It's a new year so I'm playing around with my recap formats. Basically from here on out the I Got Thoughts point form format I've been using will become the standard for all my recaps. This will increase my output (maybe) and hopefully increase post quality. So if this review looks different from normal, that's what's going on.
-It's been a long couple of Superstore-less months but they're over now. Lost and Found was a terrific welcome back as Superstore kicks off the second half of the season.
-Poor Amy. Superstore holds off on revealing what happened in the aftermath of her confession of unhappiness to Adam for most of the episode but the glimpse we get of her angrily on the phone with him is all we need to know things have deteriorated even further. Then when she randomly winds up with 906 dollars and after being talked into spending it on herself instead of worrying about others for once, she winds up being talked into spending it on the break room. Then just as she's at peace with that decision, it all goes away and she's left where she started. It's a rough ride, but a funny one.
-Amy being the one who takes care of everyone has been part of her character since the beginning of the show but Lost and Found cleverly shows the downside of her constant selflessness. She spends so much time thinking about others that she never thinks to think about herself, and when she does think about herself or do something for herself, it doesn't go over well. Telling Adam she wasn't happy was the biggest thing she's done for herself recently but the slow destruction of her marriage is taking an even bigger toll on her than before because she's not sure how to handle it. It's quietly heartbreaking and Amy's unburdening of everything onto Glenn at the end is beautifully played by America Ferrara.
-Jonah and Amy's Will They/Won't They had been leaned on quite a bit in the first half of the season but the writers wisely choose not to shoehorn it into their interactions tonight. Jonah is trying to help Amy because she's his friend and he wants her to do something for herself for once. There's no ulterior motive or secret longing behind it. It's nice.
-Mark McKinney is a treasure and Glenn's story of trying to cheer everyone up through clowning around and silly stunts was incredible the whole way through. From him ruining Mateo's new leather jacket with silly string (followed by accidentally offering Mateo an unending handkerchief) to Garrett making him dance and dance to his jealousy when Jonah starts playing along with his miming, each scene was a comic triumph.
-The best part of Glenn's story was probably his encounter with Dina though. Her callous takedown of him and monkeys as his monkey hand puppet slowly droops was brutally funny.
-Initially I thought Glenn's story might end with him realizing he was depressed and going on antidepressants, but Superstore went a bit more unexpected by tying his story into Amy's ongoing troubles. It's a beautiful tie-in that works beautifully. Glenn has spent the episode trying to figure out how he can help cheer up his employees, but all he really needed to do is be there for them and provide a listening ear. Amy has a lot of problems and going to that spa would have been a temporary fix. It turns out what she really needed was to talk to someone about what's going on in her life and let all that pain out. It's not going to fix her problems either but it eases the burden a bit.
-Kudos to the writers for having Amy talk to Glenn at the end instead of Jonah. If she had gone to Jonah, it would've felt forced. They're good friends but she's not ready to trust him with that part of her life, especially with her confused feelings. Glenn and Amy have a nice dynamic of mutual respect that doesn't get highlighted that often and hopefully their scene at the end will lead to more Glenn/Amy scenes in the future.
-Trick for doing a serious scene with no verbal jokes in a comedy where you're still mainly going for laughs: put one of the characters in a ridiculous costume. Glenn's outfit in the last scene was hysterical and provided a good visual to latch onto comedy-wise as the episode dove into more serious matters.
-Once you saw the new break room you knew it wasn't going to last. The only question was what would happen to it. I figured Amy would shut it down but the show twisted expectations by actually having her enjoy the new break room once Tate got out of her damn chair. Sandra improbably tracking down the owner of the 906 dollars and him being a nice guy who works with at-risk youth was a much funnier turn of events.
-Dina and Garrett both decide their sleeping together was a onetime scene but Garrett is clearly thrown off by the whole thing more than Dina is and her constant assertions that he's acting weird only make it worse. Garrett is at his best when he has no control over a situation and his eventual public meltdown was a great capper to that story, even if the whole thing felt kind of familiar. I'm excited to see where this not-romance goes.
-The Lost and Found lottery was a great piece of world building and a fun setpiece to kick things off with.
-906 is a beautifully specific number.
-I desperately want "Sometimes you get the giraffe and sometimes you get to wig" to become a recurring expression throughout the season. It makes total sense when you know the context but it's just wonderfully strange without it.
-I'm starting to get a bit worried about how the show is treating Sandra. She's the sad sack character who nothing ever works out for and that's funny right now, but the show should be careful that it doesn't cross the line over to "totally mean-spirited". Dina picking on Sandra for no good reason is one thing. The rest of the employees picking on her for no good reason is another. Their anger was somewhat justified tonight and funny, so I'm not super worried but it is something I'm looking out for. On The Office, the terrible treatment of Toby was funny when it was just Michael being disproportionately angry towards him but it became less funny in later years when no one wanted to be around or spend time with Toby. Of course Superstore's treatment of Sandra is more in line with Jerry from Parks and Rec than Toby but the writers of Parks and Rec were sure to give Jerry an excellent home and personal life to balance it out, which Sandra doesn't have yet.
-Best Interstitial: As funny as the kid casually breaking dishes because no one has tried to stop him is, I'm giving this one to the person who picked up bleach instead of Parmesan (Both next to each other with similar packaging because of course), then puts back the bleach directly with the Parmesan when they realize their mistake. It's something that gets funnier the more I think about it.
-"This letter clears parent company of responsibility in case of employee suicide". Aww, corporate cares.
-"They say laughter is the best medicine." "The best medicine is Penicillin. At least it used to be. With all these superbugs now we might all be dead in 10 years, so I guess laughter's as good as anything". Oh, Tate. What a guy.
-Welcome back Superstore. I've missed you.
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