Unpacking the Irony of the New Netflix Comedy "Blockbuster"

Created by Superstore and Brooklyn 99 writer Vanessa Ramos and executive produced by Happy Endings creator David Caspe among many others comes Blockbuster the fictional telling of what happened when the reallife prestreaming video giant39s Bend Oregon location became the last standing Blockbuster Video in the entire world Starring Fresh Off The Boat39s Randall Park as store manager Timmy Brooklyn 9939s Melissa Fumero as his number two Eliza In The Heights39 Olga Merediz as Connie American Vandal39s Tyler Alvarez as Carlos Madeleine Arthur as Hannah and Kamaia Fairburn as Kayla Blockbuster follows this poloclad crew as they try to prevent the corporate beast turned locallyowned small business from becoming a thing of the pastSpeaking of the past I remember being a kid and taking those coveted trips to the local Blockbuster with my mom My brothers and I would split up to hit different aisles beg for candy we knew we couldnamp8217t have and vote on what couple of flicks the family was taking home that night Physically being there in the store was an integral part of all the fun It was a pure and simple experience and I relish those memoriesBlockbuster the TV show not unlike the eponymously named video storeamp8217s business model is also pretty simple Modern technology has all but eliminated the need for brick and mortar video rental stores now not unlike the effect that Amazon has had on many locallyowned businesses I mean who needs to leave their home when the things they want can come to them This of course makes it impossible for people to do what theyamp8217ve always done when shopping facetoface connect There arenamp8217t exactly any aisles to run down on Netflix you know Timmy is desperate to keep his Blockbusteramp8217s doors open for that exact reason Well that and the fact that his store is a financial and emotional necessity for his employees For most of them the money made working there is absolutely needed For the rest just being there is the best part of their day whether theyamp8217ll admit it or not because they get to spend each of those days with the family they chose amp8211 their work familyBesides all that A plot stuff it turns out that Timmy Eliza and Percy the owner of the minimall where this Blockbuster is located played by JB Smoove all went to high school together and Timmy39s had a crush on Eliza ever since Now that Eliza has returned to the store because of the financial strain of her divorce from her cheating husband Aaron Leonard Robinson there may be some hope for her and Timmy Yes Eliza is attempting to work things out with Aaron who does seem like he39s trying but remember in The Office Pam wasn39t exactly single when she and Jim met and we all know how that played outThe only thing is when it comes to this show I can39t really put my finger on what it might be that feels just a little off because something surely does even though on paper all the pieces are there However I might not have to have to put my finger on it because they may have put their own finger on it so to speak through ElizaIn the first episode during the crescendo of a rallying moment between Tim and his employees Eliza chimes in with quotIsn39t it ironic that the small business taking a stand against the big corporation in this scenario is actually a franchise of a once huge corporation named after the exact type of big corporate movies that killed off smaller moviesquotNow while that is an astute observation the takeaway for me were the words quotthe small business taking a stand against the big corporationquot I find that phrasing to be if nothing else inaccurate because in reality there is no big bad corporation for them to fight The show literally begins with Tim getting his final call from corporate because all the offices had been liquidated That39s how they became the last store because there39s literally nothing else left of the business Therefore Tim and the gang aren39t fighting anyone or anything specific other than the same possibility of going out of business faced by every small business ownerThis is where I believe this feeling of amp8220offamp8221ness I described is originating from The show lacks a clear enemy In Superstore it was Cloud Nine corporate In Brooklyn 99 it was usually actual bad guys In Community it was City College and in Happy Endingsamp8230 well that show didnamp8217t really have a clear bad guy either but itamp8217s also the only one I just mentioned that only made it to three seasons so make of that what you will The point is that enemies may not have constantly loomed over every episode but every once in a while the team would have to pull together to deal with these specific external threats Thatamp8217s something Iamp8217m just not getting in this show Probably because just to sort of build off of what Eliza was trying to say the company making this show is the same one that put the company the showamp8217s about out of business in the first place Admittedly itamp8217s a tricky position to be inLook the talent is proven the money is there productionwise and the people behind the scenes have pumped out a number of very successful comediesamp8230 but whether or not Blockbuster will be one of them still remains to be seen I feel like the tide would truly change in this showamp8217s favor if the showrunners made a serious effort to capture the nostalgia of actually being in a Blockbuster sort of like how the movie Waitingamp8230 perfectly encapsulated the experience of being a restaurant server in the mid2000s That and solving the clear enemy problem would go a long way Hopefully something happens because this is one rental I really hope we get to hold onto for a whileBlockbuster can be binged on NetflixClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of 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Unpacking the Irony of the New Netflix Comedy "Blockbuster"

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Ainsley Andrade

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Unpacking the Irony of the New Netflix Comedy "Blockbuster"

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