It struck me in this episode, most of the people we see in The Good Place (or at least this neighborhood of it) are pretty young. One could describe mortality statistics by age as something like a bathtub curve—a shallow spike through the first three years of life (ages 0-2) that drops off after "infant mortality" stops having an effect; the bathtub floor up through age 50 or so; and a somewhat sharper slope approaching ages 70-90 where the peak occurs, before dropping off again toward the upper limits of the human lifespan.
I'm referencing 2007 statistics from the CDC because they're the most recent I was able to find quickly (and I still spent much more time researching that than this show deserves), but I'm reasonably confident that the pattern won't change dramatically from year to year—or between countries. Humans are humans, after all. If anything, the uptick between the middle and upper ages will be steeper in other countries with healthier diets than America. And yes, I'm using what I learned in statistics class in college to make assumptions and avoid spending more time on this issue than I have to.
So, the question is then: Why does The Good Place's population consist of so many relatively young people? Could it be that the network was afraid a more geriatric cast wouldn't sell, so they forced the casting of unrealistically young actors?
Review by dgwVIP 10BlockedParent2018-12-07T17:19:24Z
It struck me in this episode, most of the people we see in The Good Place (or at least this neighborhood of it) are pretty young. One could describe mortality statistics by age as something like a bathtub curve—a shallow spike through the first three years of life (ages 0-2) that drops off after "infant mortality" stops having an effect; the bathtub floor up through age 50 or so; and a somewhat sharper slope approaching ages 70-90 where the peak occurs, before dropping off again toward the upper limits of the human lifespan.
I'm referencing 2007 statistics from the CDC because they're the most recent I was able to find quickly (and I still spent much more time researching that than this show deserves), but I'm reasonably confident that the pattern won't change dramatically from year to year—or between countries. Humans are humans, after all. If anything, the uptick between the middle and upper ages will be steeper in other countries with healthier diets than America. And yes, I'm using what I learned in statistics class in college to make assumptions and avoid spending more time on this issue than I have to.
So, the question is then: Why does The Good Place's population consist of so many relatively young people? Could it be that the network was afraid a more geriatric cast wouldn't sell, so they forced the casting of unrealistically young actors?