S04.E17: Quinceañera

[fishcakes]

Quote

Jonah struggles to find his place at Amy's daughter Emma's quinceañera, while Dina proves very popular with some teenage boys. Cheyenne and Mateo are obsessed with seeing Amy cry.

Air date: April 25, 2019

[Jaded]

WTH at that last part of the episode description? Ugh!

[SayMyName]

One of the world's great mysteries solved. So that is what DJs do when they are just playing full songs and act like they are busy.

[MrWhyt]

Hello Lauren Ash

[Manhands]

What was in the chocolate fountain? I kept rewinding and pausing. I could not figure out what that was. 

[calguy]

6 minutes ago, Manhands said:

What was in the chocolate fountain? I kept rewinding and pausing. I could not figure out what that was. 

I think it was bloody bandaid.

[BuckeyeLou]

1 hour ago, Manhands said:

What was in the chocolate fountain? I kept rewinding and pausing. I could not figure out what that was. 

It was a bloody band-aid that I assume fell off the hand of the little boy who kept sticking his hand in the chocolate fountain & licking his hand

Wasn't the actor playing Amy's Dad the same actor who portrayed Betty's Dad on "Ugly Betty"?(America Ferrerra playing both Amy & Betty)

[Irlandesa]

6 minutes ago, BuckeyeLou said:

Wasn't the actor playing Amy's Dad the same actor who portrayed Betty's Dad on "Ugly Betty"?(America Ferrerra playing both Amy & Betty)

Yes, that was Tony Plana.

[EarlGreyTea]

Dina is the hottest woman on the show (closely followed by Amy in that gorgeous dress). Those khakis they always make her wear do her NO favors. Also love how Garrett lovingly drew her boobs. The gentleman doth protest too much. "My friend," my ass!

A few of the party guests starred in "Real Women Have Curves" with America. It's nice to see her with them again. I wish Lupe Ontiveros was still around to play a relative of Amy's.

Please stop pairing up Cheyenne with Mateo. It's tired, it's been done, and both of them play off straight man characters better.

[rhys]

Glenn and his trying to be too cool for school about everything Latinx. Oh, Glenn, never change ya big doofus. That doll? Oy to the vey. 

[Texasmom1970]

If I had amazing girls like that I would have them out on display all the time!

[AnimeMania]

They forgot to write any jokes for this episode.

[dmeets]

Cheyenne’s getting worse every week. I’m ready for her to go back to Target full time.

[Aulty]

Why did Amy invite her colleagues from work? She's their boss now? And while I might understand why Dinah, Cheyenne and Glenn were there, it never felt that she was particularly close with Mateo or Garret.

Jonah could have done with a bit of weed. I hate over the top cringeworthy stuff as it is and they put him through a lot in this episode.

[Trillium]

Good points were:

Amy actually appreciated Jonah taking the bullet so the whole partying didn’t realize Emma was high as a kite, instead of getting made that he ruined the party. 

Dina and Garret. 

Amy smashing the microphone when Dina was going to give a self pleasure speech. 

And Jonah was right, Amy should have kicked Cheyanne back. And Mateo too just because. 

Edited April 26, 2019 by Trillium

[AnimeMania]

9 minutes ago, Trillium said:

And Jonah was right, Amy should have kicked Cheyanne back. And Mateo too just because. 

Roundhouses to the face for everybody!

[Suzysite]

4 hours ago, Aulty said:

I hate over the top cringeworthy stuff

This one was just awful.   I muted so much of it.  Cheyenne and Mateo should both be fired and off my TV forever.   They just terrible people.   Amy getting pushed around by those two, especially as their boss, is ridiculous.

The Jonah slapstick stuff was so bad.   The writing had better pick up soon.

[Empress1]

11 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Yes, that was Tony Plana.

He plays a lot of dads. He's also Penelope's (dead) dad on One Day at a Time.

23 minutes ago, Suzysite said:

This one was just awful.   I muted so much of it.  Cheyenne and Mateo should both be fired and off my TV forever.   They just terrible people.   Amy getting pushed around by those two, especially as their boss, is ridiculous.

When Cheyenne kicked Amy in the shin I was thinking, so you gon' fire her on the spot, right?

5 hours ago, Aulty said:

Why did Amy invite her colleagues from work? She's their boss now? And while I might understand why Dinah, Cheyenne and Glenn were there, it never felt that she was particularly close with Mateo or Garret.

