151: Janet from The Good Place Is a Nonbinary Icon

“Janet(s)” (December 6, 2018)

Spoiler warning: We totally give away some of the big surprises waiting for you in The Good Place, so if you have not seen it and want to go in fresh, go watch the show and then report back.

It seems weird that The Good Place was a show on a broadcast network at all, much less one that ran for four seasons and gave viewers so much to think about. Perhaps one of the more surprising aspects was D’Arcy Carden’s Janet, who rose above “Busty Alexa” status to become one of the more interesting characters. Janet is not nonbinary, but as five-timer Emelie Battaglia points out, Janet can work as metaphor for the nonbinary experience. In fact, there's a lot thats nonbinary about The Good Place in general.

Episode artwork by Ian O’Phelan.