S04.E10: Cloud 9 Academy

[Jaded]

Quote

Amy and Cheyenne attend Cloud 9 Academy to advance their careers; Dina and Garrett get roped into baby-sitting Glenn's daughter while he childproofs his office; Jonah and Mateo become political activists.

Aired: 3/7/2019

[Aulty]

Not as strong as some of the other episodes this season.

Some of the academy stuff was hard to watch, but the bit with the certificates was amusing. Someone needs to sit Cheyenne down for a talk.

Dinah and Garret are so compatible, they could be the real power couple of Superstore!

Oh Matteo. He will always jump for the most convenient solution without thinking it through.

[AnimeMania]

I thought it was really irresponsible of Cheyenne not to take ownership of her bad ideas after she forced Amy to include them. Overall a pretty weak episode to return on, certainly can't say they didn't have time to write something funnier. Liked the idea that people would just throw their kids in a pen while they went off to do their shopping. Didn't like that lady sitting in the middle on the aisle answering phone calls, looked like she was right in front of the warehouse doors.

[Trillium]

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I thought it was really irresponsible of Cheyenne not to take ownership of her bad ideas after she forced Amy to include them. Overall a pretty weak episode to return on, certainly can't say they didn't have time to write something funnier. Liked the idea that people would just throw their kids in a pen while they went off to do their shopping. Didn't like that lady sitting in the middle on the aisle answering phone calls, looked like she was right in front of the warehouse doors.

There were a few funny moments, mostly with Dina and Garrett, but the rest was meh. Although I wanted to see more of Barney from the accounting firm the mortuary. 

Theres a grocery store where I live that does have a drop in daycare. I once saw a couple drop their kids off, go have dinner together in the deli and then grocery shop. I wasn’t sure it it was weird or brilliant. 

[Suzysite]

I'm usually pretty quick to jump on Amy for her nastiness, but this time I had her back.  Cheyenne was out of her element, and throwing Amy under the bus when her ridiculous ideas were rejected seemed somewhat over the top.  She's always been kind of dumb, but never mean and selfish.   Maybe she's been hanging out with Mateo too much.     He is the worst.   The WORST. 

[Texasmom1970]

Dina and Garret realizing she was feeding the wrong baby!

[MakeMeLaugh]

Probably the least funny episode in quite a while, as in, Why is Glenn babyproofing his office in the first place when he leaves the baby with lunatics in the meantime (and I so love those two lunatics)? Why didn’t Glenn just take the bubblewrap or whatever off the doorknob so he could open the door? Or just call someone else to open the door after the first call didn’t work? 

Amy is just not funny when she is annoying. Blah.

[JasmineFlower]

I thought Amy got exactly the experience at Cloud 9 Academy she deserved. If she's serious about this, why is she taking Cheyenne to this with her? She's got to stop trying to constantly save Cheyenne at every turn especially when the girl is not asking or looking to be saved. This was not the time to ever invite someone as unfocused and ridiculous as Cheyenne if her true focus was on advancing within the company. There wasn't a moment out of juvenile acting Cheyenne that was unpredictable. There is a reason she's so friendly with Mateo, she has both the juvenile and the mean girl inside of her. Amy thinking that Cheyenne is some version of her has always been ridiculous and this shows yet again that she is misguided in thinking this way.

This was not a strong episode, which really sucks as the first episode back in a very long time. Way better for the second or third to be weak, I hope it doesn't lose to many viewers because of it. But at least we got Dina and Garrett scenes, a strong episode from Sayid who sure does make the most of his short appearances, and the ending lines between an actively breastfeeding Dina and Garrett of "You mean this is..." "A crime...YEAH!"

Edited March 8, 2019 by JasmineFlower

[ClareWalks]

UGH that was terrible. Cheyenne was insufferable. Glenn was too stupid (why babyproof when your kid is nowhere near crawling?!). The other plots were dull.

[Kip Hackman]

10 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

certainly can't say they didn't have time to write something funnier.

The show didn't go on hiatus. As far as I can tell, it's been in production the whole time.  NBC just held back on airing the episodes.

I doubt that the show's shooting schedule changed at all.

