We all know show business can be a bit cruel from time to time, and doing what’s best for a studio or a specific project isn’t always the same thing as doing what’s most considerate for the people involved. That being said, there’s being “a bit cruel” and then there’s waiting a little over a month after someone was diagnosed with the coronavirus to cancel their TV show. (To be fair, the TV show in question didn’t seem all that great and its one season aired over a year ago, but still.)
Obviously, we’re talking about Idris Elba’s Turn Up Charlie on Netflix, which took Elba’s real-life passion for being a DJ and made it into a TV show about a guy who looks like Idris Elba and wants to be a DJ. Netflix has now canceled the show, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, it announced the news with a statement thanking Elba and the show’s executive producers for creating such a “witty, heart-warming comedy series.” The statement does not, as far as we can tell, apologize to Elba for canceling his TV show even though he tested positive for the coronavirus in March. We’re not saying Idris Elba deserves to get special treatment and that Netflix should make another season of this show just to be nice, but we are saying that Netflix could’ve just stayed quiet forever and nobody would’ve noticed if it had canceled the show or not. Elba’s got a lot going on, even he probably won’t be buying “#SaveTheOA” billboards for this.