This just in: The STW Daily News Round Up featuring all the news that’s fit to (digitally) print for Sunday, July 10th, 2022. Jamie Foxx and Snoop work the day shift and Gentleman Jack gets slack.
Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg Work the Day Shift
Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg, vampire hunters? Yes, please. The pair are set to hit the Sunset Strip as blue-collar vampire hunters on the prowl for undead LA gentrifiers in the new film Day Shift heading to Netflix. Goofy premise? Yes. Million dollar idea? Also yes.
But the fun premise also has potential to tread new ground. From Netflix’s description, it sounds like traditional class warfare could get bloody. Foxx plays Bud Jablonski, an LA pool cleaner who earns extra cash as an undead exterminator, ridding the San Fernando Valley of its enduring vampire problem.
But he’s a freelance slayer—not part of the slayers’ union—so it’s not as lucrative for him as it is for his friend Big John Elliott (Snoop Dogg) who is using his clout to bring Bud back to guild wages and benefits.
Where the class warfare comes in is that their main target is a corporate vamp, played by the deceptively friendly Karla Souza. Souza portrays an ancient über-vampire whose pleasant public face is “Audrey San Fernando,” the valley’s most powerful real estate agent. She’s buying up properties all over the valley and driving up costs to exorbitant rates to establish a kingdom for her elite clientele of fellow nosferatu.
Bloodsucker neighbors or not, the public owes both Foxx and Snoop a great debt for at least attempting to keep real estate prices down in this economy.
The Day Shift premieres on Netflix on August 12th.
Gentleman Jack Gets Sacked
HBO