0:00

Hi, I'm Raj Panjabi from Huff

0:02

Post. And I'm Noah Michelson, also

0:04

from Huff Post. And we're the

0:06

host of Am I Doing It

0:08

Wrong? A new podcast that explores

0:10

the all-to-human anxieties we have about trying

0:12

to get our lives right. Each week

0:14

on the podcast, Raj and I pick

0:17

a new topic that we want to

0:19

understand better and bring a guest expert on

0:21

to talk us through how to get it

0:23

right. And we're talking like legit, credible

0:26

experts, doctors, PhDs, all

0:28

around superheroes. get your

0:30

podcast. Acast powers the world's

0:32

best podcast. Here's the show

0:35

that we recommend. This season

0:37

on The Dream. Supplies are

0:40

being defeated by nurses who

0:42

run out in the middle of

0:44

the night and purchase diapers,

0:46

but the hospital is still

0:49

charging as if they still

0:51

have these items. We are

0:53

digging into every topic we've

0:55

ever wanted to cover on

0:57

this show. It's a spinning

0:59

plate analogy. The second that

1:01

you stop spinning those plates,

1:04

that crashes. So you can never

1:06

stop working. The Dream, season four,

1:08

comes at you weekly starting

1:10

Monday, January 20th. ACAST

1:13

helps creators launch, grow,

1:15

and monetize their podcast

1:18

everywhere. ACAST. Welcome

1:34

to the full experience, a

1:36

cord killer's production, which attempts

1:38

to encapsulate the important feelings,

1:41

the important drama, drama, not

1:43

trauma, of watching a television show, while

1:45

only watching four episodes. The first, the

1:47

ultimate, the lowest, and the last, we

1:49

watch it at its best, we watch

1:51

it at its worst, we watch it

1:53

at its worst, we watch it at

1:55

the beginning, we watch it at the

1:57

end to see if we can get

1:59

a sense. without having to watch

2:01

the entire series from beginning

2:04

to end. This week, we

2:06

are watching a chip driver

2:08

mystery, season four, episode six

2:10

of The Good Place. This

2:12

is the lowest rated episode

2:15

of The Good Place. I'm

2:17

Tom Marin. He's Brian

2:19

Brushwood. Hey, man. So, um, I

2:21

have... theories. I have theories

2:23

on why this is the

2:26

lowest rated, but I'm going

2:28

to withhold them because I

2:31

don't want to corrupt your

2:33

hot takes, but I will

2:35

say that a lot happened. Like

2:37

in terms of the full

2:40

experience, we got the first

2:42

episode, we got the conceit,

2:44

we understand, okay, it's the

2:47

good place, it's the bad

2:49

place. All of which, I'm

2:51

like, oh my God, this

2:53

is going to be great. Man,

2:56

oh man, this lowest episode,

2:58

suddenly, like, first of all,

3:00

the first five minutes or

3:02

first, I don't know, 50

3:04

seconds, like quite literally, the

3:06

writing on this show is

3:08

so built for the casual

3:10

drop-in, drop-out audience where the

3:12

dialogue is like... Well, hello bad

3:15

Janet. Oh, there's a bad Janet. You

3:17

know I've kept you in prison for

3:19

low these six months. Oh, I guess

3:21

you can't remember. While the humans have

3:23

been testing to see how good they

3:26

are. Well, I guess I got that

3:28

all cleared up. Now I have something

3:30

to tell you. Is it this thing

3:32

that is a joke, but also fills

3:34

in the audience on the last bit

3:37

of info they need? Now they're all

3:39

caught up? Yes, it is. And it

3:41

does. I feel like the only gap.

3:43

in that is why we have

3:45

four other people and why our

3:47

heroes who went when last we

3:50

saw them on the full experience

3:52

had just had their brains wiped

3:54

and we're starting over again why

3:56

they're in control of the experiment

3:58

we we didn't get that inner

4:00

material, but you can kind

4:02

of pick up what's going

4:04

on that, okay, there's some

4:06

kind of score system was

4:09

referenced, and I guess they're

4:11

trying to prove that humans

4:13

can be good, and now

4:15

Michael is on their side

4:17

somehow, that must have happened,

4:19

but that's about it. That's

4:21

the only stuff that was

4:23

left in the gap. Yeah. So what

4:26

did you think of this episode,

4:28

Tom? It was slow. It was

4:30

the frame story with bad

4:33

Janet that really made it awkward.

4:35

I kept wondering why we

4:37

were going back to that. And

4:39

while it was helpful, like you

4:42

said at the beginning, to be

4:44

like, here's what's happened without showing

4:47

you, here's what's happened. It

4:49

did feel like almost like I

4:51

was watching a clip show, even

4:53

though I'm not watching a clip

4:55

show. So I didn't love the

4:57

way they framed the story. And

4:59

the story itself didn't

5:01

feel like enough for

5:04

an entire episode. Yes.

