My review of The Good Place two-part series premiere is live on my blog, but I also wanted to spotlight one aspect of the pilot that I imagine a lot of viewers will be obsessing over.
Early on, afterlife architect Michael (Ted Danson) stars in an orientation video for all of the neighborhood's new residents, which includes a brief explanation of how people are chosen for the Good Place by a system that adds or subtracts points from their lifetime total based on how much good each individual action adds to or subtracts from the world. Here's a glimpse of some of the examples:
Later in the video, we see a woman who beat out many others to make it to the Good Place, with instances of some of the wonderful things she did to qualify (note how many more points she got for never discussing her veganism unprompted than she did for actually being vegan):
Will the series reveals other ways to get in – or be kept out – of the Good Place over time? Knowing Schur's love of these kinds of jokes, I wouldn't be shocked if more about the point system is explained over time.