Blockbuster. That word can be about a huge film that shatters box office records like Independence Day. But for every ‘80s and ‘90s kid in America, it conjures up a few familiar images and memories. We vividly remember seeing those bright yellow letters on that infamous logo on a Friday night. We’d hop out the family vehicle and head into the video store, perusing the aisles with ridiculous excitement over our movie choice. Those days are sadly gone with the now-defunct chain (there’s only one privately owned store in Bend, Oregon.) But a new Netflix show is tapping into the Blockbuster nostalgia. The series, aptly titled Blockbuster, seems like it will be a delight based on its first look photo. Blockbuster stars Randall Park and Melissa Fumero as two people working in the last store in the famous franchise.
It will be a one camera workplace comedy in the vein of The Office, digging into those candid daily moments and showing what it takes to make a small business work. The synopsis is as follows:
Timmy Yoon (Randall Park) Is an analog dreamer living in a 5G world. And after learning he is operating the last Blockbuster Video in America, Timmy and his staff employees (including his long-time crush, Eliza (Melissa Fumero) fight to stay relevant. The only way to succeed is to remind their community that they provide something big corporations can’t: human connection.
Blockbuster will premiere on November 3, 2022. The show has 10 episodes, each clocking in at 30 minutes.
We don’t have a trailer yet, but Netflix did bless fans with the above photo of Randall Park’s Timmy and Melissa Fumero’s Eliza. We see the pair in their Blockbuster uniforms holding up DVD rentals behind the store’s checkout counter.
The below photos show off the cast which includes Randall Park as Timmy Yoon, Melissa Fumero as Eliza Walker, Tyler Alvarez as Carlos Herrera, Madeleine Arthur as Hannah Hadman, Olga Merediz as Connie Serrano, JB Smoove as Percy Scott, and Kamaia Fairburn as Kayla Scott.
The concept of Netflix doing a Blockbuster show is wild to me. Netflix began as a rental service that couldn’t compete with Blockbuster in the late ‘90s. Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, a.k.a. Netflix’s founders, couldn’t get Blockbuster to buy their company in 2000. So, the duo vowed their revenge and, well, it did end up with them on top. Now here we are with a Netflix show about Blockbuster starring our MCU fave Randall Park. Life continues to be wild.
Originally published May 5, 2022.