5:06

Also, I didn't have a

5:08

good time watching this episode.

5:11

Because of the topic, because

5:13

it really only has one

5:15

plot point, which is, what's

5:18

his face, has written a

5:20

horrible book, and he's also

5:22

insensitive, but no one will.

5:24

you know, try to be

5:26

empathetic towards him and we're

5:29

trying to get him to

5:31

realize what he's done wrong,

5:33

trying to get everybody to

5:35

be a little more forgiving

5:37

so that he has the space to

5:40

realize that and none of that

5:42

happens. So I remember when I

5:44

was watching it, kind of like

5:46

thinking, holy moly, these guys are

5:48

just having a really good time

5:50

creating and building up the heel,

5:53

you know, this love to hateem

5:55

character. Now with a little bit of

5:57

distance between me and the when this

5:59

first came out. Tom, this is a

6:02

thinly, we've talked about how

6:04

this show does a fair bit

6:06

of writer's room chatter, a bunch

6:08

of lines that work at two

6:10

levels, both within the show

6:13

and in a meta, hey

6:15

we're the writer's room telling

6:17

you our opinions about writing

6:19

people things, which is

6:21

why this episode was bad

6:24

is because it stank of

6:26

the writer's room. wanting to

6:28

scream at Donald Trump, and

6:31

they're paying lip service

6:33

to what a good person

6:35

would do, but they're also

6:38

winking and saying, but we

6:40

hate him so much that

6:43

even our protagonists can't handle

6:45

how awful this gross man

6:48

who definitely is Mr. Trump

6:50

is. And as a result, it

6:52

just, for a show that in

6:55

so many other topics, They go

6:57

out of their way to figure

6:59

out the right amount of redeeming

7:02

qualities in every character.

7:04

Yes, Jason dies a criminal

7:06

and an idiot, but you

7:08

can top spin that with

7:10

a little bit of his

7:13

redeeming innocence, right? With Eleanor,

7:15

she's selfish and short-sided, but

7:17

a little bit of top

7:19

spin of clearly a child

7:22

of divorce parents. Tahani in

7:24

the shadow of you know

7:26

hand and and and and and

7:29

there there this guy I had

7:31

forgotten was even in this I

7:33

forgot that the chip driver mystery

7:35

was oh right I forgot I

7:37

forgot all four of those new

7:39

characters were ever at this yeah

7:42

right and so they I don't

7:44

remember how they eventually

7:46

write his redemption arc but it

7:48

is stark and staggering to me

7:51

that they would deny that they

7:53

would deny even an ounce

7:55

of topspin to make him on

7:58

the you know on the middle

8:00

ground here and it just

8:02

reeked of being very

8:04

late Trump term, angry writer's

8:07

room to me. Would you,

8:09

this is, I'm going to

8:12

ask you a question that

8:14

there's no possible way for

8:16

you to give an accurate

8:18

answer. Do you think you

8:21

would have felt the same

8:23

way if we watched this a

8:25

year ago instead of right

8:28

now? I don't know. I might have

8:30

not even seen it. Like I might

8:32

not have even noticed it. You said

8:35

what? How many months ago? A

8:37

year ago, right? A year ago. Before

8:39

the primaries, before the election. Well,

8:41

I'll tell you what, I did

8:43

not notice that it was definitely

8:46

a Donald Trump dunk session. At

8:48

the time it came out and

8:50

I saw it the first time. I'm

8:52

like, oh. In 2019. It came

8:54

out in 2019. So during the

8:56

president's first term. Yeah. Right, and so

8:59

I didn't see it. It just

9:01

seemed like, oh, this is the

9:03

walking personification of what everybody being

9:06

hysterical online is angry, raging about.

9:08

Okay, that makes sense. But now

9:10

it's very clear. And there's even

9:12

some of those double entendre writers'

9:14

room lines in there that I'm

9:17

like, okay, all right, it's definitely

9:19

this. I asked that because, and

9:21

this says more about me than

9:23

anything, I didn't think of that.

9:26

Oh watching this. It bubbled

9:28

up and surprised me too.

9:31

I almost didn't see it.

9:33

I thought Brent was, I

9:35

was like, wow, even six years

9:37

ago, we were talking about this

9:40

toxic masculine character on the internet.

9:42

That's what I was thinking is

9:44

like, oh, we are talking about

9:47

the people on the internet who

9:49

dig in their heels and say,

9:51

well, why should I apologize for

9:54

being who I am? And yes,

9:56

he's a cartoon character version of

9:58

that, but he being that and

10:01

then our other character Simone is

10:03

being the other people on the

10:05

internet who refused to actually believe

10:07

that there could be any good

10:10

in Brent and don't want to

10:12

do the right thing don't want

10:14

to be the better person and

10:17

this is you know yes now

10:19

that you say it I'm like

10:21

well of course this is parallels

10:23

of 2016 being written in

10:25

2019 but it has played out

10:28

beyond individuals to me.

