NBC's The Good Place is going to end with its upcoming fourth season, but despite the show being one of the best sitcoms on TV, it's actually good that it's finishing. The afterlife comedy, created by Michael Schur (Parks & Recreation), stars Kristen Bell, Jameela Jamil, William Jackson Harper, and Manny Jacinto as a group of dead people who think they're in the heaven-like Good Place, led by Ted Danson's Michael and D'Arcy Carden's (not a) robot, Janet.
The first season of The Good Place ends with a stunning twist, revealing that they've actually been in The Bad Place all along, and Michael is secretly a demon. The subsequent two seasons have continued to build on that game-changer, with The Good Place becoming known for completely blowing up its premise multiple times per season. It's high-concept stuff that races through plot setups most sitcoms would spend years with in just a couple of episodes, and that's why the announcement last month it was ending was welcome.
Most sitcoms run for so long because of familiarity. How I Met Your Mother lasted for nine seasons, Friends for 10, and The Big Bang Theory 12 because they were comfortable hangout TV shows where you knew what you were going to get, and they could exist for years without necessarily making major plot changes, or at least not rapid ones. The Good Place doesn't work like that. It's already different from most network sitcoms in that it only has 13 episodes per season, rather than the usual 22, which means that it can fit its episodes around its ideas, rather than needing to fill a certain number of installments.
The same goes for its seasons too. The Good Place has been building its world and the journey through it over the past few years, but it's always been clear that it wasn't something that could just run and run. Because of its core concept, and the way that keeps on changing, it's much more suited to being a 4-5 season show than it is a 10-12 one. In other words, it isn't working on a normal TV show timeline; it's Jeremy Bearimy, baby. Given the way The Good Place season 3 ended, the stage is set for the show to go out on a high note.
Michael is repeating his grand experiment, albeit now featuring some new subjects, with the aim to prove that people can become better when given the love and support they need. That The Good Place tackles big questions around morality is important for its ending too, because it has a built-in way of achieving a happy ending that it's now ready to reach across the next season. Going beyond that would put the show at serious risk of outstaying its welcome. TV is a different place to it was 10 or even just five years ago, and having shows prepared to break away from normal conventions - such as a sitcom having just four seasons and ending without being canceled - is definitely a good thing.
With 14 episodes in season 4, including an hour-long series finale, there's plenty of time for The Good Place to have a few more twists, but more importantly to wrap-up its biggest stories and stay true to its themes. It allows the show to go out on its own terms, and before it ever starts to feel contrived or stretched too thin, because there's almost no way it'd be sustainable for several more years. The Good Place has been one of TV's very best shows over the past few years. Like most Schur comedies it's warm and hilarious, but there's an added message about humanity here, a smarter premise than your average sitcom, and it has an incredible ensemble. That's made The Good Place such a joy to watch, but ending it at the right time ensures it'll never be sent to TV's Bad Place.