S05.E03: Super Duper Store Night

[Tara Ariano]

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Ben Feldman; Lauren Ash; Nico Santos; Cheri Oteri; Natalie Morales; and Ne-Yo are the celebrity game players.

[paigow]

Generally weak celebrities & Mismatched civilians.... wtf??? 

ETA: Already aired in Canada July 4

Edited July 6, 2017 by paigow

[BobH]

Also saw it in Canada, no spoilers, but looking forward to the podcast for reactions to a few things, especially the ridiculous "backyard" game.

[Primetimer]

There's so much business that Jane's fabulous game night only has time for four games. Boo.

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[gpgurl50]

I would have chosen Lauren for the finale round as well. She seemed to have a lot of knowledge.

I was thinking the easiest way to do the Get In My Pants game show at home is just using cheap wastebaskets and small balls like a nerf ball that you toss. Of course, then you lose the pants aspect. I would suggest buying the largest pants you could buy at a thrift store but people come in all different sizes so that's not a great plan.

The voice did stay on Superstore but the show is good. I think it gets better as it goes. It's very much an ensemble show.

[swimmyfish]

This was such a strange episode. On the one hand, Team Superstore was clearly there to win, and I appreciated both their sense of competition and that they still managed to make it fun. Also, I thought it was very nice that they stood and applauded for the male civilian after he lost that final round - it was a small moment, but it was very good sportsmanship.

On the other hand, why were there so few games? What were the kittens doing there? Not that I object to presence of kittens on principle because they're very cute and small, but, like, what were they doing there? Where did Ne-Yo get nachos? Why, if everyone was trying to steal Ne-Yo's nachos, couldn't they get their own nachos? So much "stuff" this week. I wonder if it was all planned, or if they ran into some issues during filming and had to wing it? It was weird.

Also, as much as I enjoyed Team Superstore, I do think it's a bit unbalanced to have one team that has pre-existing relationships and a history of working together against a team whose members are all meeting for the first time.  Bring back the Fresh Off the Boat team from a few seasons ago, and put them against Superstore, and then we'd really have a game.

I thought the final round picks were okay. I did initially think Lauren and Ne-Yo were the best picks, since they were the most invested players on respective teams - Ne-Yo maybe doesn't have the depth of pop culture knowledge you need, but he was into the game play at least. But I agree that anyone from Team Superstore would have been good. And I did like how genuinely happy everyone seemed for Amy when they won that final round.

So, in sum, this could have been a very good episode, but too much tomfoolery happening. More games, NBC - we are watching for the games.

[ajsnaves]

I wonder if something happened in one the five games that that just made it completely unusable, so they pulled it.  But they didn't have a replacement lined up.  Maybe they ran out of popcorn last week.  Then again at least one of the games last week was truncated too.  This better not be the new normal.

[iMonrey]

That was strange. I FF'd thru the kitten stuff but then realized there weren't as many games because of it, and the last one was split by a commercial break! I'd love to know the backstory on that.

It was also odd to have one team made up of one show and the other just team made of up random, disconnected celebs. And Cheri Oteri was awful at everything. 

But the female civilian (Amy?) was awesome. She killed it in "lend me a hand" and I knew she would win the bonus round too because she and Lauren did so well in the previous game.

Still not crazy about "song sung wrong" - feels like a vanity piece for Jane Lynch. Now, I like Jane, I really do, but she ain't that great a singer. I don't know if she thinks it's funny, or if she really thinks she's a great singer and someone is encouraging her to think so.  Also don't care for "casting couch" because it feels too luck-based. 

[rab01]

I've listened to Tara and Joe's podcast pretty regularly but this was the first time I've seen an episode in its entirety.  I'm going to stick to listening to the podcast, it's more fun than the show.

[LizDC]

12 hours ago, swimmyfish said:

I thought the final round picks were okay. I did initially think Lauren and Ne-Yo were the best picks, since they were the most invested players on respective teams - Ne-Yo maybe doesn't have the depth of pop culture knowledge you need, but he was into the game play at least.

I thought Natalie would have been a better choice than Ne-yo. She has all that Access Hollywood trivia rattling around in her brain. 

[Dewey Decimate]

Anyone familiar with that scene from the prison season of TWD in which Daryl's crooning to baby Judith had women's ovaries exploding around the country?