Definitely a mehpisode for me, but I'm just glad to have the show back.

Edited March 8, 2019 by Kip Hackman

[juliet73]

Disappointed in this ep. Dina and Garrett were the highlights. I didn't care for Mateo storyline or Cheyenne being jerky instead of her usual ditzy. Glen baby proofing his office for an infant who is going to be in the store for one day was stupid. 

[iMonrey]

Ditto to what JasmineFlower wrote. I thought maybe I missed something. Why on earth would Amy bring Cheyenne with her to this thing? 

[topanga]

6 hours ago, Texasmom1970 said:

Dina and Garret realizing she was feeding the wrong baby!

This storyline was the best part of a so-so ep for me. I want those two crazy kids to get back together. 

[theatremouse]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Ditto to what JasmineFlower wrote. I thought maybe I missed something. Why on earth would Amy bring Cheyenne with her to this thing? 

Wasn't the last we saw of Cheyenne before this the epic carpool logistics hooplah? If so, and Amy knew about how Cheyenne took that and ran with it, then I could see her thinking well maybe Cheyenne just needs a challenge, maybe she's got this in her. But then, they're in the training, and nope. It's same ol' Cheyenne we've seen all along.

I hated watching the role play scene because even if all the details Cheyenne were adding in weren't rude and defamatory, that's not the scenario they were supposed to be role-playing. The leader of the thing should've reined that in because on the one hand, it might be interesting to see how Amy reacted, and they both tanked, it was really not the point of the exercise.

[topanga]

22 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

Wasn't the last we saw of Cheyenne before this the epic carpool logistics hooplah? If so, and Amy knew about how Cheyenne took that and ran with it, then I could see her thinking well maybe Cheyenne just needs a challenge, maybe she's got this in her. But then, they're in the training, and nope. It's same ol' Cheyenne we've seen all along.

I hated watching the role play scene because even if all the details Cheyenne were adding in weren't rude and defamatory, that's not the scenario they were supposed to be role-playing. The leader of the thing should've reined that in because on the one hand, it might be interesting to see how Amy reacted, and they both tanked, it was really not the point of the exercise.

But the teacher already didn't like Amy because she 1) talked to him during his break and 1) laughed at his joke, thereby interrupting him. Not that entertaining, but typical sit-com stuff. This show is usually smarter than that. Oh, well. 

[JasmineFlower]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Ditto to what JasmineFlower wrote. I thought maybe I missed something. Why on earth would Amy bring Cheyenne with her to this thing? 

When they were introducing themselves at the embalming conference at the beginning, Cheyenne said that Amy suggested that she come to the program and Cheyenne thought why not as long as Amy would give her a ride. I have no idea other than what I mentioned above what would possess Amy to invite her to this training when she's placing such a high value on the idea of advancing at Cloud 9 now.

And nothing in this episode dispelled the idea that she isn't taking this seriously. She was focused enough on the training that she didn't care about not sitting near Cheyenne and wanting to focus on the training, and that was well before Cheyenne showed her ass in that group project. So the invite doesn't really make sense. I get not wanting Amy at the training on her own, but they could've used Jonah, had Jeff turn up somehow, or tuned someone at the training into her buddy and become a recurring character we can see during this journey Amy is on. This was bad. And lazy writing.

[WednesdayAddams]

Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like Cheyenne in this. I don't like watching uncomfortable situations (looking at you, Ben Stiller movies), so the whole academy thing was hard to watch. I agree, the leader should have said something during the skit. It was so uncalled for, whether she disturbed his break or not. 

[VartanFan]

Yeah, Cheyenne sucked. Amy was right to apologize for Cheyenne should’ve also.  I also thought the inclusion of Cheyenne’s obviously bad ideas showed some weakness in Amy’s ability to manage. If she wants to be the boss, she’ll have to have difficult conversations and be able to fully shoot down ideas. 

At the end, I thought the joke was going to be that GLENN picked up the wrong baby. Oops. 

And wouldnt being a gay person be enough to be unsafe in a regime with human rights abuses?  

[msrachelj]

i hate bathroom humor. glenn pooping in the office wastebasket was disgusting. who finds this stuff funny? it's so friggin immature and gross. i believe there was another reference to poop previous to that also. i mostly hated this episode save for dina a garrett.

