There’s a good reason people find sitcoms to be so comforting: their predictable formula reassures us that, regardless of whatever wacky scenario characters have gotten themselves into this week, everything is going to go back to normal by the beginning of the next episode. Of course, there are many “sadcoms” that break this formula, like Bojack Horseman and Baskets, that often rely on a more serious or introspective tone to justify their serialized approach to comedy. But The Good Place is in no way a sadcom. In fact, it is delightfully, sometimes even deliriously positive, all without ever reassuring us that everything is going to be okay.

Those who try to explain The Good Place to their friends always arrive at the same road block. They start by describing the show’s original concept: Eleanor, a “trash bag from Arizona” (her words), finds herself recently dead and in “The Good Place” despite her many less-than-philanthropic earthly actions. She meets her supposed soul mate, an ethics professor named Chidi, and together they try to help Eleanor become a better person in order to keep her from being discovered as a fraud. But, as people who try and explain the show are want to say, there is so much more. So if you haven’t watched The Good Place, stop reading here. In fact, just go watch seasons one and two right now before someone else ruins it for you.

The rest of us, however, get to enjoy the first episode of season three, “Everything Is Bronzer!” When we last saw Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason, they had just been given a literal second lease on life. In order to save their souls, they were sent to an alternate timeline where they aren’t dead to see if they would have become better people who are deserving of a spot in the real Good Place. As with season two of The Good Place, season three is completely scrapping the formula of the last season and the season before that. The first episode focuses on demon-turned-father-figure Michael as he labors to secretly manipulate the four living versions of his friends into going down the path to righteousness. The special hour-long episode has the charm and irreverence that fans have come to expect, but unfortunately the show’s formula practically requires that the first episode of each season feel as exposition-heavy as a pilot. We can clearly see the direction this season is heading, but we had only just started the trip by the time the episode was over.

Still, this first episode bodes well for season three. It was funny, compassionate, and slightly stressful, just like the two seasons before it. It succeeded in making the moral struggles of its characters seem real and compelling, even though we’ve literally watched the same characters go through the exact same struggles multiple times. It’s a formula that absolutely should not work, and yet it continues to thrive. The Good Place is still one of those shows that makes the viewers wonder, “how was this ever green lit?” in the best possible way.