With the help of guest Mira Lamson Klein, we discuss the pilot episode of Superstore, from the creative means used to make a two-aisle set resemble a full store, to the variety of real-world labor and discrimination issues covered in this show, to Amy and Jonah's status as the best sitcom slow-burn of all. Subscribe to our newsletter at itsinmyqueue.substack.com. Find us on Twitter: @inmyqueuepod • @adinaterrific • @karaaa_powell And Instagram: @inmyqueuepod or send comments, questions, and show suggestions to us at itsinmyqueuepod@gmail.com!
With the help of guest Mira Lamson Klein, we discuss the pilot episode of Superstore, from the creative means used to make a two-aisle set resemble a full store, to the variety of real-world labor and discrimination issues covered in this show, to Amy and Jonah's status as the best sitcom slow-burn of all.
[00:00:00]
Kara: Welcome to it's in My Queue, the podcast where we talk about TV pilots. I'm Kara
Adina: and I'm Adina.
Kara: And today we are talking about Superstore.
Adina: This show selection. This show was picked for us by one of our best friends and our guest for today, Mira Lamson Klein.
Mira: Yeah, thanks for having me. I am so excited to be here.
I have been trying to get Kara to watch Superstore for many years. This is all part of the Long Con. I went to college with Kara and Adina. I am an actor, writer, and director. I've got a background in theater and I have a boring day job in arts administration.
Adina: I am so glad that you picked this show for us because I actually, I have seen Superstore, but Kara has not, as we have established.
I really like it. I think it's a fun show. I've only seen it once through and I'm so glad that you suggested that we do it on the podcast because I actually wanted to rewatch it like [00:01:00] now. And so the, the last couple weeks as we had planned this episode, I was like fighting the urge to just start rewatching it.
I was like, no, I should just wait and watch the pilot and not go forward until after that. So after this, I'm probably just gonna keep watching more. 'cause it's a really lovely show. It's just, you know, it's never, it was never the most dominant sitcom. It was never like a number one Emmy winning whatever throughout its run.
But it had six seasons that were all solid and positively received, and at least in my opinion, it never really dropped off in quality. So that is a solid run for a sitcom.
Mira: It's a really solid rewatch. I've rewatched it a bunch. It's like become one of my go-to like comfort shows. I know very much of the name of this podcast in Kara's q but I've really been lobbying hard for it for many years.
'cause I really think you're gonna love it.
Adina: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where like, it's annoying to hear people telling you, oh, you gotta watch this, you're gonna love it. And like, it's annoying to be on the receiving end of that. But Kara, you will love this show and you will love Jonah and [00:02:00] Amy.
They are like, you're gonna love them so soon.
Kara: And I know I will. I know I will. You just, and even, even after watching it, I can't even promise I'm going to continue swiftly. I'm so sorry.
Adina: And that's, that's the thing all of us understand both sides of it.
Mira: It does go both ways. There are plenty of shows that both of you tell me to watch that. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get to it. And then I like put on Superstore again and I'm like, that's fine, I'll just get to it later. So like, guilty here also.
Kara: Yeah. It's like you're not even the only person that's told me that, because I've had like multiple conversations with Taylor who we talked about Buffy with on the podcast and she always tells me that I would like it. And I'm like, yeah, I'll get to it Taylor. I was like, you're not the only person this told me this.
Adina: Well, here's the thing, you'll know when the time is right. Because I actually, I wrote about this in our newsletter like over a year ago about like, you know, the feeling of sometimes you watch a show and you're just not in the mood and you think you hate it, but then you try it again at a different time in your life and then you fall in [00:03:00] Love it.
I think you just know sometimes, like it's not the moment for that show and that's okay. That's why streaming is so nice because you can choose to watch things when you are in the mood. Mm-hmm. So Superstore. Superstore is, in my opinion, I'm editorializing here 'cause we always do that on this podcast.
It is one of the most underrated workplace sitcoms of the recent years. I feel like the 2010s everybody knows there's been a lot of like really good single cam workplace comedies. Typically people think of like the Mike Shore shows, the ones that he created but also worked on like The Office. He didn't create that, but he did work on it.
Parks and Rec Brooklyn Nine nine, mm-hmm. Also 30 Rock, I guess that was not just the 2010s, but you know, that kind of whole genre of shows. If you like those shows, you should try Superstore. It is similar in a lot of ways in terms of the vibe, but it does have a slightly different feel and style of humor.
'cause it was created by a different guy. It was created by [00:04:00] Justin Spitzer who worked on the Office and Scrubs and a few other sitcoms. So definitely had a lot of experience in TV comedy before creating this. But this was the first show that he ran, I believe. He, since since Superstore ended in 2021, he has gone on to create American Auto for NBC as well.
So he's continuing in that field. And yeah, it seems like he just kind of worked in the trenches on other shows and then came through with this one.
Kara: And did American Auto get renewed? I can't remember.
Adina: I, I haven't heard anything. I actually don't know. But
Mira: it's like super. So like I watched the first season of it because I liked Superstore and I liked Justin Spitzer and it feels very much like it's trying to recreate the same formula. But the cast is really good.
Kara: Season two premiers January 24th, 2023.
Adina: Another fun fact about Justin Spitzer, he is married to Jenna Bans who created Good Girls, which we covered on this podcast a while ago. As a result of them being married, there actually [00:05:00] is on Good Girls. There's a plot that involves Cloud Nine.
It doesn't have any crossover of like the characters. 'cause obviously Cloud Nine is a chain and you know, they're not in the same location. But the Cloud Nine superstore does appear in good girls because they're married, which is kind cute. That's so cute. That's honestly, I looked up, I was trying to find like a development process for this show, but it seems like there wasn't anything all that special about it.
It was just like Spitzer wrote and developed. The pilot went through pilot season. It was ordered a series. For NBC. So there you go. The main cast of the show that actually do continue throughout all the seasons with one very small exception. We have America Ferrera as Amy, Ben Feldman as Jonah, Lauren Ash as Dina, Nico Santos as Mateo, Colton Dunn as Garrett, Nichole Sakura as Cheyenne, and Mark McKinney as Glenn.
And so the one exception that I mentioned is in the season six, in the final season, America Ferrera did mostly depart the show as a series regular because she just wanted [00:06:00] to focus on other, other things at that point. But it actually was handled pretty well within the show. It wasn't like, you know, it's always rough when like a sitcom like is losing a major character and then it's like, oh, it's not the same anymore.
But they handled it pretty well and considering it was the final season anyway, it like fit and it flowed and like she was there at the beginning of the season and at the end. So they kind of wrapped things up nicely. But other than that, the cast stays the same. They add a couple characters later on, but.
It stays pretty much the same, which is really nice. That gives it a consistency. Yeah.
Mira: The ensemble really grows. It's one of like the most enjoyable parts of watching the show is that you see these like minor characters who have like one or two lines or one or two throwaway gags suddenly get like subplots and like build relationships.
And then you get that like really big like ensemble comedy energy and it's just, it's really fun to watch it grow and get more ridiculous as the seasons go on.
Adina: Yeah, and another thing I really like about it is that the [00:07:00] ensemble's very diverse. And I don't mean that only in the sense of like, you know, racially, ethnically diverse, but similarly to Community, I think this setting is really smart 'cause you just get a lot of different characters that have like different backgrounds, different life stories, different reasons that brought them to this one place where they're all together. You get to see that a little bit explored even in this pilot. But obviously it gets developed a lot more throughout the show of like, these characters are all very different people.
