In the pre-streaming age, those wanting to watch movies and TV show (or even rent video games) had to leave their homes. One place they would go to was Blockbuster. There weren’t many other options. After all, Blockbuster killed practically all the mom-and-pop video stores. But the chain got its just desserts: It itself was eventually killed by Netflix. Not content to kill Blockbuster the store, they’ve now also killed Blockbuster the TV show.
As per Variety, just over a month after dropping its first season, the streamer has axed the workplace comedy, which starred Randall Park, Melissa Fumero and more as employees of the world’s last Blockbuster brick-and-mortar, located in Grandville, Michigan. (In reality, the final Blockbuster was located in Bend, Oregon, which closed in 2019.) It lasted all of 10 episodes.
When it premiered in early November, Blockbuster received terrible reviews and never cracked the streamer’s Top 10. (At least it achieved this feat in two countries: Canada and Australia.) News of the cancellation comes at a bleak time for TV shows, not so much at Netflix as at HBO Max, where massive re-tooling has led to bad news even for well-liked shows like Minx, which was axed as shooting for Season 2 was near completion, forcing the showrunners to look for a new home.
Anyway, pour one out for Blockbuster, a chain that did so much damage to its competition that Netflix had to snuff it out not once but twice.
(Via Variety)
