Does Superstore get any better?

[Dusty Substance]

Superstore landed on Netflix fairly recently. I liked the premise of the show (apart from Tripper's/Slinger's Day, has there been any other sitcoms set in a fictional supermarket?), so I made a start but I'm currently halfway through episode five and there's not a great deal to like.

Cookie-cutter comedy characters, too many sarcastic quips and not enough jokes. I'm glad they didn't opt for the Parks & Rec/The Office mockumentary style, with direct to camera interviews.

The first seasons of both Parks & Rec and The Office weren't that great but, by seasons three or four, they both became classics, so I know these types of shows need time to grow but the 7.8 rating on IMDB isn't looking promising.

Anyone else seen it? Does it get better?

[Icehaven]

I knew the premise and I watched a few episodes from later series (airing recently on ITV3 or E4) purely because I chanced across them in the middle of the night and Mark McKinney from Kids In The Hall is in it, but I wasn't that enamoured. I don't know the characters or what's happened in previous series though so I might be being unfair. 

[Blumf]

Dipped into it occasionally on TV, it's just fine, an average workplace sitcom. What seem to be the main characters (America Ferrera and Ben Feldman, both producers) aren't amazing, side chars have more scope.

A previous thread:
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=57794.0

[Andy147]

Superstore landed on Netflix fairly recently. I liked the premise of the show (apart from Tripper's/Slinger's Day, has there been any other sitcoms set in a fictional supermarket?)

Trollied on Sky One a few years ago.

[veletision]

It's fine. Not bad. Not great.

Grand for sticking on in the background while you're doing something else.

[mippy]

I really like it - the best part of each episode for me are the "staff meetings" where the characters play off each other.

I can't rememver exactly when in the series it starts, but it starts to touch on employment rights/unionisation quite a bit which was when it started to get really interesting for me.

[NoOffenceLynn]

Yep, Superstore is really good writing

[neveragain]

Beyond the premise, there are enough similarities in characters to make me think it's a rip from Trollied.

[olliebean]

Trollied on Sky One a few years ago.

Which, btw, is fairly transparently the inspiration for Superstore.

[Brundle-Fly]

Insert obvious joke about the Five Star live phone-in here.

[Cuellar]

It's fine. Not bad. Not great.

Grand for sticking on in the background while you're doing something else.

Yeah, it's fine. It's one of those sort of 'nothing' shows like The Office and Parks and Rec. It's there, and it keeps going, and the characters are all sort of the same.

[Tokyo van Ramming]

I was interested in this because Johnny Pemberton's in it but the yawns far outweighed the go ons. McKinney's turn was a bit of a cringe. I didn't make it through the first season.

Yeah, it's fine. It's one of those sort of 'nothing' shows like The Office and Parks and Rec. It's there, and it keeps going, and the characters are all sort of the same.

The first nine episodes of both of those shows made me laugh a lot more than the first nine episodes of Superstore did, and compelled me to stick with them.

[McChesney Duntz]

has there been any other sitcoms set in a fictional supermarket?

OF COURSE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqRVIAfIhMQ

[Jockice]

Just wait till Matt Bianco are guests.

[NoOffenceLynn]

The first season is introducing you to the setting/characters and is a bit bland.
But it does pick up after that.

The Dina Character just gets better and better, doesn't surprise me that she is an award winning comic actress. She delivers her lines with perfect panfaced timing.

I've boxed it off as a bit of comedy (that l haven't seen before) and watch a few before bed, to flush out the madness that we've all been going through lately.
Not something l'd revist in the future but does the job for now, kinda.

[Mr_Simnock]

I will never ever forget watching this episode

[thecuriousorange]

It hasn't made me laugh yet but it's also not actively annoying.

[Dusty Substance]

It's fine. Not bad. Not great.

Grand for sticking on in the background while you're doing something else.

It hasn't made me laugh yet but it's also not actively annoying.

Cheers for the replies, everyone. I'll probably continue to stick with it as something to watch with lunch.

Absolutely can not get over that picture of the character of Dina posted by Mr. Simnock.

Probably one for 020210us Th1ngs, but I only just twigged that it's Ugly Betty playing Amy.

[phantom_power]

I really like it - the best part of each episode for me are the "staff meetings" where the characters play off each other.

I can't rememver exactly when in the series it starts, but it starts to touch on employment rights/unionisation quite a bit which was when it started to get really interesting for me.

Yeah I like the staff meetings where the right-on characters try to educate the others and it all goes tits and they end up putting across the opposite message, like the men's rights episode

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Due to the lockdown, I've watched the first season on Prime Video. The unionization gets to the front during the finale, when Cheyenne has her kid.

So far, it's been mostly a lesser version of The Office (Justin Spitzer was a writer for the show), compared to its golden years, with interesting variations.
Jonah is a mixture between Ryan and Jim (when Ryan was just the new guy and the audience surrogate, before they realized they hadn't found anything to do with him and sent him to corporate for a change).
Dina, as the tomboy, is very reminiscent of the tougher side of Dwight.
Mateo is overly competitive like Dwight, but also shares a lot with Oscar and even Kelly.
Garrett, as the sarcastic voice of reason, shares a lot with Darryl and Jim.
And Glenn, as the boss, is a less irritating take on Michael Scott, with some Angela added in the mix.
But it's not uncommon to have shows where there's a lot of shared DNA. At its beginning, Brooklyn Nine-Nine looked a lot like Parks and Recreation set in a precinct, for instance. But the shows developed into something different.

