-Romance is tricky. It can be hard to tell when someone is interested, where you stand with someone, when someone might be misrepresenting key things about themselves, when someone in a relationship is feeling neglected, or if you've crossed a line in your efforts to create romance. All of this confusion can get amplified on Valentine's Day and all of it is on display on another very funny episode of Superstore that has a couple smart things to say too.
-The episode is kicked off when one of the Cloud Nine employees, Miles, proposes to another one Lisa via flash mob. This is the second time in Superstore that someone has proposed via flash mob and it's even more lame and overdone now than it was when Bo did it to Cheyenne back in season 1 (Though everyone just goes with her assertion that flash mobs were cool a year ago), which is used for comedic effect. And even though Lisa was in the bathroom causing Miles to have to start the whole thing over, it gets Glenn wondering what other employees might be good couples. Amy tries to dissuade him on the grounds that matchmaking is a terrible idea in general, especially at work, but when she sees kindly elderly greeter Arthur pining for Myrtle, she can't help but get involved. Her own marriage might be on the rocks but maybe if she's able to get the two oldest people at work together, she'll know love is still out there and the day doesn't have to be a complete waste. So Amy and Glenn engage in typical matchmaker activities, like arranging Arthur and Myrtle to work together, watching them through the cameras, and filling Myrtle's locker with stuff allegedly from Arthur, but the storyline takes a sudden turn when Myrtle breaks down crying because Arthur won't leave her alone and files sexual harassment complaints against all of them.
-Sexual Harassment is a thing that a lot of TV comedies don't tend to take that seriously. Even the first season of Superstore had a couple scenes where harassment was basically played as a joke. While Valentine's Day has plenty of jokes related to the subject though, none of them are at the expense of the victim or imply that the actions taken are OK. When Glenn and Amy are on the phone with HR, suddenly all their innocuous matchmaking activities take on a sinister turn ("She's alleging that you used your positions of authority to force her to work with an employee in hopes of engaging in a physical relationship with him. And she also claims you broke into her locker. Now, what's your side of the story?" "Um, factually similar." "Yeah, but you can prove anything with facts."). Because Arthur seems so sweet, Amy has a hard time believing he could have said lewd things to Myrtle and when the offending comment turns out to be him complimenting Myrtle's sweater, Amy is convinced there was a misunderstanding, ignoring Myrtle's (accurate) insistence that he was talking about her breasts. Because she doesn't want to be an accidental harasser, Amy ignores the fact that Myrtle felt uncomfortable, regardless of Arthur's intention and winds up accidentally victim blaming. It's a smart story that shows how easy it is to enable or aid harassment, even if we have no idea that's what we're doing.
-Eventually Amy lands everyone in a meeting watching a training video on sexual harassment with Jeff supervising in the episode's best scene. Superstore has been getting better and better at doing these big meeting scenes and this is probably their best one yet as everyone tries to determine proper boundaries for asking someone else in the workplace and Michael Bunin plays the harried straight man (Always an excellent use of Jeff). As Amy continues to attempt to defend herself until Arthur winds up going on at length about Myrtle's breasts during his apologizing, Dina attempts to create a database of who's interested in who so no one crosses a line by asking out someone not interested, Miles and Lisa discover they have differing opinions on having kids, and Glenn comes to realize that asking his wife out every day for a year before his father threatened to fire her if she didn't say yes constitutes harassment, everything keeps piling up and up in a cacophony of hilarious chaos that shows how complicated finding romance can be. It's a masterstroke of writing, direction, and acting and it'll be a while before this particular meeting gets topped.
-Arthur is played by Bernie Koppell, an acting veteran best known from his roles on Get Smart and The Love Boat. Koppell is delightful, giving Arthur a sweetness and vulnerability that makes it understandable why Amy would be so skeptical to believe Myrtle and her harassment claims. His turn when he starts going on about Myrtle's breasts also feels believable and earned.
-The Sandra/Jeff fauxmance saga continues as Sandra sends herself a bunch of expensive gifts from "Jeff", including a 140 dollar bouquet, puppies, and a rose gold watch. Even though Mateo knows that those gifts aren't real, he continues to be jealous of Sandra's fake relationship with Jeff because it seems better and more romantic than Mateo's actual relationship with Jeff. Mateo's been dating Jeff for a while and he's not sure where they stand or where it's going so he lets himself get caught up in the fake version of Jeff who sends extravagant gifts even though the relationship is secret These feelings are also egged on by Garrett, who is let in on the secret by Cheyenne and proceeds to just mess with Mateo for the episode. When Mateo is cold to Jeff though, Jeff lets it slip that he considers Mateo to be his boyfriend and it changes everything. Suddenly Mateo isn't some guy dating Jeff, Mateo is Jeff's boyfriend. It's a rare moment of vulnerability from the character that Nico Santos plays terrifically. And once Mateo has a real sense of commitment from Jeff, he feels secure enough that his relationship is real to embrace Sandra's fake relationship. It's a nice turn to a story that was in need of a new direction though I'm curious how long they intend to keep this storyline up.
-Jonah being sent undercover by Dina to catch a woman he's convinced is a repeat shoplifter, only to fall for her and start courting her instead is a small story but a good one with lots of funny Jonah/Dina interactions. Lauren Ash plays Dina like a frustrated police captain/handler in a crime movie and it's terrific. The ending is also great thanks to the fact that we never find out if Shannon was actually a shoplifter or not. There's a nice bit where Jonah realizes his wallet is gone seemingly confirming their initial suspicions, only to immediately remember his wallet was actually in his other pocket, because his chiropractor had recommended switching it up. Typical Jonah.
-Cheyenne has the smallest of stories about working as a greeter so Arthur can work with Myrtle and her growing excitement with each person she greets is delightful.
-When it comes to the Jonah/Amy "Will They Won't They", Superstore likes to zig where you think they'll zag. Their big scene together at the end comes to the two of them just taking out all their frustrations on the Valentine's Day merchandise in brutal and hilarious fashion. There's no awkward exchanges or hidden glances, just two friends fighting back against the most romantic day of the year. As they finish though, we see Brett setting up the merchandise for St. Patrick's Day and the message is clear: for all the meaning and stress we might put into Valentine's Day, in the end it's just another day.
-Best Interstitial: A service dog just goes to down ripping up a teddy bear.
-This week in Mark McKinney is a treasure: Glenn's tearful phone call to his very confused wife after he realizes the dark implications behind how they got together. "Jerusha, our whole marriage is based on a sex crime. No, no, no, you only think you love me. You were my victim!"
-Amy's new short hair officially debuts this week and it's terrific.
-Glenn apparently gets Cupid and the love bug mixed up and is convinced that Cupid spreads his love through bites, which is hilariously creepy.
-The fact that we did a sexual harassment episode and there was no sign of Creepy Sal (As there hasn't been all season) is probably confirmation that they've discontinued the character. Which is a good thing because he was not a great character and it was not believable that he had managed to not get fired for all his creepiness.
-Amy's effort to explain what happened with Myrtle to customers does not go well. "Okay, none of you know the story. She asked me to set her up, so I set her up. She was asking me for it. She asked for it."
-Once again, Garrett is more interested in the people involved with the training video they watch than the content of said video and Jeff is fine with trying to answer the question. "I got a question. The actress in the video, does she get paid per video, or is it more of a flat rate for the whole day kind of thing?" "My guess is flat rate."
-And later: "Found her on IMDB. She was on NCIS. She played "Lady in Pool." Acting life is tough."
-Best line delivery of the week goes to Colton Dunn for "Why does everyone want to f**k Jeff?"
No comments:
Post a Comment