The Good Place

          The Good Place is an amazing show that defies many stereotypes and as a result send positive messages to many different demographics. To begin with the cast as a whole is incredibly diverse as the main characters consist of someone who is Asian, white, African, and Indian. In addition to the core group the situations each character is put in is full of different kinds of people in terms of race, sexuality, and personality. These aspects culminate to send an incredibly effective, entertaining, and positive message.
          The creator of The Good Place is a man by the name Micheal Schur. Micheal Schur has created Parks and Rec, The Office, and The Good Place, so clearly he is an expert in the field of smash hit comedies. However reflecting back on the comedies he has done before a very common theme is the overall lack of diversity. Although this in part could be equated to the times the shows were produced the two other comedies that he created lacked large representation. However in this television program there are an incredible amount of different people. This likely connects with thousands of new viewers who now feel represented in a comedic series like The Good Place. I believe the message he was trying to send is that every kind of person exists within comedy and every other aspect of the world. By representing so many different demographics he is effectively including many more audience members, which was likely his intention. In addition he could be making up for his original lack of diversity in his earlier television shows.
          What I specifically enjoy about this show is that the lifestyles that are presented are not uniform, and the characters back stories also vary. I believe that too often what the media portrays to us is the idea of two perfect parents with their two perfect children, when in reality this is hardly ever the case. The stereotype of husband and wife or even having a two parent household alienates many from the things they see on TV. However, in this show although they mostly skip over the characters family life one women's parents show favoritism towards her older sister and completely dismissive of her. In most cases all we ever see are perfectly loving and supportive families, however this is an example when that was simply not the case. Another major element that The Good Place was able to incorporate were stereotypes, or the ability to defy them. The white women protagonist prior to dying was simply not a good person. This completely contradicts with the common stereotype that white people are often superior. Eleanor, the name of this character, was a rude, uneducated, impolite women who does not fit any stereotype. Next is Chiti an African man who is showed as an incredibly intelligent philosophy professor. Almost never does the media portray a black man as kind, intelligent, and overall an exceptional person. This defies the stereotypes and also hopefully empowers young men of color to go against this common misconception and believe that they can be like Chiti. Then there is the character named Jason an Asian man who lead a life as a robber/dancer in Florida. He is possibly the dumbest character you will see on television today. However the important part is that the Asian character is not the typically classified 'intellectual' of the group. He is the exact opposite which disproves once again another stereotype. And finally there is Tahani an Indian women you was the biggest socialite in world prior to her death and extremely beautiful. The stereotypes, which I looked up to see the most common, is that they are gross, bad drivers who only eat curry and enter into arranged marriages. Tahani is nothing like any of these things, she was a self made millionaire who did not appear to ever have a significant other, and spent her entire life in England. She along with all of the other characters are able to combat almost all of the commonly incorrect stereotypes that have been presented about race.
             The message overall culminates to give the impression that no matter who you are you can do anything. Through the skillful art of forming characters around the opposite of stereotypes The Good Place is providing a place for young people to look for good role models they may not find elsewhere. If they can find themselves in any of these characters, negative or positive, it will at least give individuals someone to associate with. This will inevitably lead to the feeling of inclusion among individuals who predominantly feel excluded. Therefore The Good Place is able to provide an outlet for every minority to find themselves within characters and feel like there is also a place for them.