Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
In the season-one finale ofThe Good Placeis a moment so bracing and clever, it immediately became iconic.
D’Arcy Carden’s video of a scene with Ted Danson from season one.
Thisis the Bad Place, Eleanor intones with confidence.
The camera pans to Michael (Ted Danson), the architect of the Good Place.
Related Stories
Dansons role inThe Good Placeis just one small part of a tremendous career.
Michael allows for a far different approach.
Michael was still somewhat of a puzzle going into season two.
Touches of humanity are casually injected in Dansons performance.
Hell go off on platitudes about the weirdness of human ethics or mockingly call attention to the human body.
His insults, particularly aimed at Chidi Professor Buzzkill got in my head!
feel like the vocal equivalent of an eye-roll crossed with a slap in the face.
Its not conversational, its very bright and very elevated and its not colloquial.
So you have to work your ass off to get the lines down.
My focus is so much on getting the words right.
He pulls off the heady dialogue with panache, but his performance is notable for more than that.
I would be … no me?
he asks before wailing in anguish.
Theres a sloppy, lackadaisical silliness to how Danson moves, as if Michael got drunk on his anguish.
His eyes dart around as if realizing for the first time just how human hes becoming.
He shares a tender moment alone with Eleanor, giving her a pin necessary to travel through the portal.
I just solved the trolley problem, Michael says.
Its an impactful goodbye (though I doubt this is the last weve seen of him).
And onThe Good Place,Danson feels especially wondrous.
But inThe Good Place,he pushes his artistry to new heights by taking a different approach.
Heres a demon rooted in darkness, who decides to bend toward the light.
Its a character gaining a soul rather than sacrificing one on the altar of ambition.
Season two does more than allow Danson to experiment with heightening the alien qualities of his character.
It allows him to consider what it means to be human in the first place.
