I don’t think The Good Place gets enough credit for the diversity of its cast. The main romantic lead is a black man from Senegal who is allowed to be as nerdy as he wants. In fact, his nerdiness is the saving grace of the main character. The character that is often considered to be the pinnacle of beauty on the show is a woman of Indian descent who is not super light skinned. Another character is a Filipino man who, while incredibly stupid, can be incredibly perceptive and offers loving emotional advice and is described as incredibly sexually-desirable. The all-knowing judge on the show, considered to be the most powerful character as of the season three finale, is a black woman. The main character is canonically sexually attracted to both men and women and (while it hasn’t been canonically confirmed yet) is probably at the very least bisexual, if not pansexual. She also regularly talks about how she loved to sleep around and is never slut-shamed for either her sexuality or her fondness for sex. And that’s just in the core cast. There’s also a black female neuroscientist who gets several episode long arcs in both season 3 and (about to be) season 4. Not to mention the supporting cast and guest characters feature several people of color, while the main villains are mostly old, white men.
And all of these characters are actual characters! Even the small parts where a side character may only be in an episode or two results in really developed and fleshed out characterizations. Also, the characterizations don’t fall into the trap of stereotypes to make them more likeable!!
But while all of this diversity is amazing, the show also manages to make it feel organic. There’s no tokenism or show-boating. It’s never a “look, the main love interest is a black man!!!!! We’re so woke!!!!!!!”. It’s genuine diversity built from a place of love and understanding and idk, I just think that the show deserves a lot of credit for taking such an amazing concept and using it to build such a diverse world with such in depth characters. It’s a nice change.
Not to mention it’s a philosophical masterpiece that’s obviously written by philosophy and ethics enthusiasts, and has some deep philosophy jokes that you’ll only get after studying philosophy… which you’ll probably want to do after watching The Good Place.
And all of this stuff is mainly discussed by the aforementioned POC in the show.
There’s a female lead, sure, but instead of being the often annoying “white savior” the show flips that trope around (or throws it out I can’t decide which is more apt) and makes her into the audience surrogate. She’s the “white student” if you will, who is learning how to be a better person from a black man.
Go watch The Good Place dammit. It’s great, AND it’s a philosophical masterpiece.
There are some very self-aware moments about their casting policies, but instead of being preachy, they’re hilarious. Like this one:
