Blockbuster

Yeap, the irony on this is gigantic.

I made a HUGE effort to like this, since I really enjoy Park and Fumero. Also, the main purpose of the show was very intriguing for me.

The pilot episode wasn't funny at all, but i thought that's ok, because many many shows kind of fails on the pilot, since the characters are not comfortable yet, but from the next ones on, get better (Friends and Big Bang Theory are two good examples of this).

The thing is, I saw the second, then the third, and no single laughs were given at all. By the middle of the fourth episode (see, I was REALLY trying), I just couldn't bare this anymore. I felt really bad for the actors, because they seemed like that stand comedy that the host didn't managed to get the audience, but anyway has to stay on stage till the end of the show.

Anyway, it's really ironic how the company that ended Blockbuster's business, had the ability to do it one more time.

2 stars for effort. Dont waste your time

Im an 80's kid and when i saw the trailer i was pretty excited. The idea of an nostalgic experience being produced by the very company that destroyed Blockbuster was hilarious.

Exactly who is your target audience here?

People that know what blockbuster is. Mixing that up with present day jokes, if you call them jokes, to make it more familiar to the younger audience kind of defeats the purpose of nostalgia.

Jokes on Netflix as this was absolutely horrendous comedic writing. Zero substance. I cant imagine how executives over at Netflix green lit this after hearing crazy stories of Jo Koy and a few others being turned down. Are they deaf? The comedy is so dry its worse than Space Force.

I can only see this as adding to Netflix's downfall.

I'm a millennial born in the late eighties, so Blockbuster was a huge cornerstone of my childhood and teenage years. The people there knew my brother and I by name, and even gave us some free copies of things over the years because we would rent them so often. I have a huge nostalgia for the people and place as a result, so I thought I would really love this show, especially since I loved Superstore, which has some related producers/writers.

It's sadly nowhere near as good as Superstore. I don't think it's self-aware or clever enough to be airing on a place like Netflix, given that Netflix is the biggest reason why Blockbuster went out of business in the first place. The actors all do a pretty decent job, but the jokes just don't land as well as they could or should, often leaving me just smiling rather than laughing out loud.

Having said that, it's also nowhere near as bad as a 1, 2, or 3-star show, which is the majority of the ratings on here. That's shockingly low for what's actually here, so I'm not quite sure where those numbers are coming from since it's a very inoffensive comedy. The worst you could call it is mediocre.

It may be worth a watch if you're an elder millennial or Gen X and have that nostalgia, but I wouldn't expect it to be as good as Superstore.

So...Objectively this sucks. BUT. But. It's obvious the cast also know it sucks and are totally phoning it in, which makes for quite the happy accident: Melissa Fumero is full on playing B99's Amy Santiago. She's slipped her on like a broken-in pair of shoes and she's totally unapologetic about it. That has lead me to go meta with my viewing experience and watch it as a piece of so bad it's good B99 AU fanfiction, and honestly I'm loving it. How did Amy end up in this universe? Is it a multiverse situation? Is she in a coma? She's found another cute but immature manboy to have a will-they-won't-they situation with, does that mean every Amy in the multiverse has a type or is it her subconscious trying desperately to remember Jake but unable to picture his face? What's the connection to Blockbuster? Jake still has his membership, could this be the key? Why is Rosa's mom there? The plot is predictable, the dialogue is generic, the characters are bland, but I can totally buy that as just being down to the creative limitations of Amy's subconscious which pushes me further towards the coma theory. If it is all taking part in her subconscious that raises the question of what happened to her? Did it happen on the job? Was it a perp? What's happening at the 99, how crazy is everyone going trying to catch the guy? Is Jake holding it together? It's Jake, he's totally not holding it together. And what does it say about her that she's imagining herself as a Harvard dropout working in a dying franchise video store? She was always super competitive, does she feel like she's settled with Jake and the kid? Or is it just her subconscious screaming at her to wake up before her lack of consciousness destroys her roadmap to becoming the youngest Captain in the NYPD? Seriously. So. Much. *100% headcanon* intrigue going on, get on board, you won't be disappointed.

If you can't get on board though, ok yeah it's just straight up trash, don't waste your time.

I couldn't even make it through the first episode. It just really wasn't funny to me at all. It didn't bring back any nostalgic feelings of renting videos. But then again, blockbuster in my opinion is the least nostalgic of any place that I rented videos. Once blockbuster became big, it felt more corporate. Video update, AV Video, and others are much more nostalgic, as someone who grew up in the late 80s, 90s and early 2000s. I was very disappointed because I love shows like superstore, parks and rec, the office, Brooklyn 99 (aside from the newest season which I couldn't stand), etc. This just felt poorly written. The lead actor is not a good fit for the role at all and I couldn't relate with the teenagers at all. Melissa fumero is also one of my least favorite Brooklyn 99 actresses. I had high hopes, but sadly, I cannot continue with this show.