[Irlandesa]

I must have been in the right mood to laugh because I laughed quite a bit during this episode even though I do understand many of the character-based complaints.

Besides Dina and Garrett, my favorite moment was when Jonah and Mateo asked Sandra what she was doing that night and she told them she had to pull the plug on her grandmother.  And when they told her what they wanted her for, she fessed that she made that up so people wouldn't think she had nothing going on.  It cracks me up that her idea of "showing them I have a life outside" is killing her grandmother.

[silverspoons]

I was disappointed  after the long wait. Sandra and Mateo were the highlights of the episode for me. 

I found the cloud 9 training to be hard to watch. I thought at first , Cheyenne was going to be picked over Amy but the whole feud did not go along with their previous relationship (or Cheyenne's personality). What is the purpose of Amy going to the management classes? Are they going to have her get her own store to manage? I guess that could be their idea of a series finale, the journey of Amy from struggling mom to store manager?

As much as at a time I was rooting for the Jonah and Amy love story (pre baby #2), right now I want to see more of Glenn and his family, Mateo, Garrett and Sandra, The supporting cast and the little side stories are funnier to me right now. 

[calguy]

On 3/8/2019 at 2:54 AM, AnimeMania said:

Overall a pretty weak episode to return on, certainly can't say they didn't have time to write something funnier.

Production of the show didn't go on a break just because the show went on hiatus. This episode would probably have been filmed in November.

[tennisgurl]

Rather weak episode, especially by this shows standards, but Sandra making up some dramatic sad story just to make it seem like she had plans, and then joining up with the group, was pretty hilarious. 

I dont know if Amy would be a very good manager, she doesent have great people skills. I mean, neither does Glenn exactly, so what do I know about the standards of Cloud 9 and their management track... 

I still ship the crap out of Dinah and Garrett.

Edited March 11, 2019 by tennisgurl

[possibilities]

On 3/9/2019 at 7:26 AM, VartanFan said:

And wouldnt being a gay person be enough to be unsafe in a regime with human rights abuses?  

It would. But the current administration has been rejecting asylum claims made on that basis, and has been deporting people to their deaths (I'm not making that up, I'm thinking of a specific case there was recently, where this happened, which was reported in the media). The show probably didn't want to send a message that the USA is a safe haven for LGBT asylum seekers when it's not, even if this is the sort of show which would likely think that it should be a valid reason.

When Amy said she'd been at Cloud 9 for 16 years, I kind of gasped. I had thought maybe 5 years. I guess it makes sense that this was probably her first job and she stuck with it because when would she ever have been in a position to leave? But it's kind of crazy that she never thought of trying to advance in the company before now, if she's been there that long.

Dina and Garrett really are fun to watch together.

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, possibilities said:

When Amy said she'd been at Cloud 9 for 16 years, I kind of gasped. I had thought maybe 5 years. I guess it makes sense that this was probably her first job and she stuck with it because when would she ever have been in a position to leave? But it's kind of crazy that she never thought of trying to advance in the company before now, if she's been there that long.

Amy was 2nd in command at the store before Jonah showed up and ruined her career.

[possibilities]

I thought Dina was second in command.

I don't really think it's fair to say Jonah ruined her career. She is the one who initiated what they did in the warehouse, and she had plenty of time to go to the training academy in the dozen or so years before she met him, but apparently she never even considered it.

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎08‎/‎2019 at 11:47 AM, juliet73 said:

Glen baby proofing his office for an infant who is going to be in the store for one day was stupid. 

But it was kind of over-the-top appropriate for Glen's character, though.

I'll go along with the crowd in saying the best part of this episode was Dina & Garrett baby-wrangling, and the rest was meh.

Edited March 11, 2019 by proserpina65

[proserpina65]

On ‎03‎/‎09‎/‎2019 at 7:26 AM, VartanFan said:

And wouldnt being a gay person be enough to be unsafe in a regime with human rights abuses?  

That was my thought.  I don't know a lot about Duterte, but I can't imagine he's down with the rainbow.

