Blockbuster, the new situational comedy on Netflix, is not good. The ten episode series is getting slated online, has dismal Rotten Tomato scores, and really isn’t entertaining. But is it the worst thing on Netflix? I dare say, no, it is not.
Blockbuster is a series about the last ever Blockbuster store and its misfit employees led by owner Randall Park. The series spends ten episodes worrying about how this last store is going to go out of business, while Randall Park tries to woo his high school crush Melissa Fumero, who spends all ten episodes trying to make it work with her cheating husband.
Blockbuster Is Not Good
Other than Randall Park and Melissa Fumero, none of the other characters in this series are all that interesting. Sweet old lady with no friends. Ditzy employee who is cheap. Bisexual guy who wants to be a filmmaker and is working in a video store because that’s what Tarantino did. Bitchy millennial who always has her nose in her phone because she’s a bitchy millennial. And her father, the owner of the strip mall, who also happens to be Randall Park’s best friend.
The worst thing I can say about Blockbuster is that it is just really boring. It’s not funny. I don’t think I laughed even once. Not even a snigger. The series has no heart. It has no endearing characters. It has no sweet moments. No warm fuzzies. Netflix’s Blockbuster has nothing going for it. But the one important thing that Netflix’s Blockbuster didn’t do was insult me as an audience. It didn’t make me angry.
No, Blockbuster Didn’t Make Me Angry
But you know what did make me angry? Hubie Halloween did. The Pentaverate did. So did Guardians of Justice. Ditto Pasal Kau, and Frontliner, and Kongsi Raya, and Sa Balik Baju. The Bubble was terrible. The 365 Days trilogy (or dare i say, threesome) of movies were absolutely infuriating.
“But Bahir,” you might say, “why are you calling out these shows specifically and not others?” Well, my dear (imaginary) reader, that is because the titles I listed above are all shows exclusively on Netflix. They aren’t movies that made a boat load of (possibly racist) money at the cinema and ended up on Netflix (*cough* Mat Kilau *cough*). In that instance, if I squint and try hard enough, I can just about see the business sense in that decision. But to spend good money on any one of those former titles just feel like criminal negligence.
Netflix’s Blockbuster is painfully unfunny, entirely without charm, and completely witless. But it didn’t make me angry. This ten episode series is perfect for when you want to “watch” something light on TV, but what you actually want to do is play with your phone and crush some candy (is Candy Crush still a thing?), and not feel like a weirdo sitting in your living room with the TV off.
Will Blockbuster be quietly canceled and forgotten? Probably. Just like Netflix’s previous attempts at sitcoms, Kevin James’ The Crew and Jamie Foxx’s Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!. Never heard of those shows? Go ahead, fire up Netflix and look them up.
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