10 Most Underappreciated Performances On TV Right Now
6. D'Arcy Carden - The Good Place
Ted Danson might be the show-stopper in Michael Schur's afterlife-based sitcom, but D'Arcy Carden is at his right hand side for most of his scenes. She lends beyond admirable support that helps to create many of the show's best moments and forms a perfect chemistry with the legendary Danson. And she only gets better when she's given scenes to dominate on her own.
Janet is more or less a humanised Clippy from Microsoft Office, and she doesn't experience real feelings. Yet Carden's gormless smiling and overly pleasant tone encapsulate that robotic nature whilst still turning her into the show's most sympathetic and likable character.
Her delivery is so finely tuned that it's practically a whole new form of expression. Carden somehow exhibits a highly energetic variety of deadpan, perennially enthusiastic without truly conveying the emotion that this should imply.
Carden also shows impressive range in one particular scene, when her pre-programmed pleas for mercy when she's about to be rebooted genuinely feel a little chilling. However, her convincing recreation of fear of death is pitched well enough to avoid ruining the comedy of the moment. By all measures, Carden is a highly capable actress who's making the most of her brilliant character.