From, you know, very different lives, but they're all together here working in the same store, and it's really nice to see that. Yeah, I don't know. I just, and they're also just a really, really great cast, really talented people that are also right for these characters. Yeah. The, the premise of the show didn't even say the premise yet, but you probably figured it out.
It's a workplace comedy that takes place in a, in a superstore in like a big box store in the Midwest, but it is very specifically set, you know, in the, the late 2010s. So as big box stores and retail in general [00:08:00] are kind of declining in the real world, they're a little bit past their peak because of online shopping.
And that I feel like, is just a subtle thing that's underneath all of it. That's kind of it for the premise, but it is just really, it's really sweet. It's got a really strong ensemble. It's really fun to watch these characters together. So Winter Premier, the first season got somewhat mixed reviews, but after that, every other season after that was very positively received by critics and fans.
Like I said, it was never the most popular show on air while it was airing, but it was positively received very consistently. And that's not easy to do, honestly for a sitcom. You know, most, a lot of shows have kind of dips, but once they, it took them a little while to kind of get to know all the characters, I think.
But once they did, it became very, very consistent. It's also been praised a lot, you know, from viewers for being a very accurate representation of what working in retail is like. Not only just like the actual stuff with the main characters, but one thing the show does is there's these little kind of bumper [00:09:00] clips in between scenes where it'll just show random customers in the store doing
Mira: so funny. They are, it's just, it's like truly one of the highlights of the show. Yeah. They're just, they get increasingly ridiculous and I think anyone who has worked retail will tell you that. Like Absolutely. They have an equivalent story. Yeah. Yeah. That's the, to people doing just something equally horrifying.
Adina: So it's very much finding kind of the craziness within reality, which makes it very fun. And also as it goes on, it does tackle some pretty major and relevant themes I would say. Like obviously they talk about kind of poor conditions and poor treatment of workers at big retail chains.
A lot of things are not so subtle shots at Walmart in particular. Mm-hmm. As well as other big stores, you know, them not giving benefits, not giving good treatment. Not caring about the safety or wellbeing of their workers
Mira: also being under scheduled so they don't have to give people healthcare or consider [00:10:00] them full-time employees.
Adina: Especially in the last couple of seasons. They, instead of just hinting at it, I feel like a lot of sitcoms would've just hinted at it and kind of like, oh, highlighted those issues, but like, not really said anything. But in the last season, they form a union. They, they like do a labor movement. They, they do form a union, right?
Mira: They do. They do. It's, it happens actually a couple times over the series. They really kind of, I think it's one of the things that's really well done is that it's a show that tackles a lot of like more serious issues without kind of doing like a very special episode about any of them. It's never like heavy handed or forced, always feels like it's coming from like a real perspective.
And so it actually, it starts much earlier than the final season. It's, I think in like season two or three, they begin sort of that like unionization plot and then it, you follow it like through the rest of the show. And then the final season actually is set during the pandemic and it was filmed like they had to rewrite the whole season mm-hmm.
Because of the pandemic. [00:11:00] And it's really, I think, a big swing for a show because you don't think any of us are ready for pandemic media really. But it's, it's like going back and watching a time capsule. Yeah. It's very eerie in like a great way and so interesting to explore, you know, this thing that we all watched happen and heard about happen.
And then see a show that already, like you kind of trust to handle these issues. Mm-hmm. Then like put in there how difficult it was for retail workers. Yeah. During the pandemic and you know, you've got like all the hits of like, you know, people not wanting to wear masks and people coughing at you and people hoarding toilet paper and you have everything and you know, someone like buying everyone beer.
There's a whole subplot about illegal immigrants and people who work in stores who are like from different backgrounds, who are immigrated from different countries. I, there's just a whole bunch of stuff and it's all kind of mixed in. So it, again, you don't get that very special [00:12:00] episode feeling. You get the feeling that it's like these are full, complex people with, from really different backgrounds all coming together in like one location. And the thing that they have in common is their job.
Adina: Yeah. And the thing that I liked about, you know, I, I'm sure a lot of shows probably have done stories about undocumented immigrants, but the thing that I liked about this one is, if I remember correctly, I watched it a couple years ago. It is like really not copaganda
like it was not sympathetic. No. Like they had, like, not even a little bit, there's a plot that involves ICE, but it is like not even a little bit sympathetic. It's probably not as harsh of a condemnation as it could be. It's still network television. It probably pulls some punches that it didn't have to, but it definitely is not like a, you know, it, they didn't come away with the moral of the story being like, well, you should have come the legal way.
Like they didn't pull one of those of like, you know, sometimes you might get treated bad, but you should have done it legally. No it doesn't. Like, it's like, no, this system, no, it's not that.
Mira: And you don't have like a, like a hero lawyer fighting the system, none of [00:13:00] that.
Adina: Yeah, and I'm sure there still are debates that could probably be had about how well it was handled and all of that. And they are definitely very worth having. I don't remember it well enough to say for sure right now, but, and that's also not the scope of this podcast. We're gonna focus on the pilot.
And with regards to the pandemic stuff, that's something again, I've ranted before about shows handling covid badly. Like I think if you're not gonna do it, well just don't include it. Just let your show exist in a universe where it doesn't exist. But this show is honestly, I think one of the best. Shows that did handle it because first of all, they did a good job. Second of all, it's relevant to the world that they had created and the themes of this show because Covid was terrible for retail workers, and I mean, it was terrible for everyone, but it was especially terrible for retail workers and it already fit with the plots and the themes that this show had been developing.
So it would've honestly been weirder if they hadn't have brought it in. That's all we'll say about that. But back in the [00:14:00] pilot, the pilot is very simple. It's just a day at a Cloud Nine store. And what is special and different on this day? The reason the pilot starts on this day is because some new employees are added to the ensemble.
Adina: The pilot episode, this just titled Pilot, it was written by Justin Spitzer, directed by Jordan Fleischer, and it aired November 30th, 2015 on NBC. And the little blurb that came up on Hulu for this pilot is Jonah repeatedly fails to make a good impression on his first day at Cloud Nine Superstore. And I would say that's a pretty accurate summary this episode.
So this episode begins with, we get a handful of establishing shots, first of the exterior of this superstore, Cloud Nine, and then also several different sections within it, kind of customers, employees going about their business. And there's a voiceover from we don't know who this character is yet, but [00:15:00] for those who have seen the show, you will recognize the voice of Garrett.
He is giving this grand speech and he goes, the American Superstore one. Stop shopping for everything you could ever want or need. Do you wanna be thinner? Fatter, happier, sadder. Are you looking for friendship or solitude or even love? And all of this is over specific shots of like, you know, people looking at different products.
And the last bit when he gets to even love, we get a closeup of someone holding an engagement ring. And then we pull out to reveal that this is an interaction between an a customer and an employee who's played by America Ferrera. Her name tag says Ramona. However, that is not actually her name. As we will learn later.
I'm just gonna refer to her as Amy because it's not exactly a spoiler and it'll be clearer. But yeah, her name's Amy and she's helping this customer who's kind of a young guy. He is in like a polo and a chain and he's got kind of a scraggly little mustache [00:16:00] and he's buying a really cheap ring.
