Superstore review: The season 4 premiere tackles #MeToo

Superstore kicks off its fourth season with some funny jokes and a bigger message. 

Look, by now, every show on TV has covered the #MeToo movement in some form or other. Superstore, like its predecessors, had to comment on the cultural revolution taking shape while working at a scheduling disadvantage. This late in the game, what could the show contribute to the conversation that would feel new and fresh, not repetitive blowharding?

It turns out, a lot.

Superstore’s always been one of those shows that roots its comedy in reality. It doesn’t need outlandish storylines or quirky scene-stealing characters to garner laughs — it’s got both, but it doesn’t need them. That’s because the humor found in working a retail job at a big box department store, the struggle of the middle-class, and the reality of diversity, what it takes to get along with people with whom you have nothing in common, is intrinsic to begin with. It’s also relatable, which is how the show’s fourth season premiere felt.

After Amy and Jonah return to work following their cringe-worthy sex tape — or as Cheyenne astutely points out, sex-stream — they expect to bear the brunt of some lewd, relentless sex jokes. It’s only fair, right? Except, as it turns out, Jonah is the only one on the receiving end of crude nicknames — call him Bone, J-Bone — and ribbing from his male co-workers, who view his escapade as a manly conquering, not an equally-participatory venture.

Jonah, being the woke male feminist that he is, argues this while feeling exhausted by the whole conversation. Amy on the other hand, couldn’t be more upset that she’s essentially gotten off scot-free because of her gender. You see, as a fumbling Glenn points out, women historically are taught to feel shame when it comes to anything sexual. It’s probably a left-over remnant of our Puritan beginnings or some nonsense, and Amy is just not buying it. She’s a grown woman, a mother, and a human being who enjoys the act of sex, something she basically shouts from the store floor to her gathered cohorts.

SUPERSTORE — “Back to School” Episode 401 — Pictured: Nico Santos as Mateo — (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)

Unfortunately, one of the new employees, a prepubescent boy completely unequipped for the maturity of the situation, views Amy’s declaration as an invitation, naturally. Because if a woman talks about liking sex, she must want it with any guy available, right? His come-on prompts Dinah and Glenn to hold a meeting about sexual harassment which results in a hilarious Q&A about Amy and Jonah’s photo-room encounter, led by a fed-up Amy. She answers every query in excruciating detail, literally boring her co-workers to tears, until the topic of sex, and how she should feel about it, no longer feels taboo, like some kind of shameful secret kept in the dark.

This commentary on #MeToo and Time’s Up is subtle and filled with quick-witted jabs It’s also one of the most effective treatments of the subject I’ve seen on TV and that’s largely because Superstore doubles down on what it does so well with this episode: showing all sides of the conversation.

With Glenn, we see a man from a bygone era — one where women bore harassment in silence, where a slap on the rear was a good-natured hello. Glenn’s a decent man, one who genuinely wishes to do well by people despite his naive, narrow worldview, so of course, the show uses him here to portray how older generations might confusedly approach the topic of consent. And because Mark McKinney is so darn funny, we can’t help but laugh at his bungling of the whole situation.

In the break room, Elias and Marcus provide the typical bro-centric view of sex, fist bumping and high-fiving Jonah on his “shredding” abilities — as if sex is an inherently dominant act for a man and a submissive act for a woman. Dinah argues that it’s Amy, with her supervisor title, that actually controlled the situation, putting a woman in a position of power normally held by men. From there, a nuanced, joke-filled back-and-forth happens. Did Amy take advantage of Jonah? Did Jonah feels compelled to have sex with Amy because she held a higher title?

By the end of the episode, we get an answer to a question fans have been asking since last season’s finale. The will-they-won’t-they aspect of Jonah and Amy’s relationship has always been a hook the show relied on to keep viewers coming back week after week, but it looks like the writers have finally decided they will, and they’re using the full potential of that decision by having the couple smash some societal norms.

It turns out, sex between Amy and Jonah was a mutually gratifying experience, not an embarrassing hookup for the woman involved, or a conquest that served as proof of masculinity for the man. It was a natural progression in the relationship between two consenting adults who were attracted to one another. Shocking, we know.

Look, maybe you come to Superstore just for the laughs. That’s fine. There are plenty of them. But hopefully, between the jokes you read the subtext the writers clearly put work in to provide. Because it’s intelligent and thoughtful, and eye-opening, and what the world needs right now.