The Good Place ending; season 4 to be final one on NBC
Consider this news pretty forking terrible for anyone out there who wants The Good Place to stick around for a long time.
Today at an Emmy panel for the hit NBC show, executive producer Mike Schur confirmed that they are planning to conclude the series with the upcoming fourth season, one that will be premiering this fall. So why do that? Well, check out some of what he had to say on the subject below (per TVLine):
“After The Good Place was picked up for Season 2, the writing staff and I began to map out, as best we could, the trajectory of the show … Given the ideas we wanted to explore, and the pace at which we wanted to present those ideas, I began to feel like four seasons — just over 50 episodes — was the right lifespan. At times over the past few years we’ve been tempted to go beyond four seasons, but mostly because making this show is a rare, creatively fulfilling joy, and at the end of the day, we don’t want to tread water just because the water is so warm and pleasant. As such, the upcoming fourth season will be our last.
“I will be forever grateful to NBC and Universal TV for letting us make The Good Place, and for letting us end it on our own schedule … I will also be forever grateful to the creative team, both on-screen and off, for their hard work and dedication to a very weird idea. We ask the question very frequently, on this show, what do we owe to each other? The answer, for me, is: I owe all of you a whole lot. We look forward to a great final season airing this fall.”
Really, this news shouldn’t be altogether all that much of a shock given that The Good Place never had the sort of premise that would or even should last a long time. It’s incredibly imaginative, but also so high-concept that the longer you keep it on the air, the harder it is to keep it going. We’ve already seen the Bad Place, the real world, a place close to the Good Place, and of course the Bad Place all over again. You don’t want to keep the show going for so long that it starts to become routine.
Also, we’ve got a feeling that this is one of those shows that is going to have a long life via streaming after the fact. It’s probably going to be looked back at even more of a hit than it was through the first handful of seasons on the air.
In a statement, Lisa Katz and Tracey Pakosta, the Co-Presidents of Scripted Programming for NBC Entertainment, added the following:
“Since day one, The Good Place has been a seminal show for us and one that hits all the NBC touch points — incredibly smart, funny, inventive and emotional. We know the audience will love what Mike Schur and his writers have in store for the final season.”
What do you think about The Good Place season 4 being the final one over on NBC? Be sure to share right now in the comments!