Apparently it's just plastic. And he's haggling about like $2 on the price of this ring. And you know, Amy, she is, trying to talk him out of it or whatever, but she makes a sale. He takes the ring and she goes, I hope you and your fiance are happy together. And then once he walks away as she adds and you don't procreate.
So this little interaction, it kind of shows us just like Amy is doing her job, but doesn't seem overly enthusiastic about, you know, she, she has no delusions about her job being exciting, I guess. So right after that she goes and gets the attention of Glen, who is the manager. He's a slightly older white man, maybe in his fifties ish.
She says she needs a mental health break, she's going off. So then we cut to the patio section of the store. And one thing I really liked about this pilot and then I noticed about this pilot was, even though it's entirely set at [00:17:00] the Cloud Nine superstore, it made effective use of like using different funny sections of the store to try and get some sort of variety in the settings.
So like they're in like the outdoors patio section and we've got two characters sitting at a picnic table in the middle of the store. We've got Dina, who's the assistant manager of the store and she is going over some higher forms with Jonah who has really been hired. It's his first day and she goes over the standard stuff and then she says, oh, you didn't, you didn't write if you had a girlfriend or not.
And Jonah's a little confused 'cause he's like, "was that on these forms? I don't think it was." And she starts questioning him like, "no, but you, you could have written it like anything else you want us to know and are you heterosexual at least?" And you, so you start to get the sense of Dina is a bit of an odd person, maybe a little bit weird socially, but
Kara: I also loved him being like, "I don't think you're allowed to ask me that."
Adina: Yeah. That she [00:18:00] just kind of moves on from it. She is, seems a little bit strange and seems pretty overtly interested in him right off the bat. And Jonah is set up as kind of the, the straight man, sorry, pardon the pun. In that scenario he's like, this seems a little weird, but he is excited that it's his first day working at this store.
So then we see Amy is walking by, she's heading off for her break. She's just taken off her little blue vest that they all wear and she sees a customer knock over a huge display of toilet paper. So she stops to like, you know, pick it up and Jonah runs over. He sees her picking it up and he goes, "oh wait, I can help with that. I work here. It's my job." And he is very clearly rushed over 'cause he saw a pretty girl trying to clean something up and he wants to help. And Amy looks at him a little bit confused. And Jonah, before she even says anything, Jonah goes, "oh, I know. I don't seem like the kind of person who'd work in a place like [00:19:00] this."
And I'm sure everybody at home is cringing when he says that. But the unbelievable part is not that he already put his foot in his mouth, but that he continues to put it even farther in his mouth for the next 20 minutes of this show.
Mira: It's also worth noting that like Ben Feldman, he's so fucking good at this like elitist, like straight man thing. He has like a very like clean cut like look, you know, he's like a, like a kind of tiny little white guy, like clean shaven. Like his hair's kind of like slicked back, like, you know, you get the sense that like his type cast is very much like. He plays like an obnoxious professor sometimes.
Kara: It's funny because he played this guy that Mindy dated on the Mindy Project who like was like, like a critic or something and he was super pretentious and she was working really hard to impress him. But as you know, Mindy only speaks in pop culture references and he thought those were [00:20:00] stupid.
Mm-hmm.
Adina: That tracks,
Mira: yeah, I, that's he's like really in his element and he does it really well. You wanna like grab him throughout the whole pilot and be like, just, just sit down and be quiet.
Adina: Yeah. And the other thing that I really like in the dynamic they set up here with Amy and Jonah right off the bat is that she doesn't play around with like giving him benefit of the doubt or like brushing it off. She just immediately starts setting him up to look even stupider. And I love it. So she fully clocks without any hesitation. She knows entirely what he said and what he meant and what he was implying. So she just plays along with it. She goes, oh yeah, like, you seem so intelligent and, and cultured compared to all these other employees.
And she gestures over to an employee of short distance away, a teenage girl, 18, who is very visibly pregnant. Jonah then fires back and he's like, oh, you should be careful 'cause you sound a little bit condescending. And, [00:21:00] and then the the pregnant teen employee runs over, her name's Cheyenne. She runs over and she asks if she can take a break to go to the bathroom and Jonah starts answering, oh, I'm actually not in charge.
It's my first day.
Mira: I love everything about this bit, just because it's like, it says so much about his character, but like in the assumption, he's like, oh, like, yeah, like "I'm a white man. You might think I'm in charge, but like, I'm not in charge."
Adina: Yeah. But then Amy like, Amy actually is the one who's in charge.
Yes. So she then just responds normally. She's like, "yeah, go take a break, it's fine." And that's when Jonah, again, he is pretentious and he is making some terrible assumptions, but he's not like slow. He understands then the mistake that he made, but he doesn't figure out what to say. And then Amy picks up her vest that she had put aside for a second and she says, "oh, be careful. Don't let the other workers here know how much better than them you are. They hate that. Maybe because it sounds condescending." And then she walks [00:22:00] off and Jonah try, he can't recover even a little bit. He falls into the fricking TP display and that's the teaser.
And that first interaction like that is just such a perfect first meeting. It tells you so much about both these characters. It tells you so much about their dynamic. It is so. Cringe from beat to beat. Like that is just a really, really good, a really well structured conversation, I think.
Kara: I liked the whole cold open a lot. I, funnily enough, I knew that her name was Amy, and so I was sitting there looking at her name tag being like, Ramona, Ramona, how do you get Amy out of that?
Because I hadn't gotten the reveal that she just has on a name tag, that's not her name. So I was like sitting there for a while doing that. I like that you get, you meet a few employees here and you do get a decent view of their personality, even if it's [00:23:00] just a quick little thing.
Because like clearly we're focusing on Jonah and Amy, I thought their conversation was good, really well written and they also, they play off of each other super well. So it's like mm-hmm. A very good setup for the beginning. So you're kind of like, you know, who we're interested in. Also, I had another dumb moment also.
I watched this at like, it was like 11 at night when I watched this. I was recovering from listening to an album for the first time, Stream RMS Indigo. But I, so I was sitting there, I was like, damn, why is he saying this to this lady who so clearly works here? And then it didn't click until partway through the conversation.
She was not wearing the vest. I was, I was having a time. I was like, oh yeah, that's why, he really put his foot in his mouth. But it was very funny.
Adina: And the the funniest part though is that he wasn't wearing a vest either. 'cause he literally like, hadn't even started yet. He just like ran from his little hiring form because, Because he just wanted to flirt.
Like that's the, like we see the [00:24:00] rest of the episode. He did not actually wanna help. He does not like doing work and
Mira: it's all, that's one of the things I actually love most about this pilot. And also the premise of this show is like, he is so clearly into her, like right from the get go and it, it kind of follows that like original, that mold of that like early 2010s sitcom.
Like, you know, immediately that like, this is like the couple, this is the, like the goal and it's gonna be like a big journey to get there. But it's not like a secret that he has, at least to the audience. It's not a secret that he has feelings for her, like right away.
Adina: Oh, I think she knows it too.
Mira: Knows like he's in and like you're gonna watch him like fuck it up. But it's gonna be enjoyable.
Adina: I will say this pilot mainly focuses on selling Amy and Jonah's dynamic more so than anything else about the show. But it does a very good job of selling that which, You can only do so much in a half hour pilot, and I think that was like a smart choice.
