To avoid being found out and sent to the Bad Place (hell), Eleanor attempts to hide her morally imperfect past behavior while trying to become a more ethical person.

In the twist ending of the first season finale, Eleanor realizes that the four humans have actually been in an experimental section of the Bad Place all along, selected by Michael (a demon) to torture each other emotionally and psychologically for eternity.

In the second season, Michael repeatedly erases the humans' memories to try to restart their psychological torture, but they figure out the truth each time.

After learning the truth about the afterlife, they try to help others improve their moral behavior: Eleanor's neglectful mother Donna Shellstrop, Tahani's famous sister Kamilah, and Jason's father Donkey Doug and friend Pillboi.

Eventually confrontations with demons end up with the group in the back offices of the Good Place, where they discover that no one has been admitted in centuries, and must come up with a new solution.

In the final season, under the Judge's purview, the group begins the trial of their replacement system: a neighborhood patterned after Michael's original experiment.

This time Eleanor's initial journey is now the intended outcome, to test the thesis that with proper support humans can develop morally and be reformed into deserving the Good Place.

If successful their design will become the blueprint for their new afterlife, replacing the Bad Place with a series of moral and ethical trials for each deceased individual.

These subjects include Chidi himself, the newly solipsist Simone (having unrelatedly died on Earth), and an entitled, chauvinist middle-aged man who deludes himself into thinking he belongs in an even better "Best Place".

NBC issued a press release on August 13, 2015, announcing it had given the then-untitled show a 13-episode order based purely on a pitch by Michael Schur.

On March 3, 2016, Manny Jacinto was revealed to have been cast as a "sweet and good-natured Jason" whose "dream is to make a living as a DJ in Southern Florida".

[16] On March 14, 2016, D'Arcy Carden was cast as a series regular announced as "Janet Della-Denunzio, a violin salesperson with a checkered past"[13] – although writer Megan Amram later admitted that this was a hoax.

He also pointed out that the setting (shot in San Marino, California's Huntington Gardens) already had the feeling of a pastiche of different cultures, and said the neighborhoods would feature people who were part of nondenominational and interdenominational backgrounds who interacted with each other regardless of religion.

"[32] The first season's surprise twist, that the Good Place was the Bad Place, and Chidi, Eleanor, Jason and Tahani were chosen because they were best suited to torture each other indefinitely, is very similar in premise to philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's stage play No Exit, where three strangers die and are escorted to a single room by a friendly bellhop and informed they must co-exist.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Kristen Bell and Ted Danson knock it out of the park with supremely entertaining, charming performances in this absurd, clever and whimsical portrayal of the afterlife.

In its review from writer Liam Matthews, "NBC's new comedy has an impressive pedigree" (referring to Mike Schur and stars, Kristen Bell and Ted Danson, the latter cited as "arguably the greatest sitcom actor of all time").

The site's critical consensus reads, "By voluntarily blowing up its premise, The Good Place sets up a second season that proves even funnier than its first.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Charming and curious as ever, The Good Place remains a delightfully insightful bright spot on the television landscape.

[70][1][71] Featured topics include the trolley problem thought experiment originally devised by Philippa Foot,[72][73] the categorical imperative first formulated by Immanuel Kant,[73][74] T. M. Scanlon's What We Owe to Each Other,[75] and the works of Aristotle and Søren Kierkegaard.

"[74] Elizabeth Yuko of The Atlantic noted that "The Good Place stands out for dramatizing actual ethics classes onscreen, without watering down the concepts being described, and while still managing to be entertaining.

[76] Several critics have noted that The Good Place often eschews antiheroes and cynical themes in favor of likable characters and positive messages.

James Poniewozik of The New York Times said, "The most refreshing thing about The Good Place, in an era of artistic bleakness, is its optimism about human nature.

"[72] Jenna Scherer of Rolling Stone wrote that The Good Place proved that "slapstick and banter can coexist alongside tragedy and hardship – that a show doesn't need to be self-serious to be serious-minded.

[87] The beginning of The Good Place takes its inspiration from the idiom "Hell is other people" from Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit.