The thirty-sixth episode of the series overall, it originally aired in the United States on NBC on December 6, 2018, as the show's mid-season finale.

D'Arcy Carden, who plays multiple versions of Janet in the episode, prepared for her role by watching rehearsals of her castmates and following the actors between scenes.

Seen by 2.58 million viewers in its original broadcast, "Janet(s)" received praise from critics; Carden's performance earned widespread acclaim.

The original Janet gives each person different clothes to identify them before she and Michael (Ted Danson) leave to visit Accounting.

[6] Schur and the other writers were initially concerned such an idea might be too challenging to accomplish, but realizing that other shows such as Orphan Black had pulled it off provided them with the confidence to move forward.

Writers Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan sent a draft of the script to May for input; he suggested small tweaks to improve how the relevant philosophical theories were explained.

[5] Her co-stars recorded footage of their performances for Carden to listen to and review, including a rehearsal on set with the cast playing their usual characters.

[11] Carden later explained that she struggled to perform her impression of Harper as Chidi even though she could imagine it, and she found Bell's subtle actions to be hard to emulate.

Morgan and Siegal credited the idea to Schur and explained that they carefully scripted what each new person said for both emotional impact and humor based upon who would say the line.

The prop was printed with the slogan, but Merchant held it the wrong way during filming, so the words were reapplied using special effects during post-production.

As Reiheld explains, stories provide the scaffolding for "moral self-definition"; once Chidi reminds her of her personal history, Eleanor can act in the way that "best reflects who she is and wants to be".

[18] Vox's Emily St. James notes that after centuries of other lifetimes, the four humans felt uncertain of their true selves, remarking that "who you are is a little arbitrary, if you stop to think about it".

Sawyer explains that Buddhists believe attachment to one's sense of self can cause suffering, so Eleanor confronting the idea of "no-self" could be a step towards enlightenment and nirvana.

However, Sawyer adds that compassion is one of Buddhism's chief virtues, and a person who moves past one's sense of self will naturally be compassionate, so Chidi's actions were not necessarily wrong.

Alan Sepinwall, writing for Rolling Stone, suspected that the Bad Place had gamed the system, which was too flawed to realize it was broken.

[17] This idea would be proven correct in the next episode, "The Book of Dougs", which revealed that the complex links in modern society lead to negative points even for well-intentioned actions.

[20][21] Philosophy instructor Laura Matthews calls this a virtually guaranteed outcome of the point system due to its use of deontological and consequentialist ethics.

[22] The show's writers had considered who would have reached the Good Place, but according to Schur, they eventually realized it was impossible to find an "Incontrovertibly Great Person" in recent history based on their criteria.

The episode placed fourth in its time slot, behind Thursday Night Football, Young Sheldon, and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

[25] "Janet(s)" received highly positive reviews from critics; many considered it a major improvement over the season's earlier episodes.

He deemed it a "dividing line" within the history of the show and, like Perkins, praised it for giving Carden more to do as Janet after receiving smaller roles earlier in the season.

[14] Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek praised the episode for both the creativity of the premise and the emotional truths the humans face.

In an unranked top-ten list, Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter remarked that it was able to advance the story and hit emotional beats while not using most of the main cast.

[30] In The New York Times's list of the year's most memorable episodes, James Poniewozik credited the show's strong writing for allowing its characters to all be played by Carden while maintaining their traits.