10:30

Like I see these conversations that

10:32

they were having all the time

10:34

happening on the internet and I

10:36

didn't once think it was targeted

10:38

towards politics. Again, I think that

10:40

has more to say about me

10:42

and what I know information I

10:44

consume than the fact that the

10:46

writer's room did or did not

10:48

intend it. Because once you said

10:50

it, I'm like, oh yeah, that's

10:52

probably what they were doing. But

10:54

I still think it works as

10:56

a more general, like there are

10:58

folks on the internet saying Brent

11:00

things, and then this is how

11:02

the simones of the world react.

11:04

And the show is trying to say,

11:06

are you trying to be better?

11:08

That's what counts. And in the

11:10

end, even though I didn't love this

11:13

episode much, I really liked that

11:15

message, which is humanity deserves credit

11:17

when it tries to be better,

11:19

not when it's perfect as much as

11:21

it does to Simone. Hi,

11:24

I'm Raj Panjabi from Huff Post.

11:26

And I'm Noah Michelson, also from

11:29

Huff Post. And we're the host

11:31

of Am I Doing It Wrong?

11:33

A new podcast that explores the

11:35

all-to-human anxieties we have about trying to

11:37

get our lives right. Each week on

11:39

the podcast, Raj and I pick a

11:41

new topic that we want to understand

11:44

better and bring a guest expert on to

11:46

talk us through how to get it right.

11:48

And we're talking like legit, credible

11:50

experts, doctors, PhDs, all

11:53

around superheroes. get your

11:56

podcast.

12:00

business of telling the writers

12:02

of the show what they should

12:04

be doing or have done, but

12:06

I will say that I would

12:09

have liked this more if they

12:11

had written Simone as less right

12:13

or overcompensating or flawed. Less right?

12:16

Because I really did, I thought

12:18

Simone was clearly in the wrong

12:20

and that's what Eleanor was like,

12:23

now you've taken it too far.

12:25

I feel like again I guess

12:27

we can use a point-based system

12:29

since that's what this shows

12:32

all about. I felt like

12:34

they they if we're it

12:36

was negative a million points

12:38

on the Brent side and

12:40

like It was the difference between

12:42

a mortal and a venal sin.

12:44

They're all like, Simone, yeah, I

12:47

guess she's sinned too, you know,

12:49

for being too right and just

12:51

a little bit human. I guess

12:54

that's pretty bad. I got it

12:56

that they encouraged Simone to give

12:58

him a break. They said Brent

13:01

probably, you know, it doesn't realize,

13:03

but let's help him realize. And

13:05

then we see Brent and Simone

13:08

both. Dig in their heels and say well

13:10

if you're not going to forgive me

13:12

then I'm not going to admit I

13:14

was wrong and then Simone saying like

13:16

well You you aren't forgivable and you

13:18

should know better And to me it

13:20

felt equal. It felt like. Oh, yeah.

13:22

They're they're both being irrational and unforgiving

13:25

Yeah, P. Guyton says that

13:27

the episode has a

13:29

swear word in the

13:31

good place. I thought

13:33

I heard the F

13:35

word as well, P.

13:37

Guyton, but since I

13:39

watch with the subtitles

13:41

on, it definitely was

13:43

a sloppily pronounced fork.

13:45

Like I back... I

13:47

thought P. Guyton was

13:49

referring to bench. Which was

13:52

also said so quickly

13:54

that I thought they

13:56

actually said bitch and

13:58

and Eleanor self Censors

14:00

and says F that at some point.

14:02

Yeah, so but but they definitely are

14:05

flirting and I think they are getting

14:07

away with it I bet that

14:09

there was some discussion or maybe

14:11

naturally everybody knew it because there's

14:14

there is kind of a sense

14:16

of The edges fraying of a bit

14:18

of decay of of the hard

14:20

and fast rules within that probably

14:22

doesn't hurt that that they know

14:25

they're in Some of them know they're

14:27

in the bad place. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it

14:29

was it was bitch. That's what it was.

14:31

It was weird to me that Jason

14:33

was still a secret that they

14:35

brought that back to that gossip hound

14:38

guy. Yeah, I had but but I

14:40

guess you know what? In the full

14:42

experience, we would know that there's

14:44

some amount of rebooting

14:46

happening because that's what they

14:48

said up. That's what they said at

14:50

the end of the last episode we

14:53

watched. Yeah, so I'm going to say

14:55

I'm going to say not the

14:57

best example, but if if we're

14:59

doing the test of if you've

15:01

done the full experience, have you

15:03

pretty much watched the series, I'd

15:05

say we're still on track. Yeah.

