A Few Thoughts on “Jianyu” (The Good Place)

It’s hard to say much of anything about The Good Place without getting into spoiler territory, and this post will definitely get into spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

Before I begin, let me clarify that I do very genuinely enjoy the heck out of Jason Mendoza. I love that sweet, dumb, Molotov-cocktail-throwing Jacksonville DJ. He gets all the best dumb-funny lines that are so cartoonishly dumb, you don’t even mind that the character would be too stupid to actually live, but he’s also a character that can be underestimated by the rest of Team Cockroach. Whenever he comes through in a clinch, it never fails to surprise everyone. In no way does what I say negate my love for Jason.

All that said… when it was first revealed at the end of episode 3 that Jianyu the Buddhist monk was actually Jason the Jacksonville dope, I was a little disappointed. Understand, I’m all about breaking stereotypes – amid the Model Minority myth of Asians, it was cool to have Jason join Josh Chan in the (very) small club of fictional dimbulb Filipino bros. However, it bummed me out a little that, in order to get Jason, we had to lose Jianyu.

More clarifying. I’m not saying that the “Jianyu” we get in the first three episodes is a prize of a character. Since Jason apparently arrives at the Good Place having swapped places with a Buddhist monk and, in a bid to keep that secret, decides to continue Jianyu’s decades-long vow of silence in the afterlife, Jianyu never speaks and his interactions are mostly limited to significant nods. There are a few points of interest with his character – I note how Michael derives all kinds of “deep meaning” when Jianyu places a hand on his chest, and characters generally wax philosophically about what a wise/beautiful soul he is despite really not knowing him at all, both of which point to their preconceptions about Buddhist monks – but overall, he’s not a character in his own right. He’s a silent presence for other characters to react to.

In light of all that, I totally understand viewers who breathed a deep sigh of relief when Jason revealed himself to Eleanor. Trading in a voiceless stock character for some stereotype-busting comic relief? Why not? My issue, though, is this: in order for the show to make their Buddhist monk a three-dimensional character, they had to make him… not a Buddhist monk.

In recent years, I’ve been paying attention to the difference between archetypes and stereotypes, and I’ve come to realize that a stereotype is much less about the “what” than the “how.” An Asian martial artist, for instance, isn’t an inherent stereotype. Sunny on Into the Badlands isn’t a stereotype, because he’s a character with depth, goals, and conflicts. The Hand on Daredevil, in contrast, are stereotypes, because they’re hordes of nameless, faceless ninjas who only exist to give Daredevil baddies to fight. In much the same way, Jianyu is a stereotype because he’s a near-nonentity who’s there mainly to facilitate the twist of the Jason reveal. But he wouldn’t have had to be.

Watching the early episodes of the show, it occurred to me that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Buddhist monk portrayed as a three-dimensional character, and I was hopeful that that was what The Good Place was going to give us. Again, the actual depiction we get of Jianyu remains firmly in stereotype/plot device land. I’m not arguing for more of that. But I hoped the show would go deeper with it. In the first few episodes, Eleanor the Arizona trashbag, Chidi the anxious moral philosopher, and Tahani the insecure philanthropist all start rounding out as characters. They’re at once broad and intimately-specific, revealing foibles, secret fears, and surprising depth at every turn. I thought that the show was going to do the same for Jianyu, and we’d start getting into the inner life of this Buddhist monk that was far more than the bland wisdom other characters projected onto him.

Instead, we got Jason (who, once again, I do love – I’m not saying I don’t!) Which made me wonder what the show could have done if it had chosen to get more creative with Jianyu, defying the stereotype they initially set up without need to change the basic premise of who the character is. How would we get to know him without any dialogue (I’m sure the show would’ve eventually had Jianyu move past his vow of silence, but what would they have done in the meantime?) In what ways would he start to interact with the other characters? As someone who devoted his life to achieving a place of utter selflessness, what would he make of an afterlife that revolves around personal indulgence? And even though I adore the show and will miss it when it’s over, there’s still a part of me that wonders what it might have done.