That's also a major difference with the US version of The Office. Almost every character here turns out to be a decent fellow, and the show doesn't rely as much on the cringe factor for comedy. Glenn can be played for laughs, but he's not the boss from hell, he's mostly quirky, with an annoying voice and a lot of insecurities that can get embarrassing, but also competent and considerate.

So it will be interesting to see how it changes during the next three seasons (Prime Video still hasn't added series 5 and 6).

[Mobius]

I like the show. It's nothing amazing but easy to watch with likeable characters, and some really funny bits mixed in with standard sitcom tropes. It just has a nice vibe I think, not overly dark or edgy or anything....

[timebug]

I find the bits that make me laugh most,are the short cut scenes of the cusomers doing something insane in the aisles!

[Mr_Simnock]

I find the bits that make me laugh most,are the short cut scenes of the cusomers doing something insane in the aisles!

I love these too, I do wonder if most of them are actually what staff writers have seen IRL or they have snaffled them from wallmart (and it's ilk) workers forums\facebook etc.

[Icehaven]

Just watching this on Netflix (uk) and the order seems ballsed up. The first episode of series 2 is clearly from somewhere in the middle of series 1, then ep2 is the direct follow on from the end of series 1. Anyway other than that it's alright, although Mark McKinney was part of the reason I gave it a go his character is quite annoying.

Edit: just looked it up, S02E01 is a special that was broadcast between the first and second series. Doesn't make sense when they've stuck it on Netflix though.

[paruses]

Pretty much in agreement with all the posts. I started on this on Netflix a couple of weeks ago (having seen odd bits on TV before). Am now getting towards the end of S5 which means I've binged almost a hundred episodes. That's more because of boredom and very little work to do. It's been mostly active watching but also passive background stuff.

A good thing about watching something of this volume in this amount of time is you really get a feel for things going off the boil, coming back up, and what the writers might feel does and doesn't work.

Amy and Adam are the Jim and Pam and by now are the most boring. I think their peak was in S2. The will-they-wont-they took much more of a back seat than Jim and Pam which gives the characters more scope.

The ensemble cast is better although I haven't got into Mark McKinney's manager character. Personally I disklike that squeaky-voiced man-child character that seems to crop up often in American things. His character gets better but peaks and by this point he is heading well towards being mentally challenged. Best characters are Mateo, Dinah, Cheyenne, and Markus. Sandra is good but overused after a couple of seasons.

There is a darker side to this but they waste it. The union stuff, healthcare commentary, corporatism, immigration all get a but it always seems frustratingly pushed back into the background. The ICE raid at the end of S4(?) is quite moving but gets half-resolved and back to laughs within a few episodes.

There also seems to be quite a lot of bullying in it which leaves a bit of a sour taste - it's clearly done for laughs but seems mean rather than constructive and well structured.

I haven't watched the Olympics episode that Netflix stick jarringly into the start of S2 - weird choice.

So in answer to the OP question - yes it gets better, I would say. Then just gets a bit bland for the second half of its life. Did you stick with it?

[Icehaven]

Apparently America Ferrera wanted to leave at the end of S5, but the last episode was never filmed because of Covid, then she decided to stay for another series anyway (which has been made and aired but I haven't seen it yet as it's not on Netflix.) Worked out pretty well for her then seeing as

Spoiler alert

she'd been written out. Be interesting to see how they u-turn her departure. Actually no it won't, it'll probably just be the usual "I can't leave you guys, I'm staying!!".

[close]

[veletision]

Spoiler alert

Nah, she's gone until the last 2 eps iirc

[close]

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Just for the record, Justin Spitzer's follow-up show to Superstore, American Auto, has just premiered in the US, with a sneak preview of two episodes.
It is actually a project he had offered to NBC just after The Office and they went with Superstore instead.

The show stars Ana Gasteyer, as the newly appointed head of a major car company, Jon Barinholz, as the heir to the founding family (he basically plays the same doofus as in Superstore, but with much more white privilege) and Humphrey Ker, as the tall British lawyer.

So far, none of the characters are remotely enjoyable (apart from the factory worker promoted to corporate, who's just blank). There's an Aussie who's the head of PR, and she basically plays a toned down version of Amy Brookheimer from Veep. It's supposed to be a company with 15,000 employees and the entire executive team is made of five people who know nothing about cars (like the new CEO) or who make huge mistakes with every decision.

But the reason I'm sharing this is that the second episode is an astounding train wreck. The writers go with a serial killer plot line. The guys skins his victims alive, which is mined for laughs within the limitations of a US network program. The company is asked to comply with an FBI request, as the killer drives a white van they made, and there are GPS data that can be accessed to track him down.
And when the company tries to do damage control by offering the same van to the widow of one of the victims, there's a twist, because the victim was an homophobic pastor and the widow uses the opportunity to push their agenda to the press.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Wow...

This is a convenient coincidence, as I just started watching Superstore. I thought it started off really well, with a very strong cast of characters (although the two leads are a bit bland). I'm halfway through rewatching Community and I'd say they're neck and neck in terms of laughs.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Superstore had some darker undertones, like a few creepy employees, the guy who was found mummified inside the walls after the storm and even a serial killer who cut feet. Just like The Office had at one point the Scranton serial strangler. But the shows never tried to have a main plot line for an episode about a serial killer who skins his victims alive and to sugar coat it with the expected goofiness from a sitcom.

Superstore was nothing Earth-shattering but solid and most of the time funny. And a lot of stuff there rang true, especially the bit where the employees assume that Carol is a tech expert, as she's a contrarian who uses Android, and they notice that all their group conversations turn green because of her. When you're on iPhone and you discuss with other people also on iPhone, it's quite irritating, because you're no longer on iMessages and you don't have the feedback associated with them, as you just send plain SMSs to everybody.