The Good Play (A Good Place Podcast)

Merry belated Christmas from the Good Sisters! We watched this Netflix holiday trash so that you don't have to. Good things about this movie: Scotland is pretty, and the secondary characters are very nice. Bad things about this movie: the plot, the continuity, and OMG THE MUSIC, which must be heard to be believed . . . but instead of listening to that, dear listeners, we entreat you to listen instead to this episode, which we promise is more entertaining than the movie itself.

Happy Disney Plus weekend! Please enjoy this review of Shang-Chi from the Good Sisters. Brianna would be grateful if Xialing stepped on her face and suffocated her! Marissa wants Xialing to go live with her Auntie Nan! Neither sister really gets what she wants here, but they both really liked the film. N.B. this episode was recorded in late September. Sorry for the ridiculous delay; grad school got on top of the Older Good Sister.

Chomp chomp goes Alioth on He Who Remains variants, and chomp chomp goes the Disney Content Machine on the budding themes and philosophy of Loki (the series, not the character). We were all geared up for an ending that would bring some closure to the ideas the season had been building up to, but instead we got a promise of a second season and an implicit reminder to go see Phase 4 MCU movies. Ah well. We hope you Good Listeners are ready for some more yelling about How Timelines Work!! Here is the episode of Extra Hot Great that is "quoted" about midway through this episode: https://www.extrahotgreat.com/364?t=2212

On the eve of the finale, here is your penultimate Loki episode recap and discussion! From the Yakety Sax-esque multi-Loki pileup in the disused bowling alley to the Dashboard Confessional-style dual-Loki snugglefest, we have tabs on every Loki, especially Croki. Don't worry, we've got just enough extra time for Lightning McQueen driving the Pizza Planet truck! Come with the Good Sisters into mystery, won't you???

"How are they gonna get out of this one? . . . Ohhhhh. Oh no." Things get VERY real in this episode of Loki, entitled "The Nexus Event." I guess we're up a CrocoLoki and down a jetskiier. Sigh. Jared, could you turn that rain machine down a click, PLEASE??

This week, we learn a shocking secret about the TVA (we're sure there are many more to come), and it leads to a consensus among the Good Sisters that you can't just merk brainwashed soldiers. It's uncool, Sylvie. But what IS cool is the camaraderie between Loki and Sylvie as they scramble to survive the Worst Apocalypse Ever. When she podcasts, she podcasts at home!

The action is nonstop in the second installment of Disney+'s Loki series. There's a lot of jibber-jabber about time travel and how it works (or doesn't work) and a lot of unanswered questions about what "our" Loki wants. Also a bit of needling the audience about climate change, which the Good Sisters certainly believe in but do not wish to have to think about in this moment, please and thank you!!

We're baaaaaaaack! Pandemics suck, y'all! How is everyone?? Vaccinated??? Anyway, we're watching the Disney+ limited series "Loki," because we are burdened with glorious purpose. Brianna is tickled by Owen Wilson's accent, while Marissa thinks that trickster gods should be stealing genitalia, not enacting fascism. Join us back in the MCU!

This 2018 Netflix movie about overachieving high school debaters is an interesting window into the world of debate and also a frustratingly architected movie. (What is the theme? Can anyone tell us??) But for the Good Sisters, it's just an excuse to tell more stories of their lives in high school. Come for Marissa's FLAWLESS French accent; stay for Brianna's rendition of Simon and Garfunkel's "America."

"Work It": A Netflix original movie about college admissions that really doesn't seem to understand college admissions in the slightest! The Good Sisters have extremely strong memories of the college admissions process, thankyouverymuch, and will be happy to expound on everything that "Work It" gets wrong. Also, can the power of love heal a bad ACL? And what even is an ACL?? Hey, at least the dancing is fun.

"I'm too young to die and too old to eat off the kids' menu. What a stupid age I am." --Jason Mendoza Settle into the dog days of summer with some fun teen flicks, probably mostly rom-coms, because who are we kidding, we don't have the bandwidth for anything else. In this week's film, "The Half of It," a queer immigrant girl in a tiny Washington town plays Cyrano de Bergerac for a doofy football player, and hearts get mildly broken, but it's OK! Taco sausage!!