This is one of my workplace show pet peeves. On Ask a Manager, occasionally someone will write in wondering if they should invite their colleagues to their wedding and I always think, if they're real friends, sure. If not, no. One of my colleagues at a previous job got married while we worked together and she invited two people from work that she was close to and didn't invite the rest of us, and that was fine with me. (Truth be told, I was glad she DIDN'T invite everyone because I didn't want to go.) Do people really want to go to their boss's kid's quinceanera? Especially given the salary info they now have - I'm not sure if gifts are traditionally given at a quinceanera but if they are, I would be irked about having to use my minimum wage salary to buy a gift for my boss's kid when I know my boss makes so much more than I do. 

I didn't like the Jonah slapstick stuff either. Dina looks very good with her hair down.

[Guest]

"Yay, another Cheyenne and Mateo plot!" said no one ever.

The Dina/Garrett stuff was great, but forcing the 15-year-old into it took away some comedy imo and was kind of creepy. By the end, the kid looked terrified of Dina and her dance moves lol.

Jonah helping high Emma was hilarious and sweet. "No it's ok, this is totally how normal people walk." They should've gone straight to that instead wasting time with the ice slapstick and cringe comedy. Although, since when did Jonah become a stammering nervous wreck in every situation? He's been very out of character lately. He's an overqualified guy with a dorky sense of humor and a bit of an undeserved superiority complex, not a socially awkward shrinking violet begging for approval.

Are the writers intentionally making Cheyenne and Mateo as bitchy and grating as possible to make Amy seem sympathetic/tolerable by comparison?

[fishcakes]

Amy's spangled below-the-knee-length dress was giving me flashbacks to 1986. It was like K-Mart had a sale on everything in the Krystal Carrington Collection.

[gesundheit]

7 minutes ago, SnarkEnthusiast said:

"Yay, another Cheyenne and Mateo plot!" said no one ever.

Guess it's an unpopular opinion, but I say it every time! Love those two. (Mateo doing the lip-quiver thing at the end of the song cracked me up.)

I agree with everyone not liking all of Jonah's slapstick stuff. It was just way too over the top. Sure, have him walk in and ruin the entrance. But then have him walk out like a human would do. Giving him basically an entire cringe monologue making it way worse was too much -- less is more, people! I know they're not aiming for verisimilitude here but the comedy didn't land.

Garrett obsessing over getting the video of all of Jonah's idiocy was funny, though.

Lauren Ash just gets better and better.

1 minute ago, fishcakes said:

Amy's spangled below-the-knee-length dress was giving me flashbacks to 1986. It was like K-Mart had a sale on everything in the Krystal Carrington Collection.

Yeah, I thought it was god-awful!

[LadyintheLoop]

Quote

Amy's spangled below-the-knee-length dress was giving me flashbacks to 1986. It was like K-Mart had a sale on everything in the Krystal Carrington Collection.

She looked ten years older in that dress, matronly instead of glamorous. Maybe we're supposed to believe she bought it at Cloud 9.

At least instead of saying, "Don't make the mistakes I did," which would wish Emma out of existence, Amy can say, "Don't turn out like Cheyenne."

Amy's name-of-the-day was Poot. Is she testing whether anyone's paying attention?

[EtheltoTillie]

Please fire Cheyenne immediately. Please. Please. Please. Come on. She’s been getting worse every week. Are they planning something where this eventually makes sense?

[MakeMeLaugh]

So not funny. Did they get new writers? Jonah was unnecessarily super-annoying from the first minute to the last—and Glenn is a close second. Cheyenne has gone from dumb and funny to dumb and mean. Show needs to get back to what works.

I do bow yet again to body-confident Lauren Ash; you got it, you flaunt it!

[AnimeMania]

4 hours ago, Trillium said:

Amy smashing the microphone when Dina was going to give a self pleasure speech.

Maybe Dina speech might have been the highlight of the show.

[HeySandyStrange]

8 hours ago, Aulty said:

Why did Amy invite her colleagues from work? She's their boss now? And while I might understand why Dinah, Cheyenne and Glenn were there, it never felt that she was particularly close with Mateo or Garret.

Amy isn't particularly close to Mateo, but at least in the earlier episodes her and Garret were pretty buddy buddy, especially in a "We are the two sane people here, let's play our sarcasm off each other to get through the day," sort of way. They haven't really had much of screen time together in a long time so it's easy to forget, which is too bad, because their sarcasm played well off each other imo.

The cringefest slapstick of this episode was mostly terrible and frankly, the show is moving too far away from what made it good in the first place. They've moved too far away from the realities of being a minimum wage worker in a big box stores and into fantasy land. I miss when they took on real issues (like crummy benefits and low pay) and the slice of live retail moments.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Do people really want to go to their boss's kid's quinceanera? Especially given the salary info they now have - I'm not sure if gifts are traditionally given at a quinceanera but if they are, I would be irked about having to use my minimum wage salary to buy a gift for my boss's kid when I know my boss makes so much more than I do. 

