NBC’s Superstore is a big, big miss. Sure, the show is trying to pull off what its grand predecessors The Office and Parks & Recreation accomplished: introduce the audience to a familiar setting, throw in a quirky-yet-lovable cast of characters, dream up some misadventures, and then see what shakes loose. But what we’ve gotten are flat characters, wooden plot points, and an uninspired story arc too afraid to take a genuine chance in trying something fresh and insightful.
Our setting is the superstore Cloud 9, a Walmart-inspired big-box retailer where its employees toil away eight hours a day for borderline minimum wage. The audience’s Cloud 9 proxy is Amy (played by America Ferrara of Ugly Betty fame) and she’s exactly what you’d expect. She’s pretty, sharp as a whip, and knows how to do her job well despite the daily obstacles of hassling customers and corporate red tape. At the show’s beginning she’s mentoring the fresh hire Jonah, played by Ben Feldman (the very memorable Michael Ginsberg from AMC’s Mad Men.)
Here’s the problem: Amy and Jonah are both completely likable and attractive. But are they too likable and attractive? I think so — they’ve been completely sterilized of any authenticity. The few flaws they do have are woefully contrived; it’s too apparent everything’s been cooked up in a writers’ room.
The supporting cast doesn’t offer much help. Glenn (Mark McKinney) is the bumbling, hardcore Christian acting as store manager, whereas Garrett (Colton Dunn) is the smartass intercom operator. Let’s not forget Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom), the airhead cashier who is a few months pregnant. A note on Cheyenne: she’s the show’s attempt at satirizing our perception of superstore employees… but it’s a lazy attempt. Sure, she’s showing off a baby bump and has plenty of cheap makeup caked on her face, but she’s still a well-put together character for television. There’s no believability in her role at all.
Nico Santos plays Mateo, the token effeminate guy I guess we’re supposed to find funny — I just find him annoying. Lauren Ash, bless her heart, is the best part of the show. She’s the butch Human Resources manager with a hardnosed passion for her job and a rough-and-tumble eye for Jonah. She’s clearly channeling Melissa McCarthy in her performance, and it works well. She’s the highlight of the show, despite the material she has to work with.
Superstore relies on the Cloud 9 store solely as a backdrop — and that’s exactly the problem. When the veneer of the show’s marketing campaign is stripped away, all we have is a rudimentary, boilerplate sitcom. Didn’t the show’s creator and executive producer, Justin Spitzer, take away any lessons from his time working on The Office? The Dunder Mifflin office in Scranton, PA, was itself a character in The Office, animated by the invisible mockumentary film crew. It was bland and depressing with its low ceilings, fluorescent lighting, cluttered supply shelves, and dry erase boards. Translation: it was an authentic office. But Cloud 9 is too clean and too perfect to be believable.
I take personal umbrage with the show because of my own experience working in a big-box retailer during college, all of which inspired the memoir I’m publishing in the next couple of months. And what did I learn from both working in a superstore and then writing a book about it? Customer interactions are the core of all humor to be found in a big-box retailer. Yes, there are some People of Walmart-inspired blips that occur in the show, but nothing substantial. Did anyone even bother cracking open Nickel & Dimed?
So far, seven of this season’s 11 episodes have aired. Maybe Superstore will liven up toward the end of the season, but I’m doubtful. It seems like it’s already set in its failing sitcom ways. If it weren’t for Lauren Ash’s performance, the show wouldn’t be worth watching at all.
And if you’re a fan of Superstore, you should check out my memoir, Bigmart Confidential, which is all about working at a big-box retailer. Learn more about the book here.