It's our 100th episode!! Instead of torturing ourselves with a movie that should've been left on the cutting-room floor, we decided to just chat about some pieces of media we love. We recommend a ton of content that is guaranteed anxiety-free! All aboard our very chill boat, listeners!!

Woof, where to start with this dud of a melodrama? The Good Sisters slog their way through this deception-based plot and try their hand at a little script doctoring (e.g. it would be nice if every male person in the film were not a total dirtbag!) This will hopefully be the final episode in which Brianna's side of the line is 50% fouled by firework noise! (Brooklyn, tone it down, would ya?)

Punching! Lens flares! Chris Pine in his undies! This movie has it all, except for an appreciation of the ethos of its source material! Dammit, Jim!

After an extended hiatus due to . . . well, 2020 . . . the Good Sisters are back with a take on "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement" that is longer than the movie itself. It is not a good movie, but it is blessedly easy to watch while the world falls apart around our ears. We hope you are all well and that this episode brings a bit of cheer into your 2020.

The Good Sisters are on opposite sides of the #TeamPeter / #TeamJohnAmbrose divide (seriously, are those even the right hashtags? what hashtags are the kids using on TikTok??), and after a very long recap they basically express their opposite team allegiances for a good long while. We tease a listener letter from Listener Kate up top, but we don't get to it. We're too into our #TeamPSBoys debate!!

This week, in the second of two episodes based on the series finale, the Good Sisters focus on the three characters who didn't go through the door: Tahani, Michael, and Janet. Tahani prompts us to think about the meaning of forgiveness; Michael raises questions about visiting a theme park after you've already been behind the curtain and seen how all the rides work; and Janet evokes meditation on what we truly need from those we love. There's no crying this time, though, we swear! Plus four (!) pieces of listener feedback. CONTENT NOTE: Your hosts have a serious discussion of suicide (based on a related article from The Atlantic) between the time codes 58:15 and 1:11:25. Please skip this chunk of the show if that's what serves you best. You can pick back up at 1:11:25 without losing the thread of discussion.

"Isn't it a beautiful gift that we all get to intersect for these brief moments in time??" The most beautiful, heart-wrenching, and emotionally true series finale maybe of all time is up for discussion at least this week and next week. This week: a recap, and then dissecting the arcs of those three of our six main characters who chose The Door. Fair warning, we cried a lot while recording this episode; it's not a good one to listen to while you're at your desk at work or in any other places where you're expected to hold yourself together. If you want to listen to it at a Bed Bath & Beyond and cry into a plunger while listening, please tweet us a selfie while doing this and we'll retweet it.

Eleanor is become death, destroyer of souls, and it's a . . . good thing??? The denizens of the Good Place get a death option, and they're elated. Brianna points out that while humans in real life don't have a death option (it's not optional, per se), in the best case scenario, we also go when we're ready. Marissa raises the question of whether the Testing Place should also have an escape hatch. And the Good Sisters ponder some possibilities for the Green Door (MARISSA IS GOING TO HOGWARTS Y'ALL).

It's SIMPLY THE TEST! BETTER THAN OTHER TESTS! This week, the Good Sisters are asking the hard questions: how much sense does Vicky's test for Tahani really make? Why was this weak Cheleanor subplot included? Just how long is a Jeremy Bearimy?! Join us as we slide into the final episodes with absolutely no idea what happens after the golden balloon to the Real Good Place. Plus: a fairly long epilogue with even more discussion of SW:TRoS.

Gonna erase the Eaaaaarth, erase the Earth -- no, wait, just kidding. Gonna come up with a whole new afterlife plaaaaan . . . hmm, that doesn't scan so well, does it. Well, folks, as we settle in for the final half-season of TGP, there is a lot of ground to cover. And some of that ground is in the form of a foxy older gentleman in a 10-gallon hat. Brianna and Marissa take this opportunity right before the roller coaster peaks to put themselves firmly on Team Leave The Cockroaches Alone, Team It Would Be Nice to See Jason's Mom's Afterlife, and Team Cheleanor 4eva. Dissidents from these teams will be forced to ride the Tesla Cybertruck through Bad Janet's Void.

