Sometimes it’s really important what you order at that weird, glowy bar or diner…
I’ve always liked this trope where the protagonist is facing some huge existential choice like whether to continue on their journey or pack it up and go home, or whether to live or die (which in this context is basically the same thing because when the fictional character packs it up, their story is over), and they work through their options at a supernatural facsimile of a bar or diner as if their choice boils down to what they want to order from the menu.
What do you want? Choose your own destiny, and then decide whether or not you want fries with that.
And then you have “The Good Place” which has already used both a bar and a diner to discuss Eleanor’s choices. (She’s definitely going to get fries with that.) The difference here is that the bar and diner are real places, but the person with whom she is discussing things is still a supernatural being.
Yes, they’re limnal spaces. Neither here, nor there. A place of transit, transition, transaction. Like a truck stop. 🙂
…is what the architecture and layout of Six Flags reminds me of?
Hmm. “Thrills” and emotional rollercoaster rides. Superficial, performative joy with ugliness underneath (Employees eating on food stamps). Always under surveillance, no place for true rest. And a gift shop. Sounds about right.
I also have never seen him as a parent, partly because I see him as a demonic Disney heroine.
No, for real. He’s always been different from all the other demons. He tries to fit in, but something inside him keeps telling him there must be more than this provincial life. He knows his home world is stagnating, but nobody will let him sail beyond the reef. He wants to be part of Eleanor’s world. When will the mirror reflect who he really is inside? Not till he either gets out of the bad place or wins enough battles and overcomes enough obstacles to convince people at home that their way of life needs to change.
Only, as the OP explains, he’s crap at all of that because he’s done nothing but torture assholes while working for assholes for all eternity. So he needs a lot more help from his sidekicks than Ariel, Moana, Mulan, and Belle did.
But if anyone would like my thoughts on this show’s relationship to Sartre’s “No Exit,” they are below the cut tag. Spoilers for the ‘twist’ of Season 1.
Hey! I may have binge-watched Season 1 today, as well. I never would have started watching if John Rogers – creater of Leverage – hadn’t plugged it on twitter. I confess, I’m hooked.
Strong focus on character development? check
Just enough mystery and intrigue to get you guessing at a number of possible plot points, but not enough to completely give it away? check
Strong character actors with good chemistry? check
Witty little call backs and easter eggs a la Arrested Development? check
Wicked things done via point of view? check
But most of all, unlike Seinfeld in which, yes, hell really was other people, the narrative has a moral center: the possibility of redemption is that we just keep plugging away at helping each other despite our foibles. We just keep taking turns dragging ourselves up out of the mud and drunkenly propping each other up.
It’s a thoroughly modern morality play…. and I’ve erased everything I’ve said after this point about four times because of spoilers.
Suffice it to say, its moral is one I’m very grateful to hear played out these days.
Hearseeno 