Tag: America Ferrera

Superstore: Rebranding – Iceman (Review)

Superstore - Season 2

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:

Superstore: Lost and Found – Amy and Jonah? (Review)

Superstore - Season 2

Superstore “Lost and Found” starts the second half of the season with news that Amy and Adam are not doing well at all. Adam is living in the basement. This clearly leaves an opening for the “Will they, won’t they” thing between Jonah and Amy to develop over a few more episodes.

The character dynamic between the two has always been hot, hot, hot. Their chemistry and the dislike at first sight reaction of Amy to the new guy signaled the possibility of an office romance from the very first episode.

“Lost and Found” followed up the Garrett and Dina hook up over the holidays and it seems almost preordained that these two “opposites” will end up being an item for quite some time. Although Garrett bellowing insults at Dina in the middle of the store means that this couple will be tempestuous at best.

Superstore had the Cloud 9 employees “lost and found diving” to help meet the corporate ruling that the bin had to be cleared by the end of the year.  The items picked ran from a pair of old dentures, to a ratty looking wig.

In-between these, was Mateo’s plucking out a pair of cargo shorts and Amy’s collecting a leather men’s jacket. The two trade, after Mateo pushes the point. Later, Jonah models the shorts for Amy and starts pulling items out of the pockets.

These included a weed “butt,” some escort cards, a receipt for an Arizona ice tea and a wad of cash. Jonah hands the money to Amy and tries to talk her into spending the find on herself. The first thing she does is give $90 to Cheyenne for disposable diapers.

The new mother then tells the rest of the Cloud 9 employees about the money and they all help Amy to spend the rest of her find on the break room.

Glenn tries to cheer his employees up after Dina reads off a letter from corporate about depression.  He then asks the pharmacist about it and Tate reveals that a lot of employees are on antidepressants. “Mostly the uggos,” he says.  Glenn works hard to get his workers to laugh.

Sandra realizes that she remembers selling an Arizona ice tea to a man in cargo pants and she tracks him down.  She brings the man in and he proves that the $900 belongs to him and Amy has to give the money back.

Later, while she is returning all the items bought with the money, Glenn comes in. He is now depressed because his plan to cheer everyone up failed. Amy reveals that Adam is living in their basement and that her marriage is in real trouble.

Glenn invites her to talk to him about her problems.

Apart from show creator Justin Spitzer setting up a possible Jonah and Amy romance, this episode brought back the “old favorites” that fans adore. The weird, or just funny, customer interactions included two mother inadvertently switching kids. 

The smarmy pharmacist Tate returns to prove once again that he is the Donald Trump of Cloud 9; a self-absorbed narcissist who is full of his own self-importance. The scene where he books the massage chair for the entire day is brilliant.

This season of Superstore may not end with a Jonah and Amy romance but it is clearly headed that way.  The Garrett and Dina “ships in the night” romance may turn out to be funnier than the Amy/Jonah storyline and one can only hope that this runs for a while longer.

Superstore airs Thursdays on NBC. Tune in for the comedic duo of Ben Feldman and America Ferrera and stay for the ensemble that kick arse every single week.  (Sandra and Myrtle are both becoming solid members of that ensemble and each bring something to the show. Well done for giving them more to do.)

Cast:

Superstore: Seasonal Help and Black Friday – Poisoned (Review)

Superstore - Season 2

Superstore dished up a double helping of box store comedy with an hour long back-to-back look at holiday shopping. First up was “Seasonal Help” followed by “Black Friday.” The first episode was all about new temporary employees for the season and Amy’s husband working at Cloud 9. The second was about food poisoning and dealing with the seasonal surge of customers.

These two episode’s managed to combine a comic look at the unsung heroes who work in retail at the worst time of the year with a more personal glimpse at Amy’s home-life. It also shows the lengths that some Cloud 9 employees will go to win a bet…

“Seasonal Help” sees  Adam get hired as a temp after Jonah suggests he apply.  While this is funny, this episode serves a dual purpose of showing the cracks in Amy’s marriage.  It also shows that Jonah may have a gambling problem.

Cloud 9 hires a lot of extra staff and after a few quit within moments of being hired Garrett and Dina start betting on which temporary employee will quit next.  They invite Jonah to take part and when he wins, he goes over the top and starts a pool where every temp is bet on.

Jonah pushes his favorite to quit and the battle begins in earnest as all the full time Cloud 9 employees try to force the new hires to leave. Jonah wins but then feels bad when he learns all the temps are “Last Chance” people from Glenn’s church.

Superstore - Season 2
Jonah feeling guilty.

He then takes the money he won on the pool to Issac; the temp whose quitting allowed him to win. As he walks away he hears the man ask how much crystal he can get for $200.