Who's up for dishing about this enjoyable hot mess of a movie?? We love us some Rey/Kylo Ren hot Forcebook chatting, but the MacGuffins, the new weird lore, the non-sacrificial sacrifices, and the heartbreaking absence of a real Leia throughline make this a not-totally-satisfying ending to the Skywalker Saga. Does the Rey/Kylo stuff make up for all that? Y'know, it almost does, especially when Kylo is doing his Mr. Darcy impression. Or is it Noah Baumbach's "Marriage Story"? Jenny Nicholson's critique (from which Marissa stole more than one point) is here: https://youtu.be/GErIPKjwuDg

Gentle gentile listeners, buckle up: the Good Sisters are about to let you in on a whole passel of JEW SECRETS, like how to play Jewish Geography, and whether sufganiyot are different from regular jelly doughnuts! They're all revealed in the context of reviewing this utterly charming Lifetime holiday movie about a Christian woman falling in love with a real cutie-patootie Jewish guy. Get a plate, fill half of it with fruitcake and half of it with latkes, and settle in: this is a pleasure to discuss, good listeners.

Regular Jesus, take the tow-truck wheel, and in the name of John Pierpont Collegestudent, let us pray. It's that time of year again, the time of year when Netflix spends the minimal amount of money it can to produce minimally acceptable holiday-themed programming. I hope you like indistinguishably attractive white girls, because this movie's got 'em in spades! It also has a legitimately hilarious interfaith Christmas pageant and a curious dearth of live performances by Shameik Moore. Plus . . . Joan Cusack in tinfoil?? Are you OK, Joan??

"There is no 'answer.' But Eleanor is the answer." If you didn't love this episode, go walk into the ocean!!! The Good Sister spend some quality time loudly sobbing, around which they manage to fit a recap, some words about that dumb church choir show, and a new (somewhat satirical) iTunes review. We already know y'all want us to do the Hallmark "Chanukah movies," but if there are any other topics you want us to cover during the midseason hiatus, email us (thegoodplaypod@gmail.com) or tweet @thegoodplaypod!

Bam, bam, bam -- ooh, shouldn't have committed to the bam. Even when our hapless Soul Squad wins, they still lose -- though the Good Sisters don't think that Gen has really thought through this whole "erase everything and start over" plan. (What of hyperintelligent ants? WHAT OF THEM??) Also, Michael does not wake up Marissa's TV husband Chidi and she's quite peeved about it. Plus on the show before the show, the Good Sisters get called out by a fictional church choir member!! The WALL-E and Eve scene we mentioned: https://youtu.be/KTzNvpToJmA Ryan Toby's very innocent debut in Sister Act 2: https://youtu.be/mXPoRnY3r10 Ryan Toby's SUPER non-innocent current music (don't play it around little kids!): https://youtu.be/wKEzEVftIJ4

Everything falls spectacularly apart in new and alarming ways on this week's TGP. As the Soul Squad tries several exploding Hail Marys to score a last field goal, Eleanor & co. lose their grip entirely on the experiment, and The Good Sisters are left Monday-morning quarterbacking the whole thing. Could the Soul Squad have handled the residents better??? We don't know, and it's too late now! Plus a new iTunes review and our customary rundown of competitive church singing, this time with pink hair.

Shirt gets real this week when resident "born on third base, thinks he invented baseball" resident Brent writes a book that makes that piece of pulpy trash that Bill O'Reilly wrote in the '90s look like the latest Zadie Smith novel. If this were truly The Good Place, Simone and Tahani would not be obligated to even think about this tripe . . . but it's The Experiment Place, and things are a lot more complicated here. Plus, a new iTunes review, the episode titles up to the midseason break (!!!), and our usual review of the last 5 minutes of the show in the 8:30 slot (BRADLEY WHITFORD SAYS THE WORD "TWERK," Y'ALL).

The Good Sisters are throwing a Molotov episode at y'all this week in honor of Jason Mendoza, a great boyfriend and the source of all wisdom, apparently. In addition to the recap, we have a lot of listener mail to get to (which we love -- send us more!!) And as usual this year, there's the tearing apart of the last 5 minutes of that Bradley Whitford show, which is apparently now somehow our signature feature as a TGP podcast.

