Over the past couple of television seasons, one of the most pleasant surprises has been the NBC workplace sitcom Superstore . Given that the show premiered to little fanfare in January 2016 as a midseason replacement show (after having aired two preview episodes the previous November), it's safe to say no one had sky-high expectations for the comedy — and yet it managed to delight audiences enough to receive a Season 2 renewal. Now that sophomore season is halfway over, and the sitcom is about to air its midseason finale this week. Fans may be wondering, when does Superstore return for the rest of Season 2?
The show is currently scheduled to air its final episode of the fall on Thursday, Nov. 10, a one-hour block consisting of two back-to-back episodes. Then, for the rest of November and December, the employees of fictional big box store Cloud 9 (as well as the show's audience, most likely) will be too busy with the holiday season to air any new episodes for a couple of months. Fortunately, fans won't have to wait too long to go on their next shopping spree; according to The Futon Critic, Superstore will be back in business on Thursday, Jan. 5, only eight short weeks after it will have gone on hiatus — eight weeks filled with turkey and presents and time with the in-laws, no less. It'll fly by.
(That's the same day that fellow NBC Thursday night programs Chicago Med and The Blacklist are also currently scheduled to return.)
The two episodes still to come this week will give viewers plenty of holiday cheer to get them through the two sad, impending months without Superstore. In "Seasonal Help," the first half of the one-hour special, "Cloud 9 hires a group of unruly seasonal employees to help over the holidays," and the problem will apparently be compounded when "Glenn hires Amy's husband as an accidental favor." Whoops! That'll be followed up with "Black Friday," in which "Cloud 9 braces for the biggest shopping day of the year when the employees all suddenly get sick." Somebody brewed some bad egg nog, methinks…
As a show, Superstore was undoubtedly a tricky proposition; it could easily have come across as condescending towards Cloud 9's sad sack employees and their finicky customers. But instead, like NBC's own equally tricky Community before it, the writers have struck a perfect balance of humor and heart, finding humanity in their characters and meaning in storylines about minimum wage, teenage pregnancy, and unionizing. It's gratifying to see that Superstore has found an audience that eagerly awaits each new episode, and that the sitcom is helping to reestablish NBC's waning comedy brand, alongside equally hilarious freshman series The Good Place.
So be sure to tune in when Superstore returns in 2017 to help the show keep going strong! And in the meantime… have a heavenly day!
Images: Trae Patton/NBC; Giphy
