'The Good Place' Deserves Best Comedy At The 2019 Golden Globes

It would be pretty shirty if The Good Place didn’t go home with Best Comedy Series at the 2019 Golden Globes, but as a fervent fan of the show, I’ll take what I can get. If I’m being realistic, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will probably take the prize, but I’m not here to be realistic. Instead, I’ll list the many reasons the most inventive comedy show on television deserves the honor.

1. The ensemble cast

I’ve never seen a band of characters so fundamentally different that work so well together. There’s the dithering ethics professor, Chidi, self-professed Arizona white trash, Eleanor, the dimwitted yet charming Blake Bortles superfan, Jason, and the narcissistic socialite, Tahani. There’s also devil-turned-angel, Michael, and his stalwart anthropomorphized Amazon Alexa, Janet. Presumably, these people wouldn’t get along (much less have any business being in the same room), but their differences are actually what make it work. It’s gripping to watch them contradict each other with every decision they make as a group, but they always, ALWAYS, find a way to pull through.

2. Two words: D’Arcy Carden

No offense to Kristen Bell (who is so deserving of her Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy nomination, by the way), but I have to give special recognition to D’Arcy Carden, the talented actress who portrays all-knowing human-not-human, Janet. In Season 3, she plays all four of the human characters, and she deserves all the awards for executing each role so perfectly. She mimics their mannerisms and intonations down to a tee, and you don’t even notice something is amiss.

3. It’s consistently funny and unpredictable.

I don’t think I’ve ever watched a drab episode of The Good Place. It’s consistently fab, funny, and downright BONZER. You’ll never predict what happens next. Each episode offers a blend of lowbrow quips and whipsmart philosophical banter, which is appealing to every type of viewer. It doesn’t rely on a comedic blueprint. There are no age-old tropes present. Each joke is well thought-out, and every plot device has been mastered down to the last detail.

4. It’s brimming with life lessons

The Good Place is categorized as a comedy, but it’s serious in its moral teachings. Its creator, Michael Shur, has reportedly sat with ethics professors and spent hours plowing through philosophical books because he wants his show to meaningfully navigate one important question: What does it mean to be good? As a result, every episode contains a lush supply of life lessons, from the importance of paying it forward to the concept that doing good things doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a good person.

5. There’s nothing quite like it

In an entertainment landscape where everything wants to be the next anything (a litany of medical series wants to be the next Grey’s Anatomy, fantasy shows want to be the next Game of Thrones, etc.) The Good Place appears refreshingly out of place. It’s television’s unicorn because it’s never been done before. It’s inventive, original, and sets the bar for quality comedy shows.

While the comedy category’s other contenders — HBO’s Barry, Showtime’s Kidding, Netflix’s The Kominsky Method, and Amazon’s Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — are also forces to be reckoned with, there’s nothing like The Good Place.

In other words, if you don’t think this show is forking superior, well, ya basic.

The 76th Golden Globe Awards will be held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA on January 6, 2019 at 5 p.m. PST. Killing Eve’s Sandra Oh and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Andy Samberg will host the festivities. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s A Star Is Born is a favorite to dominate in film categories while Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace is a TV standout.

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