🌆📺The Sitcom Café☕🛋️

*To be fair to Blockbuster, I mostly used images and information from Superstore from their first season, as I can see how it’s unfair to compare a show that has one season to another that has several and therefore can offer more to their characters and plotlines along the way*

As much as I love old sitcoms, I have also been enjoying some new sitcoms that have been released over the years. Having worked in retail for most of my life, I always thought there should be more sitcoms set in retail environments. Working in a grocery store often felt like being in a sitcom, and sometimes even a drama.

When shows like Superstore and Blockbuster came out, I was thrilled. Finally, there were shows that could capture the experiences of employees working in what appears to be a typical retail job, but anyone in retail knows it’s never dull, especially when dealing with customers daily.

Now, let’s discuss why one of these shows is SUPERior while the other one was… a BUST.

Blockbuster had a similar vibe to Superstore, with a diverse cast that included stars from famous series like Randall Park from Fresh Off the Boat, Melissa Fumero from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, J.B. Smoove from Curb Your Enthusiasm, and many others who had previously starred in successful sitcoms and movies. Superstore featured America Ferrera from Ugly Betty, Ben Feldman from Drop Dead Diva, Colton Dunn from Parks and Recreation, and others. The problem, however, lies not in the talent of the cast members but rather in their onscreen chemistry.

When I started watching Superstore, I had high expectations. As the first grocery store sitcom I had been waiting for, I wanted it to be impressive, and I was not disappointed. While some characters had strong personalities that could be considered slightly unlikeable, such as Amy and Dina, they also had traits that made you appreciate their good sides. Amy, for example, was a hardass who seemed stressed about her life choices and working at a grocery store without achieving much compared to others. She felt the need to prove herself, and as someone in a position of authority, she channelled her frustrations into striving for perfection and hard work. The show did an excellent job of revealing the characters’ stories through small glimpses and tidbits of information, so we didn’t need to see much in the first season to get to know them.

Images: Spitzer, Justin, Jack Kukoda, et al. “Pilot.” Superstore, season 1, episode 1, NBC, 30 Nov. 2015.

On the contrary, when I started watching Blockbuster, I didn’t expect to be blown away like I did with Superstore. However, I approached it with an open mind and the hope that it would be a good show. Unfortunately, something felt off from the beginning. I was looking for laughter, likeable characters, and humorous interactions among the employees and with customers. Everything felt weird, and the onscreen chemistry among the cast was lacking, which was a shame considering they were all talented actors.

I felt like there was a forced romantic plot between the two main characters, Timmy and Eliza. Both had previously played roles in long-running sitcoms that featured love interests, so we knew they could act and be convincing. However, something about this particular pairing felt off. I wasn’t rooting for them; in fact, their interactions felt so awkward that I was actually rooting against them. The show did make an attempt to introduce other love interests for both characters, but it didn’t quite work either.

Eliza and Amy (from Superstore) had similar storylines: both were in unhappy relationships with the men they had children with and regretted their choices. Eliza was working on her relationship with her cheating ex-husband, while Amy was unhappily married to her old high school boyfriend, whom she had a child with at a young age, forcing her to give up on her dreams and work in a retail store to support them. They even both had daughters that they had a complicated relationship with. But what’s most important to the story comparison is that both characters had male co-workers who secretly had a crush on them and tried to get closer to them in the workplace: Timmy, Eliza’s boss, and Jonah, whom Amy is the boss of. The similarities were quite evident.

All four characters were the main focus and love interests in the show, and they all shared similar storylines. However, Superstore succeeded in making us root for Amy and Jonah. We witnessed their friendship develop, and when there was mild flirtation, we couldn’t help but enjoy it, only to be subtly reminded that Amy was married. On the other hand, when Timmy and Eliza interacted, Timmy seemed to be trying too hard, and Eliza came off as standoffish and even more rude and annoying than Amy in Superstore.

We saw similar traits from Melissa Fumero when she played Amy in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, yet she pulled it off better with Andy Samberg’s character, Jake. Jake also had an awkwardness about him, but their relationship needed time to grow for them to be likeable as a couple. This is where Blockbuster fell short; the relationship between Timmy and Eliza simply hadn’t developed enough for the viewers to invest in it.

What I loved about both shows was their diversity and inclusiveness. They featured characters of different races, sexualities, ages, and abilities. However, it wasn’t just the romantic interests that impacted the show’s atmosphere; the other characters in Blockbuster didn’t seem to gel together as well as those in Superstore.

