Superstore: Rebranding – Iceman (Review)

Things were on a somewhat lighter note after Amy’s confession to Glenn that her home life was dire with Adam living in the basement in the previous episode. However, the overall plot point in Superstore this week moved Jonah one step closer to being on even footing with Amy.

“Rebranding” allowed for some brilliant comic moments and poked even more fun at Jonah, aka Iceman, via the reunion with an old classmate.

Cloud 9 are going through a retail facelift of sorts and changing their image and logo. The Halo is out the door, as is the old murderous and cannibalistic mascot, and all the old products with the halo logo have been massively discounted.

(A great bit of comedy starts at the very beginning when corporate spokesman Jeff reveals the store’s new mascot; a blonde, very white bread female. Cheyenne points out that with the new logo of Super Cloud they could have had a super hero – with a cape – as the mascot who would help customers reap “super” savings. Jeff’s reaction was priceless.)

Jeff brings the Rex the Vice President of Cloud 9 to the store and he is an old classmate of Jonah’s. He calls Jonah Iceman and then shows some video footage of a presentation that Iceman did in college.

Meanwhile, Jeff gets a tad rough with Dina because of the stress of the rebrand. She reacts by picking on a member of staff. Later, after Jeff learns from Mateo that she called him an asshat, the corporate staffer tells her off. Dina’s rage meter reaches Hulk-like proportions and she punches the white bread mascot poster in the face.

Mateo is terrified that Dina will find out so he tells the assistant manager that Sandra ratted her out. He qualifies his accusation by telling Dina that Sandra and Jeff are having an affair. Mateo suggests freezing Sandra out but Dina cannot remain silent and accosts Sandra in the break room.

Sandra confesses and begins spinning a long yarn of all the naughty things that she and Jeff have gotten up to. Mateo is dumbstruck, initially and later gets angry about the whole thing. Dina goes from being angry at Sandra to somewhat, begrudgingly, impressed.

The Cloud 9 VP  (Played brilliantly by Ravi Patel) reminds Jonah that he can still come back and finish his degree. Amy and Garrett poke fun at Jonah and suggest he leave while Glenn tries to get him to stay.

Jonah and Amy get into an argument about how their situations are the same. Jonah maintains that they are in the same boat.  She argues that Jonah can get out anytime he likes. To prove that they are both in the same place he calls the college to cancel his deferment.

He learns that it actually ran out a month previously. Panicking he tries to get it reinstated. Jonah then  tells Amy he was bluffing, he never really meant to cancel it, but now has no choice to return. Jonah is now trapped just like Amy is. Glenn is, needless to say, overjoyed.

Amy and Jonah sit together outside Cloud 9 cold drinking coffee at the end of the episode. Glenn cannot contain his glee and the VP who started it all mentions the deferment and that he and Iceman will have drinks the next time he is in town.

Superstore “Rebranding” gave some of the “other” players a chance to shine. Cheyenne’s jealous hoarding of baby sales items, which were all taken back by another Cloud 9 employee was brilliantly spot on. Just as when she goes to look in the “back” for more sales items for a late customer.

After all her stress and self induced heartache over losing out on the sales items, she finds a warehouse stacked to the ceiling with sales items. Hysterically she returns and triumphantly tells the customer that no, there is nothing left in the back.

Kaliko Kauahi rocks it as Sandra, milking the comedy with delivering outlandish stories of Jeff’s debauchery and her willing responses. “He told me to take out my taters…and I did.” Her storyline was brilliantly funny as was her proving the lie true by touching Jeff’s nose.

“Rebranding” was penned by Superstore creator Justin Spitzer and he proved that there is still plenty of comedy magic in that instrument. It seems fair to say that each episode manages to outdo the one before. This was a sidesplitting installment full stop.

Superstore airs Thursdays on NBC and is one of the best comedy shows the network has to offer.

Cast:

• America Ferrera  –  Amy
• Ben Feldman  –  Jonah
• Lauren Ash  –  Dina
• Colton Dunn  –  Garrett
• Mark McKinney  –  Glenn
• Nichole Bloom  –  Cheyenne
• Nico Santos  –  Mateo
• Kaliko Kauahi  –  Sandra
• Josh Lawson  –  Tate
• Linda Porter  –  Myrtle
• Michael Bunin  –  Jeff