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Why Is Everyone Falling All Over Jason on 'The Good Place'?

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | October 27, 2017 |

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | October 27, 2017 |


Last night’s The Good Place was terrific, and I wanted to write about it, but I didn’t have a hook this morning beyond, “That was a really terrific episode, and Ted Danson and D’arcy Carden turned in actual Emmy-worthy performances, and I love the Ex Machina direction the episode took. Also, Jason Mantzoukas!”

I do find it odd, however, that Janet and Tahani are obsessed with Jason. I mean, Jason? What’s the attraction? I don’t see it. But it turns out, Janet and Tahani aren’t alone in their love of Jason:

Really? Because all I see is dumb. And I don’t know enough about the actor who plays him, Manny Jacinto, to separate the hot from the dumb. Checking out his role in iZombie a few years back didn’t exactly help matters, either:

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(The episode also reminded me that Liv had a brother, who disappeared after episode 6. I had no memory of him.)

So, I dug some more, and his hotness began to take shape. Jacinto is Canadian. He’s of Chinese and Filipino descent. He’s also very smart. He has a degree in Applied Science in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia, which doesn’t exactly jibe with my perception of Jianyu. Jacinto hasn’t been acting that long, and part of the reason why is that he used to be a dancer. A very good one, in fact. Check it:

Woah?! That’s like a Magic Mike with clothes kind of performance. That makes him cool, but it doesn’t exactly erase my perception of Jason as an idiot. But the glasses here? They help a lot, plus the fact that Manny Jacinto doesn’t actually talk like Jason.

He can also go dark, as he did in a Canadian show, The Romeo Section.

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OK! Now I’m beginning to see the allure. I get it. I get. IS there some Pajiba 10 material here … oh wait. He was in Lifetime’s The Unauthorized Saved By The Bell Story?

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OK, well then, nevermind.