Kara: I also love, it also does what I love, which is [00:25:00] my favorite part about workplace sitcoms is that, that they don't really work.
It's, it is just vibes and Jonah fits into that super well.
Adina: Oh, so yeah, that's the teaser.
Then we get the little title card when we're back from the teaser, we're in the break room. It's an employee meeting and Dina is giving a spiel about, she'll give a baggy of crystal meth and then a decongestant and basically lectures people about selling Sudafed to tweakers because they use it to make meth.
Funny story, I actually, one time was flagged and turned down from buying Sudafed because I purchased too much of it. No, it was not for me, and no, it was not for a meth dealer. It was when I was a personal assistant. My boss had a sinus infection and demanded insane amounts of Sudafed. So much so that I literally got flagged by the state of California.
Anyway, apparently Cheyenne sold 35 boxes of decongestant to one man, and that's why Dina's giving this [00:26:00] speech. But Garrett then we, this is the first time we really see Garrett, who was the guy on the intercom earlier. He comments, "is anybody else concerned that Dina is just holding up a bag of Crystal meth?"
Kara: It's funny because I didn't think about that until he said it, and then I was like, wait, what?
Adina: No, I would've assumed it was like a fake prop, but with Dina, you never know.
Kara: I was like, I very much believed that she could've had it. Yeah. It like gives off the same vibes as Melissa on Abbott Elementary, when she talks about all the different "guys" she has.
Adina: Yeah, those characters have some stuff in common.
Mira: I think this moment is like a really good intro. It's a better introduction to Dina then that moment. Mm-hmm. From like the cold open, which mm-hmm. I think a bit of a weird introduction to her. But you like, you get that she's intense. I think this is really like her in a character, which is the other thing this pilot does really well.
It's like people have like these one or two lines where it's like, like boom. That's like the whole character. You got it. And I think this is really one of those [00:27:00] moments where you're like, she's like intense. She's making points. She is in charge. And also the point that she's making is very extreme.
Adina: Yeah. And I agree with you. Yeah. This is a much better intro to Dina, like this whole, the gag throughout the pilot of her having this crush on Jonah. It's funny and it works really well for the pilot, but also with the character that she is later on, I, it's so hard to imagine her being attracted to Jonah even for a second.
Mira: Yeah, it's, it's a weird plot line that's like a season one thing that gets abandoned and well,
Adina: like it's funny. It works well for this pilot.
Mira: Yeah. No, it does. And while they're finding the flooding of who Dina is as a character, like you can see the seeds of it here, which is great. And then, you know, as the show goes on, they draw out these moments that are like this with the, with the Sudafed and the, and the meth. The seeds are there, and as they draw it out more, it just, it gets funnier. It gets more ridiculous.
Adina: So meanwhile, while she's ranting, Jonah leans over to Amy, next to him and he's whispering and he, I wrote down, he tries to apologize, but as I [00:28:00] noticed, as the episode went on, he never actually apologized. He said a lot of things trying to justify why he was doing what he was doing. What he never really said, "I'm sorry." He came close, he mouthed, I'm sorry, after he fucked up later. But he never said it out loud. And I'm like, is it that hard, man? Is it that hard? Whatever.
But he says, he's like, "I think it was a misunderstanding. You know, I'm not an elitist." And Amy keeps fucking with him. She's like, "Wow. Wait, elitist, what does that mean?" And he starts trying to explain it before he realizes that she is still messing with him. Meanwhile, Dina hands it over to Glen, who is, he's the actual manager of the store and she's the assistant manager.
First he introduces the two new employees. So he invites 'em to introduce themselves. Jonah stands up first, says some shtick about how he's so happy to be working there. And then we meet the other new employee. His name is Mateo and he is, I am not trying to be offensive in saying this. [00:29:00] He is flamboyant. He also happens to be gay, which if you couldn't tell by looking at him, you find out later on the show. He does a slightly more formal introduction than Jonah even adds a little flair about how he's gonna spread his wings and fly. Then Jonah feels the need to get up again and say, "I would also like to soar and spread my wings."
Mira: I think that that Mateo's introduction is another moment of like, you get everything you need to know about his character. His line is, I'm here to make something of myself. And he's like, he's wearing like a sweater and an Oxford underneath the sweater. Like he looks real, like professional and put together. It's like the whole character is just like right there in front of you.
Kara: It's fun to see this type of character that's like here to make something of themselves. And it's like, you know, just in the little chain store and not them trying to be a big star somewhere. That's his thing. That's what he wants to do. And that's good representation too.
Adina: And then Glenn says something about how, you know, he's sorry, but he can't read from the [00:30:00] Bible anymore at their meetings because somebody complained to corporate and then Dina fully admits that it was her. She reported him to corporate and she's like, "yeah, I'm a Christian too, but you know what my real Bible is? It's the employee code of conduct." And this, this right here perfectly sums up the Glenn and Dina dynamic. Mm-hmm. It tells us. Mm-hmm. He's a Christian, she is conservative, but also cares very much more about the store rules than about anything else. She loves her some rules and she loves undermining Glen.
So that, that, that sums it all up right there.
Kara: I loved their little, like, fight about praying for each other. That was just, that's so shady.
Adina: Then Glenn like welcomes the employees. He plays a film score on his phone. It's the Jurassic Park theme. And then that helps us segue into the next scene.
Kara: I loved that it did like the people on the carts with the Yeah. On the store as if they were the dinosaurs. Yeah. I quite enjoyed that. That had me, me cackling. [00:31:00]
Adina: Yeah. All of my, the slug lines as I was writing the scenes from these, it's like Cloud Nine aisle, yet another aisle. Another aisle.
Mira: It's actually, I, some time ago fell down like a rabbit hole about how they did the set. For this show. 'cause it's really, it's very interesting to like, take us way off topic. But the set, it's like a couple aisles and then mirrors.
Adina: Oh, that's cool.
Mira: Yeah, so if you watch really closely, you can kind of see how it's set up, but it works really well. And so it's like, you know, a couple and they just kind of like switch the products on like the shelving that's really smart to move it to a different aisle rather than like setting up an entire store.
It's also very interesting to think about the products and like product placement as you go through the whole series and like how it's done. It does kind of that same bit that 30 Rock does with Snapple, where it's like, it is kind of canned and it's like, you know, like, oh, like a Snapple fact.
Like what? We're taking sponsors? And you do kind of have the same thing like as. [00:32:00] People go on like through the seasons and sometimes they're like stalking products and it's like very blatant. It works really well.
Adina: Product placement doesn't bother me that much personally, especially when it's not like interrupting the flow of the show.
Mira: Or when a show can wink at it. I mean, you know, 30 Rock community, those are both bits that I adore.
Kara: The most egregious product placement I've ever seen was in a K- drama where the two characters are like, alright, let's go get sandwiches. And they go to Subway and we literally sit there and watch them order the entire sandwich like and apparent and like apparently this happens in like multiple K- dramas, like Subway sponsoring, like a lot of them.
Mira: John Oliver did a whole bit about this. He did like a whole thing about Subway. And then did a whole, you know, he did that thing where he like takes his HBO money and does like a whole like extended bit, which is my favorite thing about him. And produced a K-drama about how subway exploits franchise owners.
It's really excellent. I really recommend YouTubing it. It's great. That's great. [00:33:00] He uses a meatball sub as a metaphor.
