SUPERSTORE Bosses on the Delicate Balancing Act of the Season 5 Premiere

As SUPERSTORE returns for its fifth season, it’ll be coming out of its biggest cliffhanger to date: Mateo (Nico Santos) was taken by ICE in the closing moments of season 4.

While that would be a difficult task no matter what, it’s also the first season that longtime vets of the show, Jonathan Green and Gabe Miller, are taking the lead as showrunners. (Series creator Justin Spitzer stepped back to develop other projects.)

With the knowledge they had to contend with the finale’s big moves—and yet still keep it feeling like an episode of the show—crafting the premiere “was kind of a balancing act,” Miller says. “We had some big questions to answer. We wanted to do it in a satisfying way that felt honored the reality of the situation we put Mateo in. But the goal was also to get back to the show that people know and love.”

“There were lots of discussions about how much of Mateo’s detention we were going to see versus how much everyone in the store dealing with the loss of Mateo,” adds Green.

And the Cloud 9 employees will have their hands full at the store, as corporate has sent in a robot to help accommodate them. “Actual stores are introducing more and more automation,” Miller says. “We thought that was really interesting in the context of our show, because they are presenting it to the workers as this is to make your lives easier. But obviously, there’s kind of a underlying threat to it.”

“You’ll need fewer and fewer human beings the more these robots are used,” Green points out. “Also, something something that ties into our ongoing unionizing arc: obviously, our employees are going to want to fight for protections against their jobs being taken by robots.”

The addition of the robot has had an unlikely side effect, too, Miller notes: “It’s not a new character, but rather a new presence in the store that everyone can react to.“

And a certain someone will be particularly annoyed by the robot, who was named Glen by the higher-ups. “That is [staying] its name, unfortunately for [our] Glenn,” Miller says. “That will continue to be there, sort of as a reminder to him—or a worry for him—about his place in the store.”

SUPERSTORE, Season Premiere, Thursday, September 26, 8/7c, NBC

RELATED:

• SUPERSTORE Season 5 Premiere: ‘Cloud 9.0’ Photos
• SUPERSTORE Season 5 Cast Photos
• SUPERSTORE Creator Explains the Show’s Unconventional Original Title
• The SUPERSTORE Cast Picks Episodes for Fans to Rewatch
• SUPERSTORE: Kaliko Kauahi on Sandra’s Surprise Engagement
• SUPERSTORE’s Nico Santos Reflects on the ‘Difficult,’ ‘Triggering’ Season 4 Finale
• Inside SUPERSTORE’s Cloud 9 Pop-Up at Comic-Con
• SUPERSTORE: Colton Dunn to Pen a Season 5 Episode
• SUPERSTORE’s Lauren Ash Shares What You Didn’t See in the Emotional Season Finale
• SUPERSTORE Finale Post-Mortem: Justin Spitzer on That Heartbreaking Twist
• On the Set of SUPERSTORE: Check Out Props and Costumes from the Comedy’s History
• SUPERSTORE: Colton Dunn Crashes Ben Feldman’s Interview

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/givememyremotetv