The Good Place Review: Dance Dance Resolution Is the Bad Place

The Good Place review: Dance Dance Resolution, explained

Dance Dance Resolution aired on NBC on September 28, 2017. It is the third episode of the second season, written by Megan Amram and directed by Drew Goddard. Michael Schur created the series, and the cast is led by Kristen Bell as Eleanor, Ted Danson as Michael, William Jackson Harper as Chidi, Jameela Jamil as Tahani, Manny Jacinto as Jason and D'Arcy Carden as Janet.

The premise is simple and delicious. Michael, who in the season one finale is revealed to be a demon who tricked the four humans into believing they were in The Good Place, now puts the Core Four through approximately 800 attempts at the same scheme, each ending in epic failure. Each attempt fails when one of the four, usually Eleanor, realizes they are in The Bad Place. A line from the episode sums up the whole structure: Oh THIS is The Bad Place.

This is not a Groundhog Day situation. Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani do not know they are living a loop. The closest comparison is the If-Then-Else and 6741 episodes of Person of Interest. The humans do not change with each failure. The external factors do, in the hope of finding an optimal result. Michael tries assigning Eleanor different soulmates to see whether that alters the outcome, and Attempt 218 pairs Tahani with Eleanor.

Here the writers dangle a potential Tahani and Eleanor pairing, and then show no footage. Expect fan fiction by the dozens.

A note for new viewers: the episode relies on the season one finale, so it is best watched after season one. The first season ends with the reveal that Michael is a demon who has been torturing the four humans, and season two begins by showing what he does next. Dance Dance Resolution is where that setup turns into a story engine.

How the attempts fail

Sometimes Eleanor realizes the truth while the Core Four argue with one another. Other times it is because a supposed soulmate makes her sit through a three-hour spoken-word jazz opera. In one attempt, Jason is the one who works it out, thanks to the lack of a premium NFL package.

The sequence raises a better question than any single gag: why does Michael's plan keep failing? It could be human intuition, in which case people will always recognize torture and the framework can never work. It could be that Michael did not pick the right four humans. Or it could be that Eleanor, Chidi, Jason and Tahani were meant to be together in the afterlife.

Why the loop structure works

Repetition is a risky tool for a sitcom, because every repeat has to bring a new joke or a new feeling. Dance Dance Resolution solves it by changing one variable at a time and letting the audience see the results. A different soulmate, a different restaurant sign, a different reason for Eleanor to say the line. The jokes build on each other, and the montage never feels like padding.

The structure also plays fair. The humans never learn what the viewer learns, so the dramatic irony is intact and Michael's frustration reads as comic and a little sad. He is a demon who wants to be good at his job and is failing at it in front of everyone he is trying to deceive. That is a richer position for Ted Danson than a simple villain, and he plays it with obvious enjoyment.

Vicky, the uprising and a deal

Michael's problems are not only with the humans. His boss still thinks Attempt 2 is running smoothly, and his entire cast of neighborhood residents is beginning to rebel. They cannot keep their roles straight from week to week and want to go back to traditional torturing. They band together to present Michael with a list of demands, and the leader of the uprising is Vicky, who is also known as Real Eleanor and is played by Tiya Sircar.

While Michael has been failing to recreate the Good Place model, Vicky has been documenting his mistakes. She now makes an offer: she will get the cast back on board and ensure the higher-ups never learn of the failures, in return for running the next attempt.

The Medium Place and the tape

While Michael and Vicky negotiate, Eleanor and Chidi take a stroll through the neighborhood and find it utterly deserted. They follow the smell of cigar smoke, discover the cast out of character and out of costume, and realize where they are. They call for Janet, take a train to the Medium Place and learn they have already been there many times.

After the season one reveal it was unclear whether Mindy St. Claire, played by Maribeth Monroe, and the Medium Place were real or part of Michael's scheme, so it is satisfying to see this answered early. Questions remain about the train and why it exists, but those can wait.

At Mindy's house, she fills them in on all the earlier visits and the failed plans. None of that matters next to the one thing she shows Eleanor: a tape of Eleanor telling Chidi she loves him in bed, and Chidi saying it back. Eleanor has no memory of it, but Mindy says they slept together on 8 different days, over 20 different sessions.

With that knowledge, Eleanor decides to go back to the Good Place and confront Michael. Michael has his own plan. He will beat Vicky at her own game by teaming up with the Core Four, and whether they accept is left for the following week.

The Tahani question

One thing nags in the episode: how Tahani ends up with the other three in every attempt. The path from Jason to Eleanor to Chidi is intuitive. Jason reaches out because he knows Eleanor does not belong in the Good Place, and Eleanor goes to Chidi through Janet to learn how to be a better person, bringing Jason to the lessons. Tahani's link is unclear. Michael said she is supposed to believe she belongs in the Good Place, so why is she at one of Chidi's ethics lessons in Attempt 11? The show has not yet explained how she gets pulled into the drama of the others.

Small things worth catching

• Jason was once in a dance group named Dance Dance Resolution, the same name the episode carries.
• Each attempt gives the neighborhood's restaurants different pun names, and the signs make a running gag.
• The Medium Place is not new to Eleanor: she has visited many times before and remembers none of it.
• Attempt 218, the Tahani and Eleanor pairing, is mentioned and never shown.

Verdict: a high-concept episode with a human heart

Dance Dance Resolution is the kind of episode that shows how much a sitcom can do with its premise. Hundreds of failed attempts could have been a montage. Instead, they become a character study of what makes these four people tick, because every failure reveals something about their instincts. The episode treats the loop as a way to get to know the characters better.

The performances help. Kristen Bell makes Eleanor's repeated realization funny in a different way each time, from weary to furious to delighted, and William Jackson Harper gives Chidi's earnestness just enough warmth to make the tape scene believable.

It also advances the romance that fans have been waiting for. The tape of Eleanor and Chidi is the emotional hook of the hour, and the show chooses to deliver it as a surprise instead of a long-planned reveal. That decision keeps the comedy and the heart in balance.

The season gets better from here. Season 2 holds 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 58 reviews and 87 on Metacritic, and it is easy to see why. This episode is a strong sign that the writers have plenty of ideas left after the finale twist.

Taken alone, the hour is a clever puzzle box. Taken as part of the season, it is the point where the show tells its audience that the first-season twist was only the start, and that Michael's story and the humans' story are going to run together from now on.

Sources

• The Good Place season 2, Wikipedia — Checked against: episode list, writers, directors and air dates.