Adina: So anyway, back to Cloud Nine, one of our aisles that is also mirrored, so Jonah is walking with Garrett and also I should mention, I didn't mention this earlier, Garrett is a wheelchair user.
Throughout the show it's not really a major plot point, but it is kind of nice to see you don't see series regular characters with disability on screen all that much. Also though, I do wanna note Colton Dunn, who plays him, is not a wheelchair user in real life. And I just, I feel like that is also important to note because, disabled actors should be able to be cast in those roles. There's not very many of them, so they should go to disabled actors, pros and cons.
Anyway, Jonah and Garrett are together. Jonah's asking like if there's any training, no one has trained him at all. He's just been wandering around and Garrett's just like, "yep, that's what we do. Carry a box. You'll look busy."
And he says, "there's only three roles to succeed at this job. Always show up on time, don't steal and stay on the floor supervisor's, good side." And Jonah doesn't know who's the [00:34:00] floor supervisor. So Garrett points and he points at Amy. And Jonah realizes he's very much a deep shit.
So he goes over and again, tries to kind of make things right, but he does not really apologize. He walks over and he says, "let's, let's just restart. Okay, I'm Jonah. You are Ramona," because of, and this is when she says, "no, my name is not Ramona. I just don't like random strangers using my name. Like we're buddies." And I wanna point this out 'cause for Kara and for anyone else who has only watched the pilot this is an ongoing gag for Amy.
She, every single episode, she wears a different name tag and it never says Amy, so it's always a different name. It's kind of funny to spot.
Jonah's first response to that is, "like how hookers don't like to be kissed on the lips." Why is that where your brain went, sir? Oh, he is just, he's the worst, but he's the best.
Mira: He is the best. I just wanna like, real quick, [00:35:00] I do think that I, we shit a lot on Jonah and that's the beauty of Ben Feldman is that he's playing this character who is truly like, I think would be like an absolute jackass if he was played by anyone else. Ben Feldman is just so charming. Yeah. That like, you kind of can't help but like really root for him, especially as the episode goes on. And even though he never says sorry, he does make it right.
Adina: I will say he is a jackass and. He, but he plays it as like an innocent sort of jack-assery. You can actually believe that he doesn't mean anything bad by it.
But I will also say the first time I watched the show, it took me a while to warm up on Jonah. I really did not like him at like, I mean, I found him funny, but I wasn't really on his side at all. At first, I was like, dude, you are so annoying, but he does grow on you over time.
Mira: That's fair. It might, it might just be that rewatching it, it's like I know where it's going and so I've got a soft spot for him.
Yeah. But I think that's the other great thing about it is that he does start in this terrible place and he does also grow. I really love when sitcoms do that [00:36:00] where it's like you've got, you know, your circumstances are kind of the same and you are like throwing different situations at people in the setting, but the setting is more or less always the same.
Mm-hmm. But the characters really grow and evolve as people, which is really nice. It makes it not boring to watch it over like four or five seasons.
Adina: Yeah. And the interesting thing about Jonah is he has good intentions like. He's both relatable and hard to admit that you relate to him. I think for a lot of people, because he has this contradiction, you know, he, he lies to himself about himself. He says, I'm not an elitist, but he is. You know, he doesn't wanna be, but he is. He says that while he is so clearly exhibiting that behavior, and so I think, you know, that's why his arc is fun to watch is because it's watching him like gain self-awareness and, you know, try and become more conscious of
Mira: Yeah, and I mean, everything about putting himself in this setting is like a [00:37:00] challenge to his worldview. And that continues, that's like a larger theme throughout the series also is, you know, this challenge, this challenge to his worldview of like, you know, a certain type of person works a retail job, a certain type of person works in a big box store. I'm not that type of person, but like, he's there anyway. Yeah. Doing that. And it's kind of confronting those two. That perception and that reality and putting those two things together and like challenging his own perception of himself and I, it really does make him a better person, which is why I think everyone should be forced to work a customer service job.
Adina: Yeah. Anyway, Amy, then, you know, she gets bored of making him uncomfortable and making him put his foot in his mouth. So she gives him something real to do. She says, okay, we've gotta do a discount on these electronics. She has little price scanner gun, and she shows him all the buttons and things he has to press. And she says, go around and mark all of these things down by 25%. And while she's explaining it, he's kind of looking at her instead of looking at the price gun. And she calls him out. She's like, "are you listening?" He's like, "yeah, totally." But he was just staring [00:38:00] at her. And then she's like, okay, go do it.
But she gets distracted from making sure he gets it because she sees across the store Cheyenne is being proposed to by the young customer that Amy sold the ring to earlier.
His name is Bo, and it turns out that he is Cheyenne's boyfriend. So she's running over, while she's running over. A customer approaches her and tries to ask her the difference between stool softener and laxatives. And Amy is much more concerned with the proposal. She pulls Cheyenne away, but only like two steps away and basically tries to talk her out of it.
She's like, "you know, just be careful. Just think like before you say yes," and Cheyenne's, like I already said yes. And Amy's like, "no, no, no, reconsider. 'cause you're 18. You know, you just, you might love him now, but you might down the road you might regret this" basically. So and then the laxative lady thinks this is all addressed to her for some reason.
She goes, "okay, I'll, I'll go sleep on it".
Kara: I had a, was the tag [00:39:00] still on in the ring as he was proposing? Because I thought I saw something dangling off of the ring and I probably was, I was like, he didn't even take the tag offs.
Mira: I would, I would believe that. I didn't catch that detail, but that is hilarious.
Adina: Yeah, so this moment definitely works in the moment because like we saw who Bo is earlier and also I would probably generally discourage my 18 year old coworker from getting married to her boyfriend. But you learn later on, not quite in this pilot, but you learn later on that Amy's sort of protectiveness of Cheyenne is not just, I, I think this is not a crazy spoiler to say Amy actually has a daughter, like a 12 or 13 year old daughter that she had mm-hmm. When she was relatively young. Maybe not 18. Do you remember how old she was?
Mira: She's 19 I think.
Adina: 19. Yeah. So she was pretty young when she had her kid and got married and has basically been working at Cloud Nine ever since. And so, you know, her looking at Cheyenne, she is seeing sort of, you [00:40:00] know, a version of herself and her choices.
I just, another thing I really like about this show and the way that it's kind of set completely in the workplace, and it's not as much of a social sit down office workplace is because there are you things about the character's personal lives are very gradually revealed. You know, it's not like they're sitting at a desk. You can see a photo of like their family and all that. And I think it's really interesting how they played with that.
So Amy manages to get Cheyenne to at least like, think about it, you know meanwhile, Jonah is scanning things and he tries to get Amy's attention. He is like, "I think I got it down. I'm, I'm doing great."
Mateo also walks by and he's like, "I'm not gonna praise you, you're my competition, bro." He doesn't say, bro, I don't know why I added that.
But Jonah's tried to wave to Amy to get some praise from her. She's not even looking his direction, but behind him is Dina and she thinks that Jonah's waving at her and gets a little excited. But meanwhile, [00:41:00] Amy is again distracted by an actual thing that's happening in the store, an actual crisis, because she's the floor supervisor, it's her job.
And she notices that a lot of customers are taking electronics and moving kind of hastily to the checkout. So she goes over and checks and asks Jonah to show her what he did to all of those things. And it turns out, instead of marking them down by 25%, he changed the prices to 25 cents on all of the electronics.
