The Good Place

Some colleagues suggested that I watch The Good Place because it deals with philosophical issues and philosophers head on. I had my reservations for two main reasons:

1. I don’t tend to watch TV
2. I don’t tend to like what I do watch on TV
3. Philosophy tends to be cast in a facile normative ethical framework

The colleagues are ordinary people with a typical (so minimal) exposure to the academics of philosophy, so when I voiced my reservations, they responded that it started slow but got better—especially the final episode of the first season. This seemed like an odd recipe for success, but I gave it a go anyway, watching the first two episodes on a flight from Houston to Philadephia.

I learnt three things:

1. Why I don’t tend to watch TV
2. Why I don’t tend to like what I watch on TV
3. Philosophy tends to be cast in a facile normative ethical framework

Evidently, there’s a twist at the end, but I am not sure I’ll be able to endure.

Rewinding a bit, the show clearly pushes a consequentialist worldview, and given the references to Nicomachean ethics and Club SPA, I presume at least a hint of virtue ethics and deontology.

Perhaps, they’ll get to the likes of Foucault and Derrida, though I’m not betting on it. Perhaps someone can fill me in on the details. I won’t tell.