Superstore is not a perfect show. At this point, it's not even a great one. It's solid, funny, charming and has a likable cast, but there are still plenty of kinks to be worked out. The show occasionally goes too broad with its humor, some of its characters feel more like stereotypes than actual human beings, and it has a tendency to beat you over the head with its character development, rather than letting it progress naturally. Of course, the same could be said of the earliest episodes of almost any network television sitcom, from broad hits like Friends to beloved cult classics like Community and 30 Rock, to The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Cheers to Seinfeld to Parks and Recreation to New Girl to...okay, you get the point.
We live in an era where "network television sitcom" tends to draw minds to either "overly broad, unhip CBS-style comedy" (think The Big Bang Theory) or "family sitcom", of varying quality (from the excellent Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat to the reliably solid The Middle to the mediocre, paint-by-numbers humor of latter-day Modern Family). The most exciting new comedies - the ones that draw the most attention, the most love, the most thinkpieces - tend to be niche, alt-style cable and streaming comedies, shows that come fully packaged with a distinct voice and point of view. These shows, from Broad City to You're the Worst to Bojack Horseman, recall some of the same mechanics as acclaimed dramas (creative freedom, distinct visual styles, unique viewpoints) to create some truly exciting, riveting, and excellent television. These are some of the best shows on television, no doubt, and we're extremely lucky to live in an era where they're in no short supply. But I still hold the old belief that there's a value to the age-old format of network television sitcoms, the kind of shows where you get a wide-ranging cast of actors and writers together and churn out a product whose primary purpose is to draw advertising dollars but, in the very best of cases, winds up stumbling upon something great. And lost in the era of niche cable comedy is the fact that, in the past year or so, there's been a bit of a renaissance of the network sitcom.
Now, it sort of feels like someone talks about "the resurgence of the sitcom" every few years. It seems to be an endless cycle of "the sitcom is dead!", only to be followed by "the sitcom has returned!", and the cycle repeats itself again. Indeed, it hasn't been that long since network television was blessed with a line-up of all-star hitters, from NBC's last great Thursday night line-up (Community, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks & Rec) to Happy Endings to Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 to the beginnings of New Girl and Bob's Burgers. But while that line-up featured sitcoms doing their best to analyze, freshen, and deconstruct their form, the current network renaissance seems to be dominated by shows that are trying to get their unique stories told to as wide of an audience as possible. During the Eddie Huang/Fresh Off the Boat debacle, Huang (whose autobiography serves as the basis of the show but severed ties with it after ABC was unwilling to realistically portray his often gritty, heavy novel), when asked why he didn't take his story to a more auterer-friendly cable or streaming network, responded that he felt a need to bring his story to as many people as possible, and the only place to do so was on network television. We may be heading into an era where every show is specifically designed to appeal to a certain niche audience, but we're not there yet. There's still broad, network shows designed to appeal to a large amount of people. And however long that may be, it's great to see shows taking that opportunity to tell stories of people that aren't always represented on TV.
Maybe that's why I have such a soft spot for Superstore. I've spent many years of my life working shitty retail jobs, only getting through the day by reciting various funny sitcom lines in my head, over and over, to forget a little bit about the rather mundane reality I was stuck in. Seeing TV actually portraying that shitty retail job - even if it does a mixed job of portraying it accurately - certainly has an element of catharsis to it. And truthfully, there's not a lot of television shows that even attempt to broadcast the everyday mundane, struggling existence that a large majority of us put up with. One thing that sitcoms in particular have lost a step in recently - from the prestige to the mainstream - is creating relatable, down-to-earth realities. Since Friends ruled the '90s, it seems the large majority of comedies have a need to give their characters an element of glamour, whether or not it's actually realistic to their situations. Yes, there are exceptions - The Office, The Middle, Broad City - but in general, there's a trend in TV comedy to promote escapism over realism. This makes sense, to an extent - people watch TV to escape their realities, after all - but sometimes I want to see characters whose lives are kind of a big, boring ass mess, just like mine is! That's what makes Superstore work so well for me so far. Between the wacky hijinks and the sometimes thin character stereotypes, there's an element of sadness, the idea that these people are kind of stuck going through the motions and aren't sure how to get out of it. The show doesn't fully realize this is about itself yet, but it's slowly getting there - the most recent episode, "Color Wars", did a great job of balancing the wacky, big box silliness (a sales competition where everyone wears Red and Blue and the reward is $100 and a pizza party) with a little twinge of well-delivered sadness (Amy is so into the competition because money's tight and she needs cash to fund her college classes that her asshole husband doesn't support).
If Superstore can perfect that balance, it could go from being a pleasant, entertaining way to pass the time to one of network TV's best, most poignant comedies, one that helps restore the idea of a workplace comedy that accurately depicts the kind of workplace most of us actually work at. I think there's some solid evidence that the show is working towards being this kind of show as it heads towards finishing its abbreviated first season, and here's to hoping September will bring a splurge of pieces talking about how much Superstore's second season has turned the corner and become the latest, greatest NBC comedy, because having a sitcom that actually gives voice to some of the most underappreciated workers in the country would be pretty damn sweet.
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