Yes, there was a gift table and a sign saying if the guests didn't bring a gift they could use Venmo.

I agree the stuff with Jonah was cringe-worthy. I don't know who gets a kick out of watching someone constantly thrown into super-awkward situations and coming off so badly but there must be lots of people who find this hysterical because the entire "Meet the Parents" franchise is based on that sort of humor. I found those movies cringe-worthy too. It's just one scene after the next of the main character made to look like an idiot.

[Artsda]

That wasn't funny at all.

[Empress1]

43 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Yes, there was a gift table and a sign saying if the guests didn't bring a gift they could use Venmo.

Right, I remember now - I thought the Venmo request was tacky.

[juliet73]

2 hours ago, MakeMeLaugh said:

So not funny. Did they get new writers? Jonah was unnecessarily super-annoying from the first minute to the last—and Glenn is a close second. Cheyenne has gone from dumb and funny to dumb and mean. Show needs to get back to what works.

Agree. The entire episode was awful!  I think the worst one yet - it was a major fail!  This season has been kind of hit or miss. 

IMO, the show should always be set in the store.  The lack of the secondary characters - Sandra, Marcos, Myrtle, Justine, etc - and the scenes with the weird customers were definitely missed during tonight's episode.

[gesundheit]

I didn't have a problem with all Amy's co-workers being there. They all hang out outside work -- the Golden Globes parties, Cheyenne's wedding, etc. They've also all been through a near-death experience together. They're friends, even if they're snarky friends who aren't necessarily all "close." (Frankly it bothers me less than when the whole damn cast was at Pam and Jim's Niagara Falls wedding on The Office. That really made no sense.)

But yeah, I'd much rather watch them at work. Other than Dina, they don't really explore how these people are different as their non-work selves, so it's not really worth it. The humor to mine in workplace comedies going out of the workplace is seeing how different people are people out of context. Instead, everyone's exactly the same in a different location.

Edited April 29, 2019 by gesundheit

[tennisgurl]

 Cheyenne and Mateo have just become such asshole lately, and they make each other worse, that its not that funny to watch anymore. They both work better with more of a straight man style character for them to work off of. 

So awkward, but it was sweet how Jonah tried to cover for Emma, and that Amy appreciated him looking like an idiot, again, for Emma. The actress who plays Emma did a good job, I thought her trying to walk while high was pretty funny. "Yeah, thats how a person walks."

I did love how at the end when Jonah did his awkward talk about virginity, Dina get a cheer and glass raise! Damn, Dina really did look amazing in that dress, she hides a whole lot in that unflattering Cloud 9 outfit. 

[Turtle Wexler]

I had to keep pausing this because of all the second-hand embarrassment that I kept feeling, mostly for Jonah.  It was beginning to grate that he kept getting into mess after mess, though I appreciated that at the end, Amy realized that he had been trying to help Emma save face.  Garrett's requests for the footage of Jonah's mishaps were hilarious, and very very "Garrett."  I kept going back and forth, though, on his and Dina's interactions with the kid.  I get that that subtext was to point out how into each other they are, but using a teenager as a foil for that was a bit creepy, as Snark Enthusiast pointed out.  I have liked Cheyenne and Mateo, but as others have said, they've started to annoy me, Cheyenne in particular.  And kicking Amy to hopefully make her cry?  What are you, a child?   

Loved seeing Tony Plana again, though!  

[JasmineFlower]

All those "save yourself" talks talking to Emma, felt like they were side-eye shaming Amy at the same time. I hope not, but I thought it odd to harp on that at this particular quinceañera. I'm hoping this writing was more someone was mocking the ones they went to and it was apart from Superstore. Because while Amy did marry the guy who got her pregnant, she definitely didn't save herself for marriage, something I'd think everyone there knows. So it felt wrong to harp on it especially when Emma is the product of that pre-marital sex.

When Dina was going on about talk of abstinence makes kids want to have sex more, and then she added "or it makes them want to try butt stuff. And hey? God bless." Mateo's face was a perfect reaction. Great little vignette, only time I enjoyed him all episode.

[Accidental Martyr]

Lauren Ash is gorgeous. That is all.

[possibilities]

I miss when the show was less about people being mean to each other and more about them being in an insane situation.

[calguy]

5 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

All those "save yourself" talks talking to Emma, felt like they were side-eye shaming Amy at the same time.

I think it's a way to comment on the fact that abstinence-only programs are ineffective.

[AnimeMania]

11 hours ago, JasmineFlower said:

All those "save yourself" talks talking to Emma, felt like they were side-eye shaming Amy at the same time. I hope not, but I thought it odd to harp on that at this particular quinceañera.