And so Amy just screams, "shut it down, shut it all down," and that is the end of act one.
Kara: Ooh. It's a good way to end the act one. I feel like you're, it's like a point of crisis. And this was actually on NBC, so like you had to wait.
Adina: It's been while since commercial break. It's been a while since we did a show that actually aired on network. Mm-hmm. And you could, you could feel those nice solid act breaks. Mm-hmm. Which is nice, nice big crisis. Jonah fucked up big time.
So then we come back and the store is in full crisis. Cheyenne's in the middle of checking somebody out and she [00:42:00] doesn't seem to notice anything's wrong. She's like, oh, "if you sign up for our discount, you could only pay 22 cents today for this tv."
Amy runs over and tells her to stop checking out, and then the next. Bit. It's kind of a bunch of quick cuts as the store is in crisis. Amy runs outside to the parking lot and she's trying to fight with a woman who's loading electronics into her car. She's like, "no, you can't have these."
Mira: My favorite part of that is the woman is like, "you can't touch my car. It's my car." also very accurate to customer service. People just make up whatever rules they want and they're like, this is how it is and if you disagree with me, you're wrong.
Adina: Customer's always right, remember? They can just change reality.
Yeah. Then Garrett's making an announcement over the PA, 'cause he works at like the customer service desk or whatever, so he's usually, he's like the one making the announcements, so he's like, you know, "there's been an error on electronics pricing and we're about to fix it, so stock up quick," because he loves chaos.
Mira: Garrett I think, is super underutilized in this pilot, which is fair because again, there is only so much you can fit in 25 [00:43:00] minutes of, of television. But I think that this is like a nice little connection to the, he does the voiceover at the very top of the show. And it works really well in like the larger context of the show because he is sort of always on the intercom and it does kind of serve like a voiceover narrative function throughout the whole show. And so you get like just a tiny little glimpse of it. And he is also, of course, very sarcastic the whole time he's on the intercom.
Kara: Yeah. I was gonna say, I like his little interjections because they do kind of feel like they're spread out in a purposeful manner. Mm-hmm. And they're like to like, let you know about something while also being he's being himself.
Adina: Yeah. So then we see all the other employees are, you know, struggling to control the situation, stop customers from checking out, and the security guards trying to stop people from leaving. But there's a big brush and then Dina comes out with a fucking rifle and fires a shot at the ceiling and shouts "sale's over!".
So I mean, say what you will about Dina, but she did [00:44:00] control that crowd.
Then we cut to the break room and Glenn's saying there's no need to identify who his fault this was. But it's crazy that he didn't get fired. Yeah, it is crazy, honestly. Probably just 'cause Dina had a crush on him, honestly. Yeah.
Maybe that's why they showed her having a crush on him in the pilot. 'cause otherwise she would've been advocating for firing him.
Mira: Yeah, I agree. I don't think that Glenn would ever do that too. You also don't get much of Glenn in this pilot, but he's another character that really grows and is fantastic and he is just a big old softie. He wants everyone to succeed.
Adina: On the other hand, it's like crises like this do kind of happen every day or do kind of happen a lot to them. So maybe they can't fire everyone who fucks up like that. But Mateo points out, he's like, "oh, is the, is the lesson that we're supposed to learn. Don't let Jonah do anything."
This is the point where Jonah tries to mouth, I'm sorry to Amy, but I'm like, dude, Say it out loud. You have many things you should be sorry for already. Jonah takes this opportunity [00:45:00] to whisper to Garrett and ask if employees are allowed to date supervisors. Which, dude? The audacity, the audacity. Meanwhile, Garrett's like, I don't know, but Dina's right behind them and she hears this and she is also a supervisor, so you can guess how she interprets that.
Then we cut to the grocery section where Jonah had, he gets Amy's attention. He calls her, "what's your name?" Because he still doesn't know her name, and he shows her that he has arranged a bunch of LaCroix cans into a sad face. And he's like, look, I'm sorry. You know? And she just points out like, that is very stupid because a customer is gonna come along and take a can outta the middle and it's gonna fall.
She starts leaving, but Jonah starts arguing with her again. Not apologizing, but trying to explain why all of his stupid ways of doing things are justified. He goes, "oh, I'm just, I'm, I'm trying to have fun, you know, sorry if I, you know, screwed up once." And she points out, "you have [00:46:00] screwed up multiple times already in your first day. So that's not a good track record."
And then he starts giving the speech about how he's trying to make things fun and it's so worth it to create moments of beauty in the every day. And Amy's like, "I can't believe you just said that out loud." And then he starts talking about the movie American Beauty. And he tries to throw a plastic bag up in the air to see if it's pretty, but it is not. And Amy's just like, you're stupid.
Mira: And that's part of this bit is like, there's that lingering shot at the end, the plastic bag, just like. Slumps onto the floor.
Adina: Just slumps. And then this other employee, an older man named Brett, comes along and picks it up.
It's like he's enjoying himself.
Kara: It's so, it is so funny to me now that like plastic bags in this specific setting are only going to make me think of Firework by Katy Perry. Yeah, that's just how that feels. That's how that plastic bag felt.
Adina: So then we're at the makeup counter and Cheyenne is [00:47:00] putting some eyeliner on Dina because she has a special guy in mind and Cheyenne's like, "tell me about this guy."
And Dina says, "male, Caucasian, no discernible scars or tattoos." And then she like smiles and makes this bright face like, isn't that great? Cheyenne is like, oh yeah, sounds great. But then Cheyenne tries to ask for advice about, you know, how she's been proposed to at age 18. But Dina just walks off. She doesn't care.
So she is not exactly...
Mira: what's also great about this is that Cheyenne has only done one of Dina's eyes. Oh yeah. And she never lets her get to the other eyes. She just walks off with the eyeliner on one eye.
Adina: Then in the clothing section, Mateo's trying to show Amy how he organized everything, you know, without even being asked to.
He's like, look, I did all these things and it seems like what he did was actually useful, unlike what Jonah was doing. But Amy's not that impressed and Mateo's kind of annoyed. He's like, "well, I'm doing a much better job than the other guy who was out in the parking lot." And Amy's like, what the fuck is he doing now?
So she goes outside and finds that Jonah and Garrett are having a shopping cart [00:48:00] race, and Jonah says, oh, "this is not fair. You are so much better at like at navigating on wheels than I am." Then Amy comes out and she's yelling at him. She's like, "are you trying to get fired? What if Glenn were to see this?" and then Glenn is also speeding by on a shopping cart.
So Amy getting pissed off. She's like, "okay, I get it. You're the new fun employee and everyone's having fun and I'm just a stick in the mud. So whatever. Like I can have fun too." And then she pushes Jonah in his shopping cart and that he's like, wait, I actually can't stop and it hits someone's car.
Ooh. And that's the end of act two.
Mira: I think that's a good moment also because that is sort of a recurring dynamic and also a recurring insecurity of Amy's is that she's like, I, but like I'm trying to organize everything and I'm trying to get everyone to do work. And she often feels like the stick in the mud and is also often the straight man in a lot of situations.
And it's very interesting to have. Because Jonah is like a straight man in a different way. And so it's very [00:49:00] interesting to have the two of them like opposed to one another and then also to have like the two of them on kind of like the same team as you see sort of like later on in the series against like sort of the general chaos around 'em.
