NBC’s comedy has become a cultural touchstone for big picture pondering, so IndieWire went to creator Mike Schur to answer the biggest question of all.
TV writer and producer Michael Schur doesn’t believe you can become a better person. But in the grand scheme of things, he’s not sure it matters.
“To me, the meaning of life is to try to be a better person today than you were yesterday,” Schur told IndieWire. “And I don’t think you’ll succeed.”
Schur said that no matter how benevolent your intentions, it’s unlikely you’ll incrementally improve yourself, every single day, without falter, until the inevitable moment of your death. People screw up. It happens.
“But the meaning of life isn’t to be a better person today than you were yesterday, it’s to try to be,” he said. “You can still go to sleep and say, ‘Well, I tried. I failed today. I blew it. I got angry and lost my temper when that guy cut me off in traffic. I took the last bit of coffee in the break room, and I didn’t make a new pot. And I knew that it was my friend Sarah’s birthday, and I just couldn’t get around to calling her and wishing her a happy birthday. Yeah, I failed! I failed a bunch of times, but I was actively trying.”
Read More:‘The Good Place’ Renewed for Season 4 at NBC Anyone who’s seen his latest series “The Good Place,” knows that’s only part of the answer — don’t worry, the other half is coming — just as they recognize why he’s being asked the question in the first place. After creating a beloved comedy about American politics (“Parks and Recreation”), Schur expanded his view beyond this world to the age-old question of what comes next. Questions about life, death, and the meaning of our actions continue to surface, and Schur has found a unique connection with his audience by actually providing rational, human answers. They may be simple. They may be specific to one or two people within his windy story, but they speak to everyone’s innate search for understanding. Bridging the gap between philosophy and entertainment, “The Good Place” has become a cultural touchstone for anyone looking for answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s not something every network sitcom can pull off. “The Good Place” Colleen Hayes/NBC Schur’s comedy, about a group of recently deceased humans trying to become better people so they can get into heaven, is built around elements far more complicated than most sitcoms. “Mostly what you get in comedy are tropes,” Schur said. “You get caricatures, like ‘This is a dumb guy. This is the charming lead. This is the uptight person’ — whatever. You do that because comedies are meant to entertain you. You watch them for a half hour, and you know when Joey Tribbiani comes on screen he’s going to say something dumb and that will be funny and I’ll laugh and I’ll move on. To some degree, that’s necessary for comedy — [including] shows I’ve worked on. But there haven’t been as many comedies that want to get lost in the nuance of people or the weird inner lives of people.” In “The Good Place,” characters are given ethics lessons on Friedrich Nietzsche and Immanuel Kant. Decades-old thought experiments are acted out with visceral (and bloody) consequences. Episodes can act like experiments themselves, dedicating half-hour blocks to evaluating theories like utilitarianism and determinism.
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