I started watching NBC’s “The Good Place” while I was housebound with my broken ankle in November, and I’m still hooked. It’s one of the silliest and smartest shows on TV right now.
Here’s a moment that gave me a laugh (among many laughs throughout the episode).
Ted Danson plays Michael, an “architect” who designs tortures for damned souls in the afterlife. Here he walks into his boss’s office after being away for a while.
His boss, Shawn, is basically the Manager of Hell. (He’s a demon who adopted this particular physical appearance because, as he explains, “I took the form of a 45-year-old white man for a reason. I can only fail up.”)
Here are the first few lines of their conversation:
MICHAEL: “Hey, boss. I’m back.”
SHAWN: (tossing a small canister towards Michael) “Welcome home. Axe up!”
MICHAEL: (catching it) “Oh! New scent! ‘Transformers.'”
SHAWN: “Yes. It makes you smell the way ‘Transformers’ movies make you feel.”
It’s just a throwaway moment within an episode that takes place entirely in Hell (or, as they call it on the show, The Bad Place) but it’s devilishly delightful.
And then, a few scenes later when Michael rejoins some of the show’s other characters…
ELEANOR (Kristen Bell): “Ohhh! How do you smell loud and confusing?!”