All of our listeners' suspicions about Michael and Janet come to a head in this week's practically-a-bottle episode full of mistrust, lies, accusations, and gallons of blue goo. In the end, Jason, the low-key wisest (and high-key sexiest) of them all, saves the day with Chekhov's Sex Toy, and guys, it's riveting. Plus: listener tweets/Facebook posts/email, a new iTunes review, and our customary review of the last 5 minutes of that churchy Glee knockoff show we refuse to learn the name of (this week, Bradley Whitford drinks his own butt).

You may have to sit through a few other failed podcasts at the beginning of this one, such as the MichaelMcDonaldCast, the Studio60Cast, and the FightingTemptationsCast, but eventually we get around to this episode of The Good Place, and we just want to say out of the gate how many weird things there are in this one! Janet is weird! Michael is weird! Chidi is weird! The . . . Grim Reaper?? . . . is weird! Yeah, the Grim Reaper. Or a Grimly Reaperish apparition. Something's coming down the pike next week for our cockroaches, and everybody better suit up and brace for impact!!

Let us gather in thanksgiving for the narrative blessings of our saviors Jesus of Nazareth, Peter Parker, and Eleanor Shellstrop, all people who had the world put on their shoulders and had to learn to deal with it. Give Kristen Bell all the Emmys, gosh darnit!! If there are any left over, give them to Ted Danson!! Bonus mini-review of whatever awful show is airing on NBC right before The Good Place -- no, we don't know what it's called, but we hate it.

Season 4 is off and running and flying and punching! After a comprehensive recap, the Sisters start asking the big questions: what is this experiment for? What could it possibly accomplish?? Who gave the Good and Bad Places the right to judge humanity??? QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES???? Also Eleanor looks supes amaze in her LBD, y'all. #imwithdiscojanet #justiceforsimone

Whoops, I guess we took a hiatus! But now we're refreshed, recharged, and ready to smash the prison-industrial comple-- I'm sorry, what? This is supposed to be a podcast about The Good Place? Yeah yeah, we'll get to that, first we just gotta talk about Mindhunter and Jonathan Groff real quick. Come for the recaps of the NBC webisodes, stay for the wild fan theories!

ALL HAIL SOFT, SOFT BOY TOM HOLLAND! For unto his Spider-Man shall be gifted some nuclear drones or something. Also spare a moment of appreciation for Jake Gyllenhaal's very fetching Mysterio with his very fetching beard. Rrawr. Anyway! The Good Sisters, as you may have gathered, enjoyed this fun MCU summer flick despite the fact that they recently vowed to never again see another MCU movie. Where else are you gonna see Zendaya with a halberd?!

Everybody split a pair of earbuds with your Hormone Monster to listen to the Good Sisters' take on three episodes of the Netflix original series "Big Mouth": "Girls Get Horny Too," "I Survived Jessi's Bat Mitzvah," and "The Department of Puberty." Brianna is a big fan; Marissa is mostly confused; but we can all bond over the boxy dresses we had to wear at our Bat Mitzvvahs.

This tepid, straight-to-Netflix chick flick is a case of "tragically misapplied" comedic talents, to bogart a Bartletism. Comedy giants Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, our lady of May Maya Rudolph et al. drink and snipe their way through the Napa Valley, and it is a whole lot of nothing. The Good Sisters story-doctor the hell outta this one. Next week: Big Mouth!

With quite the Marvel hangover and with no TGP to tide us over, we're turning to the collected works of Maya Rudolph, a.k.a. she who embodies Judge Gen. We discuss a lot of sketches, including "I Know Why the Caged Bird Laughs," "The Obama Variety Show," "Celebrities Visit Jay-Z and Beyoncé to See Their New Baby," and the glorious "Bronx Beat." Next week, Netflix's "Wine Country"! Keep May(a) going!!

SPOILERS FROM THE JUMP, INCLUDING THIS SYNOPSIS. Whew!! We made it, Good Listeners. We've spent over a month watching MCU movies, and now we arrive here, assembling some Avengers. (Not all of them. Some of them die.) We talk about those deaths, the inevitable social divide between the unsnapped and never-snapped, the weird rise of Ant-Man, an MCU with technological time travel but without Infinity Stones, whether Thor's beer gut was believable (no), de-aged Michael Douglas, super-aged Chris Evans, and, oddly enough, de-aged Will Smith. Join our listening army as we defeat Thanos . . . for the very first time!

