The Good Place The Complete Series Collector’s Edition is a Good Place To Start Watching

Television used to get away with a lot of things because it “wasn’t movies.” Specifically, special effects could be fair to middling because the size of the television set was small enough to mask what looked so awful. That’s no longer possible today — not with high definition and large TVs — but a lot of television shows still think their viewers don’t really care about special effects as long as there’s a good story. So to find a TV show that has a good story but also excellent special effects, plus manages to walk the line between slapstick comedy and stand-up comedy and intelligent commentary with a touch of pathos and quality actors who can deliver — well that’s pretty rare. And the show to actually be entertaining with all of this packaged up like an unexpected X-mas present is called The Good Place The Complete Series Collector’s Edition.

The Good Place is the story of souls who have passed but now are at heaven’s waiting room so that they can enjoy the benefits of having lived a good earthly life. We follow the trials and tribulations of a group of characters, with the esteemed Ted Danson acting as the point person for the company that is heaven. Dawson, by the way, follows in the wake of Dick Van Dyke in that he performs with wit and a bit of physical comedy coming along for the ride. But mostly it’s about his dialogue and interactions with the characters who make up the bulk of the story lines. Add Janet, a sort of walking talking Google page with the benefits of being able to do anything, and one might expect this to be just a nice pleasant romp through a field of dancing flowers and unicorns and an occasional refreshing mild rain. Of course that isn’t the case but so as to not have any spoilers we’ll just say that things are not as they seem and through the 53 episodes (4 seasons) a lot happens, some expected and some unexpected. Things don’t always go the way one might expect, which obviously is what makes the show continue to command attention. And character growth is part of the overall arc of the story line. So yes it can get a tad sappy at times, but fortunately never to the point where you want to start vomiting rainbows.

Heaven has a lot going for it, and who wouldn’t want unlimited pretty much whatever. So there’s lots of special effects since it’s difficult to have people flying or falling into black holes otherwise. Very colorful too and well arranged and again having that high resolution means a good amount of care and attention has to be paid to the effects so they don’t look like melted caramel left in the glove compartment on a really hot summer day. Which really makes sense that this box set is Blu-ray so the HD can be there to be taken advantage of.

The box set is 1080p HD which is more than enough (n 5 years maybe we’ll all be talking about 4K being the norm) and having it on disc avoids any streaming gaffs or hiccups or stuttering. You play it when you want for as long as you want without worrying about the internet service provider’s hub being overwhelmed and giving you blurred images. Of course there’s quality sound working as well — DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 — so crank up the sound system and enjoy (the tiny speakers in today’s big TVs can’t really handle being overdriven so it does make for less enjoyment). Dialogue is the big driver for The Good Place, so the few times the music in-show goes heavy can be enjoyable. But either way it’s all a good listen to accompany the visuals.

The box set also includes extras and these include extended episodes, giving some new bits to the established as well as audio commentaries. Since the show has been off the air for a while already, it’s an easy thing to include a cast get together after the final episode to talk it out — so it is there and hosted by Seth Myers. Besides a gag reel and visual effects reel, there’s also the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con panel with the cast. For The Good Place fan, these extras are well worth getting the box set by themselves.

The Good Place The Complete Series Collector’s Edition can be found at at the Shout Factory @ https://www.shoutfactory.com/