Superstore Season 1
DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:
“Superstore” is a humorous look at what goes on behind the scenes of a typical big-box megastore. With a smart, dependable store supervisor named Amy (America Ferrera), an aggressive, often inappropriate assistant manager named Dina (Lauren Ash), a pregnant, clueless teenager named Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom), and a variety of other personalities, the store’s employees have become like a dysfunctional family. When an optimistic, dreamer named Jonah (Ben Feldman) is hired in the first season, the group dynamic begins to shift in unexpected ways. Also starring Colton Dunn, Nico Santos, and Mark McKinney, with guest stars including Dan Bucatinsky and Eliza Coupe.
NBC continues to show an affinity for ensemble workplace comedies with the new sitcom “Superstore.” Like the paper-pushers at “The Office,” the creative misfits of “30 Rock,” the small-town government employees of “Parks and Recreation,” and the Nerd Herders of “Chuck,” “Superstore” offers up a retail island of misfit toys in a big-box behemoth.
The series airs two “sneak peek” episodes Monday at 10 p.m. before returning Jan. 4 to settle into its regular 8 p.m. time slot. If it doesn’t yet come close to the comedic heights of its predecessors there are some good finds in its aisles. It also evokes some of the sensibility, if not quite as bleak, as the 2002 Jennifer Aniston film, “The Good Girl.”
Clearly based on Walmart, Cloud 9 is far from heaven for floor supervisor Amy (the winsome America Ferrera, of “Ugly Betty”). She recognizes the daily drudgeries and absurdities of selling off-brand products and cubic-zirconia knockoffs. Into the store comes new employee Jonah (Ben Feldman, last seen inducing swoons on the underrated “A to Z”). He thinks himself a little too fancy for an environment where artfully stacking soda cans is one of the few means of workplace self-expression. (It isn’t made clear in the first three episodes how Jonah landed on Cloud 9.)
The ensemble is rounded out by familiar types who are given small, but crucial, fresh twists. The best of them are rapaciously ambitious new associate Mateo (Nico Santos) and slacker jokester Glenn (Colton Dunn).
Created by Justin Spitzer, who wrote some excellent episodes of “The Office,” “Superstore” veers from silly to sophisticated to sour notes as quickly as you can go at Cloud 9 from housewares to toys to guns.
The finest line the show has to walk is drawn in its opening moments when Jonah mistakes Amy for a customer and comes off like a snob. With recurring sight gags focused on the store’s less savory customers — a child test drives a potty, an adult test drives an actual toilet — that toggle between absurd and acidic, “Superstore” needs to heed its own advice about avoiding condescension.
– Sarah Rodman
DVD Wholesale Main Features :
Actors: America Ferrera, Ben Feldman
Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 2
Rated: NR – Not Rated
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: August 23, 2016
Run Time: 237 minutes