Ne-Yo's singing to the kittens (with kittens on his shoulders!) was my equivalent gooey moment.

[peeayebee]

When Jane introduced Team Superstore and then Team The Other Side, I thought "The Other Side" was some TV show I'd never heard of. How weird for the show to do this. Anyway, I love the cast of Superstore, so I liked this.

I got a kick out of Ne-Yo carrying around a plate of nachos. I wish he'd done that thruout the show.

I also appreciated when he was trying to give a clue for Jada Pickett Smith, said "Married to Will..." and stopped himself from saying Smith.

[BobH]

Have they done at least one "panelist sings/plays with the band" coming out of a commercial break every episode they season? I guess that's a thing they think people want to see.

I didn't much like the backyard game this episode. Just a little too goofy, not really challenging (I think each team only missed one or two, so it hardly affected the score), and not really challenging questions, although I did like the basic premise of the question portion. Never care for "Song Sung Wrong", I'm okay with "Casting Couch" and "Lend a Hand", though neither are high on my list of favourites, and nothing in these examples changed that. Don't like splitting the final competitive round with a commercial break (and only running four games), hope that isn't typical of the season (knowing they've all long since been filmed and are probably running in random order).

Like Tara, I mostly know Lauren Ash from Never Not Funny guesting, and I liked her, so I was glad she did well in the final round. I was afraid that Natalie Morales would be picked from the other team, which would have been a lot of red clothing on the screen. The contestant picked the same two I'd have gone with, so glad that worked out.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Everyone said last week Hardwick was mugging too much but this was just an episode of pure mug. From Jane feeling the need to sing, to Ne-Yo never putting down a plate of nachos and singing to kittens (WTF) to the terrible impersonations of Jodie Foster and Barbara Walters interview.

9 hours ago, BobH said:

Have they done at least one "panelist sings/plays with the band" coming out of a commercial break every episode they season?

They've done this on season's past as well. Or some variation, like celebs who play instruments doing so. I assume it's for the "live" audience during the commercial breaks, I would think you need to entertain them somehow.

[paigow]

Someone from WWE must have taken over the show...the outcomes are so obviously contrived...sub par civilian saddled with clueless celebs vs "babyface" civilian with ringer celebs. Maybe they are saving the better episodes for the end...

[peeayebee]

Yeah, Lauren's Jodie Foster impression wasn't very good. If I hadn't known who she was doing, I don't think I could have guessed right.

While the backyard pants game looked fun, it wasn't difficult. The only issue was if someone didn't know the show they were responsible for and so didn't make a run for it when they should. At least the Superstore team clued each other in.

I like Lend a Hand. It's kind of like charades, which is a game I love.

[jhlipton]

20 hours ago, LizDC said:

I thought Natalie would have been a better choice than Ne-yo. She has all that Access Hollywood trivia rattling around in her brain. 

That's what I thought too.  Plus, she's been on the show before, so she knows how the bonus round works.

17 hours ago, BobH said:

I didn't much like the backyard game this episode. Just a little too goofy, not really challenging (I think each team only missed one or two, so it hardly affected the score),

I just checked: "The Not-a-Store" team missed 3, compared with Superstore missing 1.  So a 4 point total, equivalent to the "Casting Couch" game.

[Frisson]

I hate when Jane sings. It's awful! Stop playing games that require it, for the love of all that is holy. 

[iMonrey]

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Yeah, Lauren's Jodie Foster impression wasn't very good. If I hadn't known who she was doing, I don't think I could have guessed right.

Not to mention the fact that Cheri Oteri's Barbara Walters impression is so 20 years ago.

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I hate when Jane sings. It's awful! Stop playing games that require it, for the love of all that is holy. 

The other problem is that it's just too much Jane, not enough game. There shouldn't be that much of a focus on the host. I think Jane generally does a good job setting up the games and moderating them, but Song Sung Wrong just feels like it's all about her rather than the game. Just a lot of her singing with brief interruptions by the players.

[Jaded]

On 7/7/2017 at 8:19 PM, Dewey Decimate said:

Ne-Yo's singing to the kittens (with kittens on his shoulders!) was my equivalent gooey moment.

That was my favorite part of the episode.

[JoshH]

@Joe Reid - I've never known anyone outside my hometown that remembers SuperDuper supmarkets. Excitement!

re: kittens; my son loved them, so I could throw no shade. But also... what?