Glenn has problems getting a “Santa” for the store. It becomes harder when he explains that the position is not paid.  Amy tries too hard to prove that her marriage is okay by having sex with Adam at work and the stage is set for “Black Friday.”

“Black Friday” begins with all the staff taking part in a pot-luck meal in the break area before opening the store.  Glenn offers a motivational speech and the customers break the door in.

Glenn is taking some pain medication that his wife had left over, for stress, and gets high. Amy gets nauseous and fears that her “office sex” with Adam has resulted in a pregnancy.  She gets a test kit from the pharmacy just as Jonah arrives with his video camera. He has been filming his first Black Friday experience.

Amy is not pregnant, it is food poisoning from the pot luck meal.  All the Cloud 9 staff have been affected and they are lining up for the toilet. Garret and Dina go to war over her ordering him to  man a till.  This feud continues throughout the episode and has an amazing result:

Both these  Superstore episodes were funny but the second, “Black  Friday” allowed Mark McKinney to steal the thunder from everyone in terms of broad comedy. His character, who is feeling no pain. swears at everyone in the break room.

He then goes on to drive a forklift through Cloud 9 to chase customers out at closing. The highlight of the episode was when normally good natured Glenn runs down a child’s doll. When the child’s mother points out “You accidentally crushed my little girl’s doll.” Glenn answers, “Not an accident.”

Just brilliant.

Superstore - Season 2
Not an accident.

There were a number of comic highlights, as shown in the above video clips.  Curiously enough, Mateo and Cheyenne have bonded, mainly over their larcenous approach to Black Friday and these two seem to be heading to BFF territory.

However, the biggest and most interesting thing about these two episodes is the Amy and Jonah story line.

Clearly Amy is now seriously questioning her marriage. The Jonah and Amy dynamic has moved up a notch or two so it will be very interesting to see where these two characters end up.

The Garrett and Dina “hook-up” was not a total surprise after the Halloween episode. Garrett was very impressed by Dina’s cop outfit and those “Boobs man.”  Looks like Cloud 9 may have to stock up on breath mints before Christmas…

Superstore airs Thursdays on NBC.

Cast:

Guest starring Ryan Gaul as Adam and Steve Agee as Isaac.

Superstore: Election Day (Recap/Review)

Superstore - Season 2

After last week’s Halloween filled antics, and Dina as a dominatrix cop, Superstore shifts into high gear for the upcoming Election day. This episode focuses on Dina and Glenn, allowing them to become the comic highlight of the show.

Mateo tries to keep his illegal alien status a secret, although he does confide in Cheyenne. His confession does not get quite the reception he was hoping for as she thought he was going to talk about Jeff.

Amy is shocked and thrown completely off course when she meets Naomi, the new woman in Jonah’s life.  Her reaction, after she and Jonah actually start bonding and really loosening up with one another is priceless.

The reason the two are getting on so well is down to their combined effort to produce an election pamphlet to combat the one Cloud 9 have been pushing.   Amy and Jonah are so pleased at the response to the “truthful” pamphlet that they are not, for once, arguing about everything. They are actually laughing and joking during their break together.

In comes Naomi who says Jonah was going to help her pick out towels. (Things must be going well for the couple.) There are awkward introductions and Amy becomes flustered. She later replaces Jonah on pamphlet duty and has Marcus help her instead.

Superstore - Season 2

The bickering between Dina and Glenn reaches epic proportions. Their stubborn refusal to back down leads to the two becoming reluctant co-horts in crime.  While bringing out coffee for Syd and Dorothy, they manage to spill the stuff into a ballot box.

They quickly grab the box and start drying out the coffee drenched ballots. Glenn turns on a fan to hurry up the process and the 53 wet ballots go flying out the window. Both Glenn and Dina are now convinced that they are in serious trouble.

Mateo cannot vote, since he is an illegal alien, and tries to get a badge that says “I Voted.” He tries repeatedly to get one from the booth, but Dorothy guards them like they were gold. Later, she is shown handing them out to children.

Cheyenne makes him a badge but he does not appreciate the  gesture. Toward the end of the episode, after he tries to grab a badge from the dumpster, he buys Garrett’s. He proudly shows it off and no one cares.

Glenn tries to get Dina to incriminate herself by taping a conversation about the missing ballots. She does not cooperate and tries to incriminate him.

Meanwhile, Syd and Dorothy talk about the 53 missing  ballots and Syd laughs. “Jeez, that’s way down from last time.

The episode ends with Glenn and Dina shouting over one another while he holds the recorder.  “Election Day” was a funny episode that allowed Amy and Jonah to take a backseat to the proceedings.

