Prediction. Years later, I'll look up this tweet. Me saying that as #Superstore wraps up its final season, it will be fully appreciated a few years later a lot more than it is right now. It is something very different from the typical workplace comedy. It has a cause.
It is all about showcasing the struggles of retail workers, the backbone of the modern American lifestyle. But without making it seem preachy or whiny (unless you're a thin skinned Ben Shapiro type who treats every expression of inequality like a sin). Most diverse cast.
And I don't use that superlative casually. I'm pretty sure #Superstore is THE most diverse cast ever of any scripted show on US network TV. And they regularly tackled politics. Every issue from the Trump years was covered, but with relevance to the plot. Of Walmart type workers.
Immigration, ICE raids, healthcare, racism, white supremacy, trumpism and this final season, the havoc of being a retail worker forced to go work in the middle of a pandemic. Because you have to feed your family. While privileged assholes try to walk in without masks.
Superstore always keeps a laugh handy. It always covers dark themes of the plight of people working for minimum or almost minimum wage to keep the US service economy running without any real safety net. But without seeming too dark. It is way more real than Office, Parks&Rec.
The thing is, it is not high quality transformative global appeal comedy like, say, Schitt's Creek. It is still solid and hilarious and cute. But it's not a breakout type show. Yet. But I think its appeal will grow over the years. Like Fawlty Towers. It's just so real.
The thing is, it feels real to me because I know people like this. For whom a flat tire can be the difference between making rent or not. But to the outside world, it will seem like just another sitcom. This one showed an ICE raid in terrifying detail. It was so awkward to watch
This goofy flamboyant judgmental quirky character discovers in his 20s that he is undocumented and is suddenly picked up by immigration agents and thrown in jail. That was reality for millions under Trump. Lives being upended overnight to gratify Stephen Miller.
Superstore not only has THE most diverse cast ever I've seen on network TV, it has that without a major character of indian or chinese origins. That's a pretty big feat for a casting director to pull off on a network like NBC with cabinets full of those resumes.
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