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It’s official: Netflix’s sitcom Blockbuster, which transplanted America’s last Blockbuster Video store in Michigan from its actual location in Bend, has been canceled after one season.
Starring Randall Park (Fresh off the Boat) and Melissa Fumero (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), the 10-episode first season couldn’t survive low ratings and mediocre reviews. According to Variety, the show failed to break into Netflix’s top 10 rankings in the United States (although it did make it into the top 10 in Australia and Canada, for some reason).
Among Oregonians, the series was met with scorn for arbitrarily choosing not to feature the actual last Blockbuster store, which was the subject of the successful documentary The Last Blockbuster.
In his review in the pages of WW, Jay Horton said the show couldn’t be saved by a hilarious final episode in which the video store is overwhelmed by demand for physical media after a solar flare makes streaming services inaccessible.
“Park does his damnedest to charm his way through a woefully amorphous role,” Horton wrote. “Nothing is especially compelling about the character’s amiable wistfulness, but the torch Park carries deserves a better spark than Fumero’s damp kindling.”