11 Shows To Watch To Combat The Holiday Blues

Photo: Justin Lubin/NBC

The Good Place

The Good Place is my kind of religious show. That is to say, that it’s not really all that religious. It’s got some vague morality sprinkled in here and there, but nobody is cramming anything down my throat. Right now, I’m thankful for that.

The Good Place stars Kristen Bell and Ted Danson, and this might be the best combo to ever have graced the small screen. Bell plays Eleanor, a deplorable human being with very little integrity or personal responsibility. She accidentally winds up in “the good place” (instead of, you know, “the bad place”) after her death. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn what a giant jerk she was while she was alive, but once she arrives in “heaven” she’s forced to hide the mistake from everyone, including Danson’s Michael.

Michael is a genuinely nice person, and takes Eleanor under his wing, intensifying her guilt over the mix up. This hits me right in my holiday sweet spot. Despite all the good person/bad person stuff, it’s hilarious. It’s honeyed enough to make me feel feelings, but it’s also unseemly enough to keep things a little real. Eleanor really is awful, but she’s trying to clean up her image … something we can all relate to this time of year.