Adina: I gotta say though, I mean I know they have a lot of chaos at the store, but I was surprised when we come back from the break and that's not even really an issue anymore. They've gotten over it. I was like, no one's mad.
Kara: They literally ran into someone's parked car.
Adina: So then we cut back after the break, we're in the school section and Amy brings Jonah flowers. They are flowers from the floor at the garden center, but she still brings some flowers and calls it a peace offering. And she apologizes and I got a little mad here 'cause I was like, okay, she went off a little bit, but he still never properly apologize to her. She should not be the one apologizing in this situation, but whatever. She's more mature than him.
She just said, you know, "I'm sorry, I've had a long day, actually 10 years of long days." And then she sees that Jonah's stocking, like [00:50:00] these little stick, stick on glow in the dark stars that you like, stick on your ceiling or whatever, in the back to school section.
And she talks about how she stocks those every year and then they take 'em down, they put the Halloween things, then the Christmas things, the Valentine's, whatever, and then soon they're back to the stars. And basically just how every year goes the same and every day goes the same. And Jonah's like, okay, "I guess I can, I can see why you're bored, why you're frustrated."
And Amy says "it's a good job, but tomorrow is gonna be just like today. And I know that because today is just like yesterday. So sometimes it's kind of hard to find those moments of beauty." And yeah, and then that's kind of a, like a little earnest moment between them.
And you know, the reality of, she doesn't hate this job. Like she says, it's a good job, but. When you're doing kind of the same thing every day, any kind of job can get a little demoralizing after a while.
Then we get a little voiceover again, montage from Garrett. He's talking about how the store is closing. Soon we get some shots of [00:51:00] customers finishing up doing their little last crazy things for the day. He goes, "what will be left in this store once it closes? Will it be Grace? I hope not, because someone needs to pick her up," and then we reveal he's got a little girl named Grace with him at the customer service counter. He's like, "if you are Grace's parents, please pick her up."
Oh, so then back in the clothing section, Mateo was again trying to show Amy what he did, and then Jonah comes to grab her. He's like, "wait, no, no, you gotta see what I did". And Mateo Mateo's like, "what could you have possibly been doing? 'cause I've been around the whole store doing my job and I haven't seen you anywhere."
But then they get cut off by, there is a robber in a ski mask who has a gun and tells everyone to get down. And it's like, oh Lord, there's always a crisis going on here. Dina snaps into action. She starts army crawling. She's like, this is what I have trained for. But then as soon as she is gone, the robber pulls off their mask and it's Bo, it's Cheyenne's boyfriend, and he has his friend turn on some music and he starts dancing and a whole mob [00:52:00] joins him.
It is a flash mob. In 2015. In 2015, the flash mob in 2015, I have to, yeah, we have to point out that like this was already when flash mobs were, they were on the tail end. They were already uncool. So he starts dancing and this whole mob is dancing with him. And Jonah turns to Amy. He's like, "I didn't do this." which is a good thing to specify 'cause that is also something equally stupid that he might've done. And then Bo also starts rapping because by the way, he's a professional rapper that is, His career aspiration, I guess you can't say professional 'cause he is not getting paid for it, but I think amateur.
Mira: Amateur. Aspiring.
Kara: Yeah. I loved the bit where he was like asked, talking about how he's looking for representation.
Adina: Oh yeah. The end, God. But meanwhile, Dina missed this transition. She's in like the security office and she's trying, she's on the phone with like the police. She's like, "send a SWAT team." As he's finishing up his rap Bo he finishes off by asking or saying he's open for representation, but he also says "hashtag Black Lives Matter."
And then [00:53:00] there's a shot of Garrett being like, "what?" and then bo almost leaves before actually waiting for an answer from Cheyenne. 'cause he was. He was proposing yet again if that wasn't clear, and he says, "will you marry me Cheyenne, or will you be like a dick about it?" So he gets down on one knee and holds out the ring, and Dina's watching this on the security cam, and somehow she thinks that he's holding out a gun and he's about to shoot somebody.
I don't know how she thought that. So she goes, oh God, I need to do something. And also, I don't know why she thought this was the right thing to do, but she turns off the power, the the lights.
Kara: I feel like that would, in fact, if someone were actually holding a gun, I feel like that would actually make them more likely to just fire.
Adina: And everyone would run around. It would be terrible. That'd be terrible. I don't know why she would do that, but luckily he didn't have a gun and luckily she turns off the lights. And what it does is it reveals what Jonah was doing all day. He put up glow stars all over the ceiling of the store and it looks really beautiful. And I gotta say that would take a huge amount of hours [00:54:00] to do that whole ceiling with one man.
Kara: Yeah, this is where I said, so he put all of those stars up. Just to make Amy smile a little bit. I was like, I literally said out loud while I was watching. That is simp behavior. Like, who...?,
Adina: it is simp behavior. He's the time, a thousand percent a simp.
Kara: I was like, oh my God. That was like, yes, it was really sweet, but I was like all of this?
I was like, maybe this is so much work.
Adina: No one can say that Jonah is not a simp. I don't think he would even say that he's not a simp.
Mira: I think he would fully admit to it.
Adina: I think he would, he would say something like, "well, a simp is just a, a negative word for, for a feminist or something."
Mira: Like, he'd be like, "are we, is it a bad thing to like appreciate your wife?" definitely a bit of wife guy energy from him.
Adina: Yeah, definitely.
Is it maybe implausible that he did all of that by himself? Yes. But is it really cool? Yes. So we'll allow it.
Mira: Yes. I mean, you also have to suspend your disbelief that these people have been there from opening to [00:55:00] closing at a retail store. 'cause they have absurd hours and that's, no one's working like a 12 hour shift. Because if they scheduled you too many 12 hour shifts in a row, they'd have to give you healthcare, which they're not gonna do.
Adina: So they show us the glow stars on the ceiling and it's dark and like the stars are glowing. Everybody goes speechless. 'cause to be fair, that would be, if that was real, that would be really,
Kara: it's also, it sets the beautiful mood for this. Yeah. Weird proposal. So I feel like that saved the proposal in a way.
Adina: Mm-hmm. It did. Well, no, literally in the next scene, Cheyenne says that, so yeah. So it's this moment of beauty.
It is a moment of beauty.
Mira: The rom-com lover in me was like, I was like sold. I was like, yes, this is cute. I'm here for the pining.
Adina: So then we cut to the parking lot and Garrett's leading a toast to Cheyenne and her engaged status, and they're toasting with like an off-brand energy drink. Meanwhile in the background, the cops are arresting Bo because Dina called the cops.
Kara: Yeah. You can't pretend to shoot up a store. That's [00:56:00] pretty bad.
Mira: Well, there are some consequences in this world.
Adina: Yeah. And then Dina's using this moment to try and flirt with Jonah. She's like, "look, I just want you to know you, even if you had a real gun, you wouldn't be in any danger. I would've protected you." and she shows like some giant ass bullet that she had for her rifle. She's like, "I would've shot him and his head would explode like a watermelon. I would protect you." And Jonah's like, okay. 'cause I think. I'm not even sure if he clocked that Dina was into him or that she was just weird. I think he's definitely oblivious. Yeah. Either way he was not receiving it.