15:07

And P. Guyton says it was the

15:10

bench that he thought was bitch. So I

15:12

and I thought so at first too, but

15:14

then when I thought back, I'm like, mmm,

15:16

it was kind of maybe on the

15:18

line, you know, I don't know, yeah. To

15:21

me, like, they could get past the

15:23

broadcast sensors with that word. They

15:25

would be fine. It was the

15:28

internal rules of the good place

15:30

that would have been violated if

15:32

that sneak through. Also, I had

15:34

to note there was an Elon

15:36

Musk dig back in 2019 before

15:38

it was fashionable. Way

15:40

before. Yeah. So that was no

15:42

multiple. In fact, before long before

15:44

the cyber truck even started shipping.

15:46

Remember in the bad place, they

15:48

go to bad Janet's place, and

15:50

there's a giant billboard for a

15:52

cyber truck. That's all they had

15:54

was a billboard for a cyber

15:56

truck. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's funny.

15:58

I didn't remember that. All right,

16:00

so in the end, I liked the

16:03

message. I liked that they made

16:05

it look like these people

16:07

are bad, but Michael was

16:09

able to say, however they

16:11

tried. In the end, they tried.

16:13

They tried to be better, and

16:16

that's what counts, is trying. I

16:18

very much believe that, and so

16:20

it's. you know, playing to my

16:22

priors to be like, oh yeah,

16:24

that's what I think too. Not

16:26

the best episode. And I definitely

16:28

checked to see how much longer

16:31

I had to watch a couple

16:33

of times. What about you? Uh,

16:35

yeah, as a matter of fact,

16:37

it was at the 14 minute

16:39

mark that I actually, I never

16:41

wiggle the mouse on, usually on

16:44

these shows, but I definitely

16:46

wiggled the mouse might have.

16:48

given myself a coupon to

16:50

watch it one and a

16:52

quarter one and a half

16:54

speed I don't think I

16:56

missed anything now now you

16:58

didn't skip you just accelerated

17:01

that's all yes no I

17:03

I spared myself the wait

17:05

for them to do the

17:07

whole joke aren't I okay

17:09

well the last episode the

17:12

finale which is also highly rated

17:14

In fact, when you squint on

17:16

IMDB, it's a tie with Michael's

17:19

gambit, but I think. in the

17:21

actual like sorting where it looks

17:23

at the all the decimal places

17:26

it's its second is episode 13

17:28

of season four whenever you're ready

17:31

which aired January 30th 2020 what

17:33

an interesting time January 30th 2020

17:35

was but that's when we watched

17:38

the finale whenever you're ready for

17:40

the first time and that's what

17:42

we will watch for the final episode

17:44

of the full experience on the good

17:47

place next time. You get these episodes

17:49

early if you are a patron. So

17:51

go check them out at patreon.com/court killers

17:54

and we will deliver that final episode

17:56

next time. I

18:00

mean. Welcome

18:12

friends to the Playful Scratch from the California Lottery. We've got

18:14

a special guest today, The Scratchers Scratch Master himself, Juan. Juan,

18:16

you've mastered, Playful Ways to Scratch, Impressive! How'd you do it?

18:18

Well, I began with a coin, then tried a guitar pick.

18:20

I even used a cactus once. I can scratch with anything.

18:22

Even this mic right here. See? See? Well there you have

18:24

it. Scratchers are fun, no matter how you scratch. Scratchers are

18:27

fun, no matter how you scratch. No matter how you scratchers,

18:29

no matter how, no matter how you scratch. Scratchers, no matter

18:31

how the California Lotters, no matter how, no matter how, no

18:33

matter how, no matter how you scratch. Scratchers, no matter how,

18:35

no matter how, no matter how, no matter how you scratch.

18:37

Scratchers, no matter how, no matter how, no matter how, no

18:39

matter how you scratch. Scratchers, no matter how, no matter Please

18:41

play responsibly must be 18 years or older to purchase player

18:43

claim. Hi, I'm Raj Panjabi from Huff Post. And I'm

18:45

Noah Michelson, also from Huff Post. And

18:47

we're the host of Am I Doing It

18:49

Wrong? A new podcast that explores the all-to-human

18:51

anxieties we have about trying to get our

18:53

lives right. Each week on the podcast, Raj and

18:56

I pick a new topic that we want to

18:58

understand better and bring a guest expert on to

19:00

talk us through how to get it right. And

19:02

we're talking like legit, credible

19:04

experts, doctors, PhDs, all around

19:06

superheroes. From Huck Post and ACAST

19:09

Studios, check out, Am I doing it

19:11

wrong, wherever you get your podcast.