never seen the show, now is the perfect time to start. If you were worried about the show after the third season, I can confirm that it will delight as a finale to some outstanding television.