Amy then has a moment with Cheyenne where she's like, " the ring's kind of nice actually." And Cheyenne's like, " I thought about listening to your advice and you know, saying no, but it just kind of felt right under the stars."
And then she hugs Jonah. She is like, "if not for you, I never would've said yes. I better bail out my boyfriend, I mean my fiance." So there's another moment obviously, like it does turn out okay. Their marriage turns out fine 'cause they love each other. Like, they're not gonna make it a downer ending.
But like, [00:57:00] it is kind of funny that like, Jonah's responsible for this and it could be, you know, like yet another fuck up that he's like fucked up this girl's life if she's marrying the wrong guy. But luckily it doesn't turn out that way.
Amy starts to leave 'cause she's gotta go home. Jonah follows her. So it's just kind of the two of them in the parking lot. And he just, he's like "I know that was a lot, but I just wanted today to feel different than yesterday."
And Amy thanks him, says goodbye. He's like, "bye, champ," 'cause he realizes he still never learned her name, but she finally introduces herself to him. She's taken down her walls. She tells him her name is Amy, and it's a sweet moment.
And then Garrett pulls Jonah away to throw mannequin legs in the dumpster. 'cause that's a good use of time. They, they part ways. And the very last shot of the pilot, oh, I should mention Cheyenne when she was putting on her ring earlier.
She goes, "oh, it's so pretty. It's a shame that I can't wear it at work."
And then the very last shot of the pilot is Amy takes a wedding ring out of [00:58:00] her pocket and puts it back on. And I just think, oh, that this pilot is so perfect for setting up the Amy and Jonah relationship.
Mira: I, I love that moment. It's like when you watch a sitcom and like the wrong characters get engaged and you're like, this wedding is not gonna happen. And I don't know how yet, but it's not gonna happen. Yeah. And it really, it sets up an impossible situation and you're like, okay, we're gonna get out of it somehow. Like that marriage is gonna end, but you don't know how. Yeah. And I mean, it's great. It makes you wanna keep watching.
Adina: Yeah, exactly. And you know, some people might find it infuriating in some ways, but that's what makes a slow burn fun is when they have legitimate obstacles that take time to deal with. But you can see where it's gonna go and it's fun to watch it go there.
And like I said earlier, this, this pilot definitely spends a lot more time on the Amy and Jonah dynamic than on anything else. But it does, it does a good job of getting the other characters in there and giving you a little taste [00:59:00] of their personality.
Obviously it doesn't develop any of the others all that much, but they do get more use in future episodes. But it shows you a pretty typical kind of day. They are in the store pretty much all day. There are episodes that go outside of the store later on in the show, but not all that many. I would say it's similar to cheers in how much it is set in the one place and very, you know, the early seasons really don't go outside of the store at all, but yeah, later they do like for a couple scenes.
It's a good indication of like what the scope of the plots might be. Like. They are mostly set in the store. They're mostly shenanigans, but, you know, involve these dynamics as well. Again, it doesn't show perfectly every character or everything that might draw you into the show, but I think it does a pretty good job of showing you the tone and, you know, if you like this episode, you will, like, if you continue to watch.
Mira: It's a good episode and the series just like gets better from there.
Mm-hmm. There's nowhere to go but up.
Kara: It was very cute and I really liked it. Like I said, I had, [01:00:00] like before, immediately before this, I had listened to RMS new album Stream Indigo, and I was sobbing, and then I turned this on and could not stop laughing. So it was a really great mood shift, frankly. I was like, I was like, I need this, I need this.
Immediately, I thought it was really well done. I feel like they made good use of the time they had. I will say, I wasn't super sure about characters names, but I was like, eh, I'll figure them out another time. I think I got down just Amy, Jonah and Dina. Mm-hmm. Just by way of their, their, their Dina's personality just stood out to me the most of the other characters that weren't Amy and Jonah, so I remembered her name.
It really sets up what the world will be like. So I feel like. Later on, I'm gonna expect more workplace shenanigans slash people not really working because like, that's not the point of Yeah, a workplace sitcom. I don't wanna [01:01:00] watch them work. I wanna watch it be ridiculous. I am looking forward to like, I feel like I'm looking forward to customers with really weird requests.
That's something that just needs to be there because I've never worked retail, but I did work food service at two different places in college and also I worked at a frozen yogurt place one summer and I heard some really ridiculous things. I know I kind of get the sense of what I'm in for with customers. 'cause like sometimes they just made such odd requests and I was like, I don't know what to do about this. I'm not in charge. I'm just here. Take your food and go. I, yeah. I'm excited that I, I won't continue anytime soon, but I will continue. So the, the answer is yes. I will keep watching just mm-hmm. I'm sorry.
Mira: One day. One day I'll get you to watch the whole thing and then we can like dive into the minutia of like the rest of Amy and Jonah's relationship. 'cause there's some really great moments.
Adina: I am definitely gonna [01:02:00] continue. I'm gonna rewatch it from here now. And I, I have to say I like, the last time I watched Superstore was whenever the finale was out like two years ago, a year ago. I don't remember. So the last thing I saw was the finale and I don't remember it in all that much detail, but I do remember that the finale made a lot of callbacks to this pilot. It did. It did the repeat. And so I was actually getting a little misty while I was watching it. I was like, this is where they started.
Yeah. And they go through so much. They really snuck up on me. I don't think I registered them. I think when I was watching the show, I didn't think that much about them being like my favorite couple or anything. But now that I look back on it, I think they are one of my favorite sitcom couples, like main couples.
Mira: And I also think, I think this show is really good at doing sort of like tiny continuous bits and callbacks. There's, it will not spoil the ending of season three, but the lead up to season three is hinted at a [01:03:00] ton and you don't realize it until you get there. And then you re-watch it and you're like, oh. Like the foreshadowing is there, the jokes are there, and then it hits and it's, oh my God, it's so funny.
Adina: That's our pitch for Superstore. It is a very funny, cute workplace sitcom. Definitely do try it out. If you like other workplace sitcoms or if you like a good slow burn will they, won't they? We've kind of spoiled that they do, but it's a really great journey to get there. That's what the slow burn's about. Good.
Mira: And there's other, there's other fun side couples to explore. Mm-hmm. And relationships that. Different, but that you wanna root for in different ways.
Adina: Thank you so much for joining us, Mira, and for picking the show.
Kara: It was fun.
Mira: Thank you for having me. This was super fun. Yes.
Adina: I realize we are just a little bit too late for if we had thought ahead, we could have done this and then put it out on Black Friday or like, oh, that would've been so cool. We're still, we're heavily in like retail season, present buying season, so Watch Superstore, if you work [01:04:00] retail or know someone who works retail. Or if you just want to know what retail workers are dealing with as you go and you buy all of these gifts for people.
Kara: Thanks for listening. We wanna hear from you now. If you have any thoughts about the Superstore pilot you'd like to share with us or suggestions for shows we should watch, you can email us at itsinmyqueuepod@gmail.com.
Adina: We will be back in the new year with some new podcast episodes for you all. So please do let us know if there are any pilots you really wanna see us cover. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our newsletter at itsinmyqueue.substack.com for a weekly dose of TV news and recommendations right in your inbox every Friday.
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Adina: I am @adinaterrific
Kara: and I'm [01:05:00] @karaaa_powell. Thanks for listening, and we hope we've helped you clear out your Queue.