Has the wait forThe Good Placeto return to your TV been, well, hellish?
Have you had, say, a devil of a time trying to be patient?
Eight months after uncorking one wild season finale twist what we thought was heaven was actually hell!
Colleen Hayes/NBC
And so the game re-begins.
How hard was it to keep secret what was arguably the most ambitious plot twist of last season?
What literal fresh hell awaits Eleanor & Co.?
Colleen Hayes/NBC
With retirement hanging over his head, how desperate will Michael be to make this ploy work?
Is Todd the lava monster coming back?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was it like holding on to this secret all through season 1?
Colleen Hayes/NBC
Its sort of like a long-form version ofThe Usual Suspects.
And we were doing a similar thing, except we had a 13-week endeavor that we were embarking on.
If it had leaked out, I didnt want to feel creatively like the year was a failure.
I wanted to feel like it a failure of whatever you want to call it marketing or something.
Ted and Kristen knew from the time I pitched it to them.
I seem to have won that dice roll.
Most of the crew did not know as well.
and I decided it wasnt really an ethical issue.
It was a creative issue and that made me feel better about the decision.
Like Eleanor and her friends, viewers found out about Michaels plan in the finale.
Now they are in a position to feel like, Okay, we know more than these characters.
The problem is that if you drag it out for too long, it becomes very boring.
Because youre just like, Yeah, I know, man get to the point where they find out.
We dont want to sit in any one version of the show for too long.
In fact, quite the opposite.
Its going to happen pretty quickly.
Its always been Eleanors or Chidis or whoevers.
The big question is: Can Michael build a better mouse trap so he can avoid retirement?
This should all be working better than its working.
And by the way, thats the not the only problem he has.
He also has problems with his own staff which youll begin to see.
The people that he got to sign onto this program this isnt what they mostly do.
Before this, none of them were actors.
We already met Chris Baker, Eleanors new soulmate with the abs, in the season 1 finale.
The new soulmates have to be that good at driving each of these people crazy individually.
How surprising will season 2 be?
We know about the clam chowder fountain, and the disturbingincrease in clownsin season 2.
But its not just pizza, its Hawaiian pizza, which is the worst pizza.
Its commented on, by the way, that theyre all Hawaiian pizza restaurants.
We hang a lantern on it, as they say, but its my favorite.
The finale took us behind the curtain a bit into the backstage area, if you will.
The Bad Place is pretty straightforward.
The people would show up, the Bad Place would say, What kind of person is this?
Okay, well, then well put them in a volcano full of scorpions.
Okay, what kind of person is this?
Okay, well, lets put that person in a hot lava pit.
What are we doing?
I dont get it and I dont like it.
So theres a lot of that that hes fighting.
You should go along with this because its cool and valuable and interesting.
Its a pretty hard sell for a lot of the Bad Place crew.
Theres no question for her of, What do I do?
I take a stab at find whoever Chidi is.
Shes basically Sam Spade.
One of the attractive qualities of Eleanor is that shes pretty savvy.
I think of her sometimes as a more benign Vic Mackey.
And so her savviness is what ends up getting her through a lot of the pilot.
Whats in store for the others?Theres two things [for Chidi].
[Jason] has his own crazy soulmate situation.
Tahani is easier to torture because Tahani thinks shes great.
He has a better plan going forward for her than he does for Jason, because Jasons not delusional.
Jason knows instantly that theres something wrong in the same way that Eleanor does.
That stands to reason.
It was said last year that every time Janets are rebooted, they gain more abilities and social awareness.
Its a benevolent version of the Borg.
The thing about it is it was a very specific situation, right?
Janet was rebooted in the middle of the attempt.
Its just providing its function; its providing information for you.
The things that are real in the show are the Good Place, the Medium Place.
Mindy St. Claire is real.
Janet is real, and the fact that Janet is not in on Michaels ruse, thats real.
How much of what Michael said is real?
Obviously, the idea of his being an architect and facing the threat of retirement was.
Will the point system work into the story this year?The point system is also real.
I dont think it ultimately plays that big a role.
What about Todd the lava monster?
Any context for us?I cant possibly give you context for that.
Hopefully if the timing works out better in the future.
What one word or idea best encompasses season 2?Spy craft.
Thats pretty exciting, isnt it?
After the hour-long premiere on Sept. 20,The Good Placemoves to Thursdays at 8:30 p.m.
ET starting on Sept. 28.
