Superstore & Sitcom Drama

NBC sitcom Superstore — at least the four and a half seasons I watched as of this time of writing — dedicates itself to classic joke structure. It puts more time into setting up punchlines, one-off bits with customers, and funny gags so the character’s dramatic motivations and moments are quickly sketched out and fleshed out, in part, by the jokes. This is a good thing. The past ten years have held a glut of dramedies, especially in the wake of Bojack Horseman¹ and Transparent, that have funny moments but are far more concerned with narrative than (god forbid) entertainment or making people laugh.

This is not to say these characters don’t have depth, or that Superstore breaks the mold for a network show. It’s a successful, funny ensemble-based sitcom with a work setting and a strong will they/won’t they? romantic storyline between the two leads. Same description works for Cheers, Scrubs, Newsradio, and Hannibal (that last one is a joke). But it exemplifies what The Bear and Life & Beth typically miss out on: (1) your character’s motivations can be dramatic and funny, and (2) you can take control of the tone, so the drama immediately follows the comedy and vice-versa. The combination of genres actually heightens the whole mood here, leading to scenes like the sheer wonder of the tornado aftermath as set to Mazzy Starr, or Dina very casually agreeing to be Glenn’s surrogate.

One of the single funniest moments on the show so far arrives in Season 2 after supporting player Mateo makes a heartbreaking romantic decision because of his status as an undocumented migrant. Nicos Santos is a good actor, and this is a strong dramatic beat…that is then beautifully undercut by Jonah, unaware of what just happened, punching him in the fucking face to prove he can put up a fight, thus paying off the running A-plot with a huge belly laugh. This is already the worst day of Mateo’s life, and now he’s literally been hit in the face, down when he’s already out. It’s great drama and great comedy, all in the space of 90 seconds.

This frequent balance of gags and dramatic beats works because by the end of the truncated first season, the Missouri Cloud 9 employees all feel locked in place². Glenn, the manager, wants to be a good Christian dad, but struggles with his own naiveté about the world, Cloud 9’s cold corporate structure, and his own repressed anger. Like Skinner in The X-Files, Glenn genuinely cares about his employees, and this often puts him at odds with an institution that doesn’t give a shit. This naiveté is also why assistant manager Dina – who’s evolved, possibly more than any other character, since the pilot – clashes with him and Garrett, the store announcer, and the one giving “the Billings” in Cloud 9 every day. Dina doesn’t need to be liked, living in a near-neurodivergent social order of her own making where the store must be respected and the rules obeyed. (There is a Dina in every retail store.) Garrett only cares up to a point but is genuinely outraged when accused of doing less than the bare minimum to avoid getting fired. The man has his standards.

Meanwhile, main characters Amy and Jonah develop feelings for one another because they share the same basic (often contradictory) motivations: they want to be liked, and they want other people to be happy and cared for. The biggest difference between them is privilege and Amy’s sense of responsibility – as Jonah points out, Amy likes to play the martyr. Jonah is bourgeois enough, meanwhile, to be insufferable but also has had enough of each world to be disgusted by Cloud 9’s treatment of the workers. Both have what’s sometimes called “justice sensitivity”, and this innately brings them together and puts them in opposition to Cloud 9’s anti-union, low-paying, indifferent corporate culture. I don’t know if the show bible always included the employees’ frustrations with Cloud 9 or their slow turn towards a union, but it provides a good plot thread, especially in a massive, thrilling action beat that Ruck spotlighted at the end of Season Four. This sequence unites the two genres: the gags about the big-box store’s crappy conditions end up sparking action among the employees. This is a crappy place, but it’s where they have to be every other day — “Wherever you go, there you are”
— and maybe they can make it better, one way or another.

1. In all fairness, Bojack had some incredible gags, especially in the first few seasons. Thinking now of Hollywoo, J.D. Salinger’s celebrity quiz show, and Todd getting the rights to “Diisneyland.” ↩︎
2. Save Sandra and Carol, more prominent by Season 2 and actually magnificent dramatic characters in their quiet insanity and near-lethal obsession with one another ↩︎