Mark McKinney and Lauren Ash were brilliant in this episode by taking their bickering work relationship up a few notches.  The pay off was the two having to work together (Politics really does make strange bedfellows…) to keep from going to prison.

Amy and Jonah’s working relationship took a tumble and it will be interesting to see how they interact after the appearance of Naomi.  In terms of comedy some of Superstore‘s highlights are down to these two working together.

Speaking of highlights, there were several in this episode.  The “Brooklyn-ese” that Jonah uses to get the dock workers to vote for the right guy was funny. Even funnier was Amy’s telling him that not every dock worker comes from Brooklyn. Then the guy Jonah is talking to responds with a “Deze and Doze,” accent. Brilliant.

Later, just before Naomi enters the picture, Amy and Jonah are talking to each other in the Brooklyn accent. It was a splendid moment as the chemistry between these two is spot on.

Other highlight’s included the mice giving birth in the jalapeño cheese dip and the customer vignettes were spot on this week as well. The grown up “aisle hog” (Jimmy Johnson) running the kid in the tiny car into an end cap was very funny.

Superstore - Season 2
Jimmie Johnson “Competition R Us.”

Superstore is brilliant fun. Exploring the inner workings of a Box Store, aka Walmart, and the people who work there.

The series airs Thursdays on NBC. Tune and catch the comedy.

Cast:

Guest starring  Edward James Gage as Syd,  Jayne Taini as Dorothy, Azie Tesfai as Naomi and Jimmy Johnson as himself.

Superstore: Dog Adoption Day – Volunteering (Recap/Review)

Superstore - Season 2

Superstore “Dog Adoption Day” is not quite as funny as the previous  dare episode. Every time Jonah and Amy are paired up the comedy goes off the chain. This week Mateo and Jonah work together and it is not quite the same.

Amy supports Cheyenne and Glem, aka Glenn helps out Bo. The young couple are having issues while living in Cheyenne’s mother’s basement.  Jonah and Mateo volunteer at the early morning meeting and end up running the Adopt a Dog shelter scheme for the day.

Cheyenne and Bo have a massive argument in the store and throw bags of potato chips  all over the aisle. Amy and Glenn try to help the young couple. Cheyenne thinks that she and Bo should hurry up and get married. Amy is horrified at the thought and Glenn tells Bo that his church can do the wedding.

Amy suggests that Bo may not be the best fit for Cheyenne. Glenn tempts Cheyenne’s boyfriend with a house rental. Both Amy and Glenn are disturbed by the young couple’s thought process.

Glenn ends up cosigning the rental agreement and Amy learns that Cheyenne’s other romantic choice is her former middle-aged school teacher, Cole. Bo returns and starts fighting with Cole who is also his former teacher. Customers rush to record the scrap while Glenn yells that there is nothing to see.

Jonah and Mateo manage to get every dog adopted by working together. The shelter lady, Lydia, is upset as this means the euthanizing expert will not be showing up (they are dating.) Sondra comes in and finds all the dogs gone. She asks, “Were they cuddly?”

Both men are horrified to see Sondra is covered with hornet stings.

Garrett takes on Dina over an argument about the time clock. Garrett forgot to clock in and Dina refuses to alter the time sheet. She is, says Dina, just following the rules.

Throughout the rest of the shift, Garrett shadows Dina’s every move and he stops each potential violation of the Cloud 9 rules.  By the end of the day Garrett has won this particular battle. Dina threatens retaliation.

Jeff, Mateo’s “love interest” was not in this episode and no mention was made of the middle manager. There were no “store customer gags” in this episode either. “Dog Adoption Day” focussed on the employees and there were no sight gags of customers doing odd things.

Comic Highlights:

Glenn doing Batman, The Joker and Bane and Bo’s reaction to the last impression, yo.

Amy learning that Bo thinks she is a poser and her reaction. “Bo’s a poser.” So Napoleon Dynamite.

Seymour, George Clooney and Bo taking the last of the dogs.

Glenn realizing that he made a big mistake cosigning for Bo.

Sondra volunteering and getting hornet’s nest removal detail.

Sondra coming in from her detail covered in stings and Mateo and Jonah’s reaction to her.

Finally:

Kudos to Nichole Bloom and Johnny Pemberton (so different here from his Son of Zorn character) for knocking it out of the park this episode. Bloom, when she is given the chance rocks her character comically. She and Pemberton are so good at being bad for each other.

Superstore managed once again to make a social statement, this time about adopting dogs, and did it well.  Jonah’s statement about people spending so much on pets when millions of children are staving was spot on. (As was his co-workers’ reactions to his non-attachment to dogs.)

The series airs Thursdays on NBC. Tune in and catch the thinly veiled Walmart humor…

Cast:

 

Guest starring Kevin Kirkpatrick as Cole