It might be an indictment that society only thinks the difference between being a girl and being a woman is having sex. There were no speeches about Emma studying hard, going to college and becoming an useful member of society. All anyone seems to care about was that she kept her legs closed. The time to give someone the birds and bees talk is not in a room with a hundred of your closest friends and relatives.

[ally862]

When Jonah wouldn't stop dancing with Emma I was sure it was the start of the characters break up over misunderstanding but character A can't tell character B the truth and we go back to the will they won't they tropw so I'm glad that didn't happen.

[MakeMeLaugh]

I wonder if the writers thought they could have a lot of fun with the Quincerañera and had to pull back some of the jokes because they were too insensitive culturally (the toasts were pretty bad in that light imo). I remember The Office did a great Diwali episode where Kelly took the staff to her family’s party that was one of the funniest episodes ever and not at all insensitive—maybe Superstore was trying for that. 

[ae2]

On 4/26/2019 at 10:53 AM, gesundheit said:

Lauren Ash just gets better and better.

No, they're real. Here, let me draw you a picture.

[chabelisaywow]

Glen and his Wiki cram session - thinking the pizza rolls were "pasteles de perro" (which translates to dog cakes).  hmmmm

[Kip Hackman]

Most times, Superstore is everything I loved about "The Office".

Sometimes, it's everything I disliked about "The Office".

This episode falls into the latter category.

[Jaded]

The last few episodes have had parts that I've FF'd through to help the show along. Lately it's been scenes with Cheyenne and Mateo due to what the writers have turned those characters into. With this episode I had to FF'd a bit to get through a couple of the Jonah scenes. I absolutely hated that last scene where Cheyenne kicked Amy's knee like that. It was stupid.

I'm hoping the changes behind the scenes concerning show runner changes might help turn this show around even a little next season. I'm hating what kind of people Cheyenne and Mateo are turning into and it's not a love to hate situation either.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I'm hoping the changes behind the scenes concerning show runner changes might help turn this show around even a little next season. I'm hating what kind of people Cheyenne and Mateo are turning into and it's not a love to hate situation either.

What's all this then? Is there going to be a new show runner next season?

[MakeMeLaugh]

10 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

What's all this then? Is there going to be a new show runner next season?

There is an article posted in the media thread: https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/superstore-justin-spitzer-showrunner-gabe-miller-jonthan-green-1203193509/

[topanga]

I agree with those who found many of the Jonah moments cringeworthy. Scenes like that are never funny to me. 

And is wrong to dislike Emma? Whenever she’s on my screen, she’s joyless and angsty. The one time I did like her was when she was high and didn’t know how to handle it. 

It’s funny that Jonah was the one who helped her out during another big moment in her life. The first was the episode when she started her period. But Emma was still sweet and likable back then. 

[festivus]

On 4/26/2019 at 1:26 PM, juliet73 said:

IMO, the show should always be set in the store.  The lack of the secondary characters - Sandra, Marcos, Myrtle, Justine, etc - and the scenes with the weird customers were definitely missed during tonight's episode.

Those characters and Dina are the only funny people left on the show. I hate awkward humor and it feels like they've been doing more of it lately like the Jonah stuff last night. Cheyenne and Mateo suck now. If it wasn't for Dina I would have already stopped watching.

[Turtle Wexler]

Coming back to ask--Was Parker there?  I realized that I completely forgot that Amy had a son--I don't know that I've ever forgotten a character/character's child before.  I know that it's hard to integrate him into the store scenes, obviously, but was anyone holding him at the quinceañera? 

[aradia22]

I don't remember Dina dressing so sexily until recently. Like, wasn't it a big deal when she wore the sexy cop outfit for Halloween? Now it seems like any time they aren't in their uniforms, the show takes the opportunity to put her in a revealing outfit. She also went from being obsessed with Jonah to kind of a maneater. I wish they would bother to explain her personal life beyond Garrett. Something doesn't check out. 

Jonah has always been awkward but the ice was a bit much. I feel like this is another instance of the show forcing humor instead of finding it naturally. Jonah was never a genius but he wasn't this incompetent before.

I did laugh at the way Amy threw down the mic before Dina gave her speech. She slammed it so hard. Like spiking a volleyball.

Emma putting her hand on Jonah's face to shut him up was also great. The show I love is still in there in the little moments. It's the big writing that's getting all messy.

I did like Jonah jumping in for the father daughter dance. I think they could have had that as the big moment and spent more time developing it that just having the jokes leading up to it with the ice and the speech. I know, rule of 3. But a smarter way to write that would have been to show something about Jonah and Emma's relationship instead of just having throwaway jokes leading up to the big joke. Because rule of 3 is played out. Because it is VERY Jonah to take on humiliation to save someone else. He's done it for Amy before. It was unnecessary to make him buffoonish and clumsy before that.