Now that you’ve picked yourself off the sofa after watching The Good Place’s extremely forking-good series finale, it’s time to talk about what's next. No, not what happened after that episode (we all just dabbed our tears away and walked away), but what we'll binge-watch next.
Yes, just because Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, Jason, Janet and Michael are gone doesn't mean you need to go without TV shows featuring witty banter, major plot twists and yes, even another study groups trying to fix each other's flaws. Here are 10 great shows to watch after The Good Place.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
The Good Place was created by Michael Schur, who co-created Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Thus, by transitive property, you’ll fall for the cop workplace comedy. It’s got a strong ensemble cast led by Andy Samberg, sharp writing and plenty of offbeat details. And much like The Good Place made such good use of Ted Danson’s comedic gifts, so does the Nine-Nine with Andre Braugher as the extremely formal, rulebook-following Captain Holt. — Kelly Woo
Veronica Mars
If you love to root for Eleanor (Kristen Bell), despite her own best efforts to undercut herself, then I hope you're already familiar with Bell's breakout performance as the titular private eye Veronica Mars. In this show that's lasted 4 seasons (and a movie), Veronica's solved mysteries alongside her father Keith (Enrico Collatoni), which all began with the story of who killed her high school best friend Lily Kane (Amanda Seyfried).
The show crackles with the same fast banter you heard in The Good Place, and Collatoni's performance as the sorta-goofy father figure is as great as Ted Danson's work as Michael. While the noirish detective series had a rocky road over the years — it's gone from UPN to The CW to Kickstarter to Hulu — its first season is inarguably great, and its second is pretty damn good too. -- Henry T. Casey
Parks and Recreation
Schur’s OG series rightfully has a place in the TV comedy hall of fame. Aside from hair color, it seems like The Good Place’s heroine, Eleanor, has almost nothing in common with Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) — one’s crush is Stone Cold Steve Austin, the other’s is Joe Biden — but dig deeper and you’ll find a hard-edged determination to do their best for herself, for her friends and for the greater community. — Kelly Woo
Community
Another great NBC sitcom, Community starred Joel McHale as Jeff Winger, a dirtbag lawyer whose study group is filled with fellow screwups, but they somehow manage to help each other improve. Stop me when this becomes too familiar. While The Good Place goes wild with insane catastrophes — from lava monsters to giant flying cocktail shrimp — Community's weird moments went in a slightly different bent, ranging from the world's greatest paintball war to a claymation Christmas special that illustrates how broken its characters are. Fans of lovable goof Jason Mendoza will love the oddball duo of Troy and Abed, whose collective lunacy will leave you amazed, and the neuroses of Britta and Shirley could give Chidi the worst stomach ache ever. -- Henry T. Casey
Fleabag
When Chidi learned about Eleanor's history of immoral activity, his nonchalance was expected. You'll probably have a much stronger reaction to the secrets of Fleabag, the lead character of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's two-season long BBC series (that streams on Amazon Prime). But I'm getting ahead of myself: The Good Place fans will appreciate the character Fleabag because she seems like the hard-R rating version of Ms. Shellstrop, with an uncensored foul mouth and a short lifetime of careless living. — Henry T. Casey
Last Man on Earth
When Eleanor and Chidi, and Jason and Tahani, were paired as soulmates in season 1, they just accepted it, believing this was the Good Place’s way. Only later did they learn that the pairings were designed to torture them. In Last Man on Earth, Phil Tandy (Will Forte) thinks he’s the only living survivor on Earth … until he meets Carol (Kristen Schaal). As mismatched and incompatible as they are, they figure that they should get married and start repopulating the Earth. Only later do they learn that there are other survivors out there. D’oh! — Kelly Woo
Pushing Daisies
Dead people? Check. Afterlife humor? Check. Mysteries and conundrums? Check. Quirky and charming characters? Check, check and multiply. Pushing Daisies has all these hallmarks of The Good Place. The fantastical dramedy stars Lee Pace as a pie baker named Ned who has the ability to bring people back to life (with a big catch). After reviving his childhood sweetheart, Ned teams up with Chuck (Anna Friel) to solve murder cases. They move toward resurrecting their romance, too, except for that catch — if he touches her, she dies for good. Shirtballs! — Kelly Woo
Dead Like Me
Start with an outrageous premise — an 18-year-old teen girl named George is killed by a toilet seat that plummeted from the space station Mir and becomes a grim reaper who collects souls of people just before they die. Hilarity ensues? Yes, of the blackest comedic kind. The snappy dialogue and crackling chemistry among the ensemble cast will transport you to a very good place. — Kelly Woo
Superstore
Cloud 9, the superstore in the title of this comedy, sounds heavenly but is even more hellish than the Bad Place. Think unending layers of corporate bureaucracy, low wages, brutal hours and tedious work. But at least your co-workers are, um … interesting! Superstore mines a lot of jokes from the set-up, but like The Good Place, wins with the performances from its talented cast. — Kelly Woo
Cheers
When Eleanor hit the bar in season 3, only to be met by Michael, trying to give her advice, fans of the classic sitcom Cheers immediately smiled with memories of Ted Danson's work as Sam Malone. Except, on Cheers, Sam was the one more in need of help than he realized, and the one incapable of making the right call in his romantic affairs. An all-time great sitcom, Cheers had an all-star cast featuring Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley and even Kelsey Grammar (who has apparently always been bald). — Henry T. Casey