The Good Sisters are sorry to ruin this 2014 MCU film with talk of feminism, prison culture, and excessive yelling (by the characters, not the Good Sisters), but this is how they do. The music holds up, of course. But we certainly don't know more about the Kree empire than we did before we watched this! Ah well. BONUS SEGMENT at the end: gushing about the Star Wars Episode IX trailer!

If you've come to love hearing Marissa stumble through a summary of a movie she barely understood because she hasn't meticulously cataloged every aspect of the MCU, do we have a treat for you!! Sokovia is a mess, y'all, and everyone is morose and unfunny in this messy 2015 MCU tentpole flick. At least this topic gives Brianna the appropriate context to discuss Marvel's villain problem!

The Good Sisters continue to pregame for Avengers: Endgame with this lighter MCU fare from 2018. The studio tagline for this movie was, "Real heroes. Not actual size." Here are the taglines that Brianna would like you to consider instead: - "This is straight nonsense." - "Larry Fishburne: doing the Lord's work." - "This should've been a web-short."

As we await Avengers: Endgame, let's pregame by watching whatever MCU movies are left on Netflix! This week it's Thor: Ragnarok, the lesson of which is best summarized by Brianna: "The real hammer was the friends we made along the way." Is the movie a good metaphor for colonialism? Or is it just a Norse mythology fever dream scored by the guy from Devo? Why not both??

We are back after our (unplanned!) 2-week hiatus to tackle the latest entry in the MCU, Captain Marvel. The Good Sisters discuss the amazing Brie Larson, the journeys of the Space Gem/Tesseract, and what we think Captain Marvel's been doing since 1995. Bonus: we also yell "THE PATRIARCHY!" and "HOW IRONIC, TONY!" a lot. We are off next week again, but after that we hope to do some older MCU films!

This beloved 1990 Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore/Whoopi Goldberg film absolutely holds up, the Good Sisters are happy to report. Brianna is a little alarmed at how oblivious Molly is to the obvious threat of Carl, and Marissa is a lot grossed out by the idea of introducing wet clay into a sexual encounter, but otherwise we're very into this movie! Afterwards we discuss who exactly should get dragged to Hell by pavement shadows and for what.

The Good Sisters have to break with critical consensus on this 1991 "romantic comedy-fantasy film." Though it's well-regarded, the only part of this movie we cared for was the luminous, angelic, too-good-for-Albert-Brooks Meryl Streep. Brianna gets up to some very good script doctoring, though! We also have a unique situation in our email segment. Next week: 1990's "Ghost"!

In February, the Good Sisters are looking at the depiction of the afterlife on film, and starting with this lost 1993 Robert Downey Jr. gem called "Heart and Souls." A baby is haunted by four spirits who died on the same day he was born, and that baby grows up to be our foxy RDJ. The acting talent in this movie is off the wall, and even Brianna admits, "Yeah, this movie was great, I dunno!" Got ideas for more movies about the afterlife we could cover? Get in touch!

ARE Y'ALL READY FOR SOME REAL TALK ABOUT LOVE AND THE HUMAN CONDITION??? WOOOOO!! This finale is a quiet little gut punch of an episode, but the Good Sisters are split on how logical any of it is. Also the grand experiment did not pass any sort of IRB and our listeners are very miffed about that.

The Good Sisters are here this week asking the important questions, like: is Cheleanor like Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves in Speed? Why are eternal beings so bad at experimental design? And if you were trying to torture Shakespeare, which movie plot would you describe to him? It's nothing but questions this week as Chidi sees the time-knife in the Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes (which the Good Sisters' Good Mom would never let them visit)!

The Good Sisters have opposing desires in this episode: Brianna wants to discuss how globalization, capitalism, Triangle Trade, and the global supply chain affect the entire human population. Marissa wants to get everyone ABOARD THE S.S. CHELEANOR, HONK HOOOOONK. They each get their turn . . . eventually. Though Marissa almost runs out of patience entirely. Ahem.

The Good Sisters watch both Big Block of Cheese episodes of The West Wing (S1E5 & S2E16) and spill all their barely related thoughts about this classic show. Come for the Sorkin dragging, stay for the THOUGHTS about Joshua Lyman. Starry-eyed, addlepated, illogical thoughts. Sigh. #joshanddonna4eva