4x11 Mondays, Am I Right?

[7.7/10] I’m not sure I ever imagined a network sitcom would hinge a major character’s arc on Albert Camus’s “Myth of Sisyphus”, but The Good Place isn’t an ordinary show, and Michael isn’t an ordinary character. I love the notions that “Mondays, Am I Right?” plays with here. Michael is used to having tasks, to having a struggle, to having a purpose. Whether that turned out to be torturing humans, or saving humans, or helping to devise a new point system, he always had something to keep him going. If Vicky comes in, ready to take his latest project over, what’s there left for him to do?

That was, at least kinda, what Camus was getting at. He famously declared that “One must think Sisyphus happy.” There is purpose, even joy, in rolling that boulder up the hill, even knowing that it’s going to roll back down. Michael’s struggling with the existentialist ethos here.

Of course, this is The Good Place, so what brings him out of it is his friends. Janet in particular does a superb job of letting Michael know that they’ll “find another boulder” for him, and convinces him to let go. It’s a relatable struggle, the difficulty of figuring out what comes next when we’ve more or less accomplished what we set out to do, to try to fill that space again, even if it comes in a characteristically fantastical package.

It’s also just fun! Whatever the highfalutin philosophical underpinnings of it all, it’s a good comic setup to have Michael trying to teach his fellow demons how to administer the new afterlife system. (The most hilarious part is definitely our heroes’ instructional videos, replete with a “It’s Simply the Test” outro.) His struggles to get the demons to buy-in are a laugh (particularly the guy who misunderstands Tahani’s chiding for encouragement), and the fact that it’s Vicky who saves the day and understands emotional challenge vs. physical torture is the icing on the cake. The ensuing staged coup routine is a laugh and a half.

But I like the other part of the episode too. It seemed like we were steering into pretty obvious territory where Chidi learns about Eleanor’s past, has some hang-up, and they get over it. Instead, the show flips the script, with Chidi admiring Eleanor’s journey, but worrying that with his comparatively humdrum life, he won’t be enough for her.

The real trick to this half is letting Jason save the day. The way he pretends to worry about his own differences with Janet to get Chidi to realize that what he has with Eleanor is solid is downright ingenius. And the show nicely walks the line between making Jason stupid like a fox and just plain stupid. (His “chess-mate” line had me in stitches.) Chidi’s realization that whoever they were in the past is small potatoes compared to an eternity together is a strong one and a sweet one.

And hey, I gasped when I realized our heroes had gotten into the Good Place, so that’s something! It comes with the right level of subdued fanfare, a recognition that it was a journey that continues with all of their hard work as part of the soul squad, not the end of things. I’m intrigued to see our first real glimpse of it, and particularly curious to see where the show goes in its final three episodes given how much it seems like it’s settled up to this point. On to the (hopefully?) real Good Place!