After what is possibly the worst pilot I’ve ever seen for a comedy series, the Netflix original “Blockbuster” manages to squeak out nine marginally better follow-up episodes, but for a show that should be a fun, quirky nostalgia trip, it’s everything but.

The series takes place at the last Blockbuster on the planet which is in … Michigan. That’s right.

Netflix and series creator Vanessa Ramos decided to gloss over any facts, allusions or references to the actual store here (and apparently never reached out to the Bend store, as reported in The Bulletin last week).

Aside from the staggering number of movie references that the show passes for jokes, this would-be romp focusing on the last-of-its-kind video rental joint could have taken place at a Hollister or Orange Julius and had the same effect.

“Blockbuster” is a typical workplace comedy a la “Superstore” or “Brooklyn 99,” but the jokes and the overall premise are not as well-honed or executed as those examples.

The show works on the main theme of the struggle to move into the future, both for the store and the characters at its heart. We have store owner/general manager Timmy (Randall Park), a middle-aged man stuck in a kind of arrested development who suddenly finds himself responsible for keeping his dream job of running the video store alive as well as keeping his employees employed. Then we have Eliza (Melissa Fumero), a nearly divorced, Harvard attendee forced to take up her old high school job at the Blockbuster after she catches her husband cheating. She is also Timmy’s old crush from their school days so there is a whole “will-they-won’t-they” thing going. Then there are the employees, the aspiring director Carlos (Tyler Alvarez), the flighty and sheltered Hannah (Madeleine Arthur), the kindly older Connie (Olga Merediz) and the stereotypical Gen Z-er Kayla (Kamaia Fairburn). There is also the landlord/best friend of Timmy’s, Percy (J.B. Smoove) who runs the party supply store a few doors down.

The show takes place solely within the confines of this strip mall of run-down small businesses in this town that would rather have a Jiffy Lube than a French restaurant. So we get to see all the other eccentric Michiganders here in a store that seems to always have a steady stream of customers inside and people milling about outside. I haven’t seen so many people visit a strip mall since 1997.

Overall, “Blockbuster” feels lazy in both its execution and its writing, banking on the proven formulas of other shows without adding anything that makes it stand out from the rest. Jokes are relegated mostly to movie quotes and references as well as just being “look how weird people are,” which occasionally works. It too is rare that we see even glimmers of depth from any character until the season finale, which by that point, most people have more than likely switched off.

But the thing that really chaps me about “Blockbuster” is the seemingly shocking lack of research that went into it. I’m not saying they should have made a tried and true representation of the actual last Blockbuster, and the fact that they set it in Michigan doesn’t make a difference, but there is no point to set it in the famous former chain store, other than it’s just that — famous.

If they had even done a modicum of research or imbued it with a shred of something that has affected the Bend store, such as the tourism it has created because it’s now a destination in and of itself, the antiquated software they’re forced to use, the international news stories it sparked, heck, even the T-shirts they have at the store, it would have helped give the show a hint of that fun nostalgia trip that the actual store has and the show should have had.

There is a clunky attempt made during that awful pilot to point out that Blockbuster was once a big corporation-turned-small business fighting to survive, and the irony that brings, but it feels so disingenuous coming from the platform that was a factor in its mighty fall — though if you watched Taylor Morden’s great documentary “The Last Blockbuster” (2020), you’ll know that’s not the whole story. But I digress.

Maybe this is me being protective of my hometown Blockbuster and the lack of interest Netflix or the production team behind the show seemed to take in regard to this show supposedly based on it, maybe it’s the lack of those nostalgia feels, or the flat characters that feel like ones we’ve seen before, or the formulaic storytelling that just feels lazy.

All I can say is be kind and go rent something at the actual last Blockbuster instead.

On screens this week: The highly anticipated superhero sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” sinks its claws into theaters. Irish animated adventure “My Father’s Dragon” streams on Netflix. Disney+ gets festive with “The Santa Clauses,” premiering on Wednesday.

“Blockbuster”

10 episodes, 30 minutes each

TV-14

1.5 stars