Actress Melissa Fumero To Star In New Netflix Comedy, 'Blockbuster'

Melissa Fumero is an actress and director best known for her role as Amy Santiago in the awarded comedy show “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” The actress joined the show in 2004 for its eight seasons run.

Fumero was recently cast as one of the lead roles in a Netflix comedy series titled “Blockbuster.” She’ll star alongside actor and writer Randall Park. The series is slated to be ten episodes long and has yet to release the rest of the cast members.

‘Blockbuster’ was allegedly patterned after the Blockbuster Video rental company. The plot bears such a resemblance to the fate of the actual company it wouldn’t be off the market to say it is a retelling. The movie is reportedly Netflix’s attempt at monetizing the demise of the company they ran off.

Fumero was cast as the female in the Netflix workplace comedy “Blockbuster.” The show is a 10 episode long series from Universal Television. It’s set in the last Blockbuster Video store in America, and the “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” alum will star alongside Randall Park.

The plotline will mainly focus on the trials of making a small business succeed despite everything stacked against it. Fumero’s character is called Eliza. She is a committed mother who got married to her high school sweetheart. However, her loving marriage is seemingly on the rocks.

Eliza was enrolled in Harvard but left after barely a semester of school to start a family. The series focused on her current job as Timmy Park’s number two at Blockbuster. Writer Vanessa Ramos created the show, while David Caspe and Jackie Clarke served as writers and executive producers. The rest of the cast will reportedly be announced soon.

While the idea behind the new series is a great one, the name packs a lot of symbolism and, quite frankly, irony. Blockbuster is an actual company on top of the entertainment sector back in the early 2000s.

Netflix came up as an underdog movie rental upstart, but the video giant almost squashed them. The co-founders of the movie streaming company, Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, tried to sell their company to Blockbuster for around $50 million but were turned down.

They then swore to take the video chain store down, which spurred their revamping Netflix into one of the most successful entertainment companies worldwide. On the other hand, Blockbuster halted all its operations in 2014. Netflix dug the grave deeper with the movie by monetizing its previous rival’s demise.

When talking about the mini-series, Ramos revealed that she enjoyed the entire experience because Blockbuster Video was a place she treasured while it was still functioning. “To say getting to make a show about a place I love, with my friends Jackie and David, and Randall Park as our star is a dream come true, somehow feels like an understatement,” she said.

“I could not be more grateful to Jim and Megan at Universal for supporting this project since day one and Tracey, Andy, and the whole team at Netflix for being on board with so many weird jokes,” the writer added.

Netflix head of comedy Tracey Pakosta also talked about how excited the team was to work on the comedy series. She said, “When Vanessa and David first came in and shared this idea for a comedy series, we were immediately excited. This is ultimately the story of a dedicated group of co-workers with a lot of heart. And now, with the hilarious Randall Park signing on to play the lead, it’s a no-brainer.”

Besides her role in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Fumero is also worked on a comedy feature called “Bar Fight” and is a voice actor on “MODOK,” a Hulu Marvel animated comedy. She has credits in movies like “One Day at a Time,” “Gossip Girl,” and “Room 104.”

Park’s movie credits are also quite impressive. The actor is a household name in comedy and wrote movie scripts alongside people like David Caspe and Jackie Clarke. He is also famous for his role in ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat” comedy series, which just wrapped up in its sixth season. The actor also co-wrote, starred, and produced a movie on Netflix titled “Always Be My Maybe.”

The actor starred in the Marvel movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp” as Jimmy Woo and appeared on Disney + “WandaVision.” His next tv appearances include Netflix’s “Big Mouth” spinoff called “Human Resources” and “True Story with Ed Helms and Randall Park” on Peacock.