The high-concept sitcom was a corrective to the troubles of the world, with Danson playing Michael – a squid in a bow tie trying to hold it all together
The Good Place finished in January, just when viewers of the NBC/Netflix series needed it most.
Running almost parallel with the ascent of Donald Trump, NBC’s morality sitcom, which followed a group of dead Earthlings navigating a secular afterlife, felt removed from 2020 yet somehow served as a corrective to it. Flawed characters were likable; diversity was normalised not signposted. It was family-friendly, and largely unserious, yet high-concept and high-brow. And best of all, it starred Ted Danson as Michael, the “architect” of this utopian ideal, dressed in a tweed jacket with pastel-coloured bow ties.