Let’s consider Carlos and Hannah. Carlos is a gay character with a strong drive to get things done in the store, while Hannah has an innocent but naive teenage girl mindset. They are meant to give each other advice, engage in small, surface-level conversations and get into some fun trouble along the way. However, I wasn’t invested in their dynamic. It felt like they talked because they had to as co-workers and because they were around the same age. The problem was the forced chemistry between them. Carlos came off as a bit too mean, trying to be angsty and funny, while Hannah seemed to be trying too hard and came off as somewhat dumb. Their interactions didn’t work for me.

On the other hand, when we look at Mateo and Cheyenne, we see a different story. Mateo is a gay character that has a hard-working mindset and is always striving for excellence to please management, while Cheyenne, a pregnant teenager, comes off as a little ditsy but endearing. You can feel the friendship vibes between these two characters. They clearly understand each other and do things to entertain each other just for fun. They engage in small conversational banter, and the jokes land as if they are real co-workers who have bonded over their workplace environment.

Even the other characters in Superstore had better chemistry than those in Blockbuster. Each character in Superstore could interact with others and create funny moments. Superstore had more characters to handle, making it challenging to establish so many relationships, yet they succeeded by tying it together with clever humour. You could tell that the employees in Superstore had been through some things together. Unfortunately, Blockbuster failed to deliver the same sense of camaraderie among co-workers.

Even when comparing Garrett and Kayla, both of them clearly detest their job. They show up because they have to, but they don’t take the job too seriously, leading them to engage in mischief and involve the other characters in their adventures. While they both portray a tough exterior and act as if they don’t care, they do demonstrate their softer sides when it comes to caring for their fellow co-workers. However, there is a noticeable difference in how Kayla and Garrett come across. Kayla comes off as mean, while Garrett is hilarious. Kayla’s humour is dry, often accompanied by sly comments, whereas Garrett’s wit is accompanied by a carefree attitude. In my opinion, they should have toned down Kayla’s character because I simply didn’t like her. She was disrespectful to her father, who clearly loves her, and she showed disdain towards her boss, Timmy, who tries to see the good in everyone. On the other hand, Garrett takes his dislike for the job and channels it into being humorous over the announcements and organizing fun activities among his friends for his own amusement. Garrett’s character is simply more light-hearted and therefore more likeable.

I also felt like the little things Superstore incorporated like the creative customer cut scenes we all love down to Garrett’s creative announcements in between scenes that Blockbuster lacked.

I liked Blockbuster‘s plot of trying to keep the last store open, everyone loved Blockbuster when it was around so you’re kind of rooting for them to make it. But maybe I needed more time to see these characters love the store while still hating the retail part of it. If the characters don’t show enough love for the actual store how can we properly root for them to keep it open? It seems stressful and we want the characters to be ambitious like Timmy who feels way in over his head but is at least trying his best to save the last Blockbuster. In this case, if they are not putting in the effort for the store then at least they should show their relationships with Timmy more. And, when we did as stated above, the chemistry was missing. There needed to be more relatability for me, if they didn’t develop the character’s personal relationships properly they could have at least played more on how working in retail is in this day and age with realistic, and funny customer interactions and genuine mishaps in the workplace.

In Superstore it’s the opposite, if you’re like me and have worked in that super corporation retail environment that you begrudgingly take on just to have some kind of income, you are not supposed to like the store like in Blockbuster. Instead, you are supposed to follow the storylines of the employees to see how and why each of them are there and what their next steps in life are, just like some of us viewers do when working retail. Their lives intermingle and it shows the humourous bonding of the challenges they overcome together as a team at work and as friends, their storylines are well-established and likeable.

People who work in retail know the bonds that develop with co-workers, despite the drama and chaos that often occur in the workplace. It can be stressful but entertaining and comical when reflecting on a hard day’s work. Blockbuster simply didn’t capture that sense of co-worker camaraderie that I was looking for. However, I might be too harsh on Blockbuster; after all, it did manage to make me laugh a couple of times. One of those instances was a random line by a customer: “And you call yourself a restaurant.” sigh I really did try to like it.

Are you team Blockbuster or Superstore? Was I too harsh on Blockbuster? Is Superstore not as good as I’m stating it to be? Let me know in the sit-comments below! 🙂

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