Mike86

I’ll give it a shot but also wonder if it would be better off as just a movie. Aside from being a workplace comedy I’m not sure how much mileage they can get out of the Blockbuster setting. It’ll probably be fun for a while though.

Coral

How much mileage do they think they can get with jokes about that Blockbuster being out of touch today? That's not enough to sustain a series, so they have to create the standard workplace comedy type of storylines and jokes.

EDIT: Mike86 beat me to it.

Alan Smithee

They should make a movie like Empire Records but with a video store, and Blockbuster threatening to take it over. That happened to a few cool independent video stores in the 90s.

I assume since this is Netflix they’re going to drop a ton of episodes all at once, I will need to watch them all just to call out any inaccuracies.

dex14

Premieres tomorrow.

OldBoy

17% on RT not many in though.

Orbi-Wan Techno

I saw the first episode. A few funny bits, but saw nothing that tempts me to watch the entire series.

RichC2

It's decent but doesn't have sharp enough writing overall. Midsommar is a great break up movie.

DJariya

I watched the first two episodes. It’s okay I guess, but got no laughs from me. Park and Fumero have some charm. It’s weird how they are making this the last Blockbuster in the current world. Typical work place sitcom tropes. I guess Fumero is playing a little older. She apparently has a teen daughter.

I noticed in the first episode Timmy hands a customer a movie that he recommended, but he doesn’t even bother scanning it out and it looked like the customer never paid for his rental. Little things like that annoy me.

So Percy is the landlord? I thought that was kind of lame that he offered to pay for his daughter’s salary for Timmy to keep her around.

emachine12

The actual last one is in Bend, Oregon and still operates today. It was even used as a one time AirBNB to promote Scream 2022.

I find it annoyingly hilarious that this is a Universal TV production and all the “movies” have fake covers. Even the Universal movies, seems like they couldn’t work out a deal like Superstore and Chuck to include proper merchandise.

Percy is the landlord/manager of the strip mall.

MLBFan24

These jokes are AWFUL

Barely started the first episode and not liking this show.

I thought I was going to see a 90s nostalgic period show. Was also hoping to support another show with Melissa Fumero.

Tapping out…

lwhy?

She’s doesn’t look her age, but Fumero is 40. Totally appropriate to have a teen daughter at 40.

Dan

Yeah there's definitely something missing from this. Superstore was off to a better start, IMO. I might give one more episode a try but that's probably where I'll leave it.

Mike86

My fiancée and I watched the first five episodes so far. It’s not great or anything but it’s a fun enough little sitcom. The characters, particularly the supporting ones make it for me. I like Connie, Hannah, Carlos, and Percy.

The fake movie covers annoyed me a little too, but considering that we don’t see them up close for the most part and they’re just in the background it doesn’t matter that much.

We’ll probably watch the rest of it tomorrow night.

Coral

Watched the first episode. Didn't really laugh and some of the jokes are old recycled ones. The writing isn't very original. Superstore started off much stronger than this

I guess the theme of the show is living in the past, but I found it weird that a 40 year old still brings up Harvard (even worse than she only went there for 1.5 semesters) and a 48 year old (not sure if he's playing younger) continues to glorify his high school days. In their 20s it's sad, but in their 40s - it's pathetic and not even funny.

I'll watch a few more episodes and see if it gets better - otherwise I'm bailing.

Dan1boy

Watched first episode last night and immediately deleted afterwards. At least it was only 1/2 hour.

So many better written shows that aren't as awkward or unflinchingly unfunny as this pile of drek.

MLBFan24

The first scene was just bad. They threw in one-liners from each actor, instead of letting the scene flow naturally.

It's like every cop show where each actor has to throw in a line in the scene

whotony

I think you guys are being a little hard on this show just for the point of it being hard on it.

The cast is good. The mesh very well together.
Park is great in everything.
Melissa Fumero is as likable as anyone on tv.
JB Smoove is a regular too. Can’t beat that.
Did see a real Howard the Duck movie poster in the store.

Shows like this have lots of potential with the customers coming in you have plenty of opportunity for interesting guests.


It pretty much is Cloud 9 in a Blockbuster.


One idea to save money might be not to have every employee on the clock all the time.

JasonX

I thought this was painfully bad and I really wanted to like it. Made it through the pilot because any show can have a bad pilot, but half way through the first episode I gave in and shut it off. Just terrible writing throughout. With decent writers this could have been good. A real shame.

MLBFan24

Actually, Superstore is my favorite sitcom, so I was really looking forward to this. I didn't watch any trailers, so I didn't overhype myself. Though my expectation of it being set in the 90s was off, so that was a part of my disappointment. And I was rooting for another successful sitcom for Melissa Fumero.

Dan

This show has nothing on Superstore. It's not even close, despite the talent involved.

Coral

Except without the good writing and funny characters (based on my only watching the first episode - will watch more to see if my opinion changes).

Yeah, gonna have to be something to ignore for sitcom's sake. 6 employees working on the same shift at a video rental store in 2022 is ridiculous.
I worked at a large independent video store in 1990 (which also had a large music CD section as well as a convenience store section) when video rentals were still popular - and we'd usually have 5 people working each shift.
In 2022 you'd probably only have 3 employees overall - especially if you only opened at noon.

JasonX

I don't think we want to be delving too deeply into this shows economics. He was ecstatic to get 87 new members (also, is this Blockbuster only on a subscription model?), which if they were each paying $20 a month would bring in $20,880 a year. While that would certainly be helpful, it isn't even going to pay for a single employee once you factor in the benefits and taxes. If you are teetering on the edge of closure, it is unlikely that amount would really put much of a dent in things.

Coral

Subscription model? I never had a BB membership - did they have a subscription model? And what would that entail? Pay xx a month and you get a lower price on each rental? Otherwise, why would someone pay that?

lwhy?

Family video had a membership where you got half off movie and video game rentals for $9.99 a month. I spent so much money there that the $9.99 half off membership saved me money.

MLBFan24

I remember Blockbuster had a subscription model towards the end (DVDs mailed to you like old school Netflix, but you can return DVDs to a location and immediately pickup more rentals).