[kirkola]

On 3/8/2019 at 4:54 AM, AnimeMania said:

I thought it was really irresponsible of Cheyenne not to take ownership of her bad ideas after she forced Amy to include them. Overall a pretty weak episode to return on, certainly can't say they didn't have time to write something funnier. Liked the idea that people would just throw their kids in a pen while they went off to do their shopping. Didn't like that lady sitting in the middle on the aisle answering phone calls, looked like she was right in front of the warehouse doors.

The dropping your kid off things is real.  When I was working retail (during the Pokemon card craze), parents would just drive up, drop their kid off in front of our store, and leave.  We had Pokemon Saturdays and the parents must have thought it included free baby-sitting.  We also had a little TV and VCR in the kids area of the store, and parents would just leave toddlers there and wander through the store or the mall connected to the store.

I'm not sure which is worse, trying to calm a terrified toddler who just realized Mom and Dad are not nearby or trying to referee a 40-year-old and a 6-year-old who both insist that they "own" that Pokemon card.  Seriously, adults would play "if I win, I get this card" versions of Pokemon or the version where they got to keep the best of the kid's deck, while giving the kid absolute junk.

[OpalNightstream]

I liked this episode only bc it didn’t force “Jonah loves amy” on us. 

[gesundheit]

On 3/8/2019 at 10:21 AM, JasmineFlower said:

I thought Amy got exactly the experience at Cloud 9 Academy she deserved. If she's serious about this, why is she taking Cheyenne to this with her? She's got to stop trying to constantly save Cheyenne at every turn especially when the girl is not asking or looking to be saved. This was not the time to ever invite someone as unfocused and ridiculous as Cheyenne if her true focus was on advancing within the company. There wasn't a moment out of juvenile acting Cheyenne that was unpredictable."

Truth. I was so annoyed with Amy in this. First, she brings Cheyenne at all -- and yes, the girl is likable but Amy knows full well she's going to say ridiculous things and be a distraction. Then when the guy teaching the seminar tells her TWICE to stop interrupting him during his break, she comes back and interrupts him a third time and acts like he's the difficult one. Then she's completely nasty about all of Cheyenne's ideas (without explanation and just steamrolls over her), and then gets that that's not how to be a team, but then when Cheyenne's (admittedly dumb) ideas get criticized Amy throws her under the bus instead of trying to be a team player and show a hair of diplomacy. It really was not a good look on her, and she knows better. 

I don't get this character evolution. That was ugly, as was her getting so angry and exasperated a couple episodes ago at the entire staff trying frantically to cover for her dumb-ass popsicle mistake. These things really do not jibe with the Amy we've seen be big-hearted and often selfless in the past (even as recently as the Jonah's Parents episode).

Anyway, I'll stop grousing! The stuff back at the store was great fun. Did anyone notice the accidental babysitting "pen" also had a dog in it at one point? That cracked me right up. I also enjoy Jonah when they pair him up with Mateo.

[SmithW6079]

I turned this episode off three minutes in. I don't like embarrassment humor, and Amy's behavior was making me cringe.

[SnarkEnthusiast]

Jonah and Amy are the least alpha alpha couple I've seen on any show in recent memory. They're barely together or talking in scenes, and when they are, the writers are so desperate to tell us how much they like each other rather than just showing us. I feel like America is really constrained by the writers' insistence on keeping Amy anal and neurotic with zero nuance. She's just...not a loving or likable character. Ben carried their entire buildup because he can play pining ridiculously well, but at the end of the day, as a couple, there's no there there because the writers can only write Amy as harsh and frankly kind of grating.

 In contrast, Garrett and Din work so well because Colton and Lauren have a smooth, natural chemistry. Nothing is forced and the writers don't need to rely on contrived scenarios to beat us over the head with romantic/sexual tension. They're just two friends, hanging out, slowly admitting to themselves that they might be genuinely attracted to each other. It's very refreshing.

Edited March 13, 2019 by SnarkEnthusiast

[iMonrey]

I have to admit I did laugh when Cheyenne said she couldn't drive because her car had bees in it. Just like, WTF. 

[WAnglais1]

Meh. Glen behaved so OOC I was uncomfortable for MMcK. 

I love this show. I hope this week gets back on track.