No Good Decisions

I’ve been rewatching The Good Place, giving myself one episode a week each Friday. I’ve been doing this for years — working through feel-good series, one Friday at a time — and things land differently the second (or third) time around.

For instance, I noticed so many things I missed the first time around with Ted Lasso. Little moments happening in the background that I didn’t look at because I was so focused on following the story in the foreground. It reminded me a little of the end speech in About Time, where he talks about living each day twice: once with all the chaos of trying to keep up, and once by slowing down and really paying attention to the moments you miss while you’re running around.

I liked The Good Place the first time around — loved it, in fact — but I didn’t realize what an amazing show it was until this viewing. Seeing the episodes back-to-back, knowing what is coming next, makes me slow down and notice everything. And I’m also seeing it in context with the current world.

I love the part about how every decision is so complicated that even good decisions lead to bad outcomes. You buy vegetables so you can eat vegan, but those vegetables have an enormous carbon footprint because they came from far away, so this good decision — eat vegan to be good to the world — becomes this decision that harms the world.

Or I just read an article about shoes made from recycled plastic, and how it sounds like a great idea to keep plastic out of landfills. You feel great about your decision. But then those shoes will one day end up in a landfill. You’re just delaying the time when the plastic will be poisoning the earth.

Where am I going with this? I have no idea except that I’ve hit season 4 of The Good Place, which I know will be enormously moving because I remember it from the first time around. Though I hope that this time, I catch all of the tiny details I missed the first time along the way.