NBC’s The Good Place aired the fourth episode of its first season, Thursday, titled, “Jason Mendoza,” demonstrating the exact image most of society has about Heaven: your spot must be earned through good works.
For those who aren’t familiar with the show’s premise, Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) has died, but was mistaken for someone else and accidentally ended up in the “Good Place,” or the show’s version of Heaven. Each episode shows her struggle to fit in with the other goodies everyone else is portrayed as, much to the audience’s annoyance.
While the show may seem to have a good moral to it, the story has been complicated with characters finding the need to earn their right to be in Heaven. It is stated that anything can be up to 104% perfect, aka Beyoncé. Right, because Beyoncé’s such a strong role model…
Thursday's episode showed how Jianyu (Manny Jacinto) – really named Jason Mendoza – was also mistakenly admitted into the Good Place. The two must band together so they are not found out. The show constantly portrays Eleanor’s struggle to learn how to behave, even going so far as to have her take an ethics class with Jason to learn right from wrong - no mention of Biblical ethics and philosophy yet.
While Eleanor and Jason try to fit in, other references are thrown in for nothing else but liberal appeal. Stem cell research was mentioned as Tahani Al-Jamil’s (Jameela Jamil) greatest fundraiser on Earth. Those liberals love to bring their arguments with them, don’t they?
In short, The Good Place seems to poke fun at Heaven as being a place of no religion where only the perfect are accepted and all else are cast aside. The Bible states that salvation can only be earned through Jesus Christ (John 3:16). We don’t need to perform duties or rituals to earn our place. It’s unfortunate how Hollywood complicates and warps the view of such a wonderful gift offered to us.
Let’s hope this show receives some real divine intervention and makes some changes, for the greater good!
