When the video rental chain Blockbuster Video filed for bankruptcy in 2010, the world felt wistful but largely indifferent. After all, everyone loved Netflix’s cheaper, more flexible, and late fee-free DVDs-by-mail service. But as these things go, the generation that grew up renting movies and games from Blockbuster started to get really nostalgic about it as time went on, longing for the days of perusing its many aisles.
Further fanning the flames of this retrospective love is that public opinion on Netflix and the other streaming services had begun to sour going into the 2020s — price hikes, content purges, and simply too many options had people longing for simpler times. All this came together to set the stage for a workplace comedy set in a Blockbuster store, seemingly the perfect place to set a comedy and at the exact right time to do so. The cast was impressive, too, with sitcom stars Randall Park and Melissa Fumero hopping aboard from “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” respectively. But perfect timing, a nostalgic premise, and a strong cast don’t mean a thing if the show itself is nothing special, and “Blockbuster” ended up with an unremarkable 23% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Netflix, which ironically produced and distributed the show, infamously doesn’t waste any time axing a show that isn’t living up to the streamer’s ratings standards, and it announced that “Blockbuster” wouldn’t get a second season just a month after launching the first. The news prompted The AV Club to say exactly what everyone was thinking: “Netflix killed Blockbuster again.”