Four years ago, a Blockbuster video rental store in the town of Bend, Oregon, became the last one still in business. That’s the surface-level inspiration for the new Netflix sitcom called, simply enough, “Blockbuster,” starring Randall Park and Melissa Fumero.
The show is created by Vanessa Ramos and the location has been changed to a strip mall somewhere in Michigan. Ramos’ credits also include “Superstore,” but whereas that show had a distinct point of view about retail work, “Blockbuster” is a lesser cousin, treating the video store as a backdrop — a setting — rather than a premise.
What a missed opportunity! Video stores are such a specific world. Blockbuster helped wipe out mom and pop video stores and now this lone remaining franchise is essentially becoming an indie store itself, with corporate no longer in existence thanks to (checks notes) the streaming platform on which you are watching this very show. A line in the first episode acknowledges the irony of it all, but the show itself is mostly uninterested in the narrative possibilities of what it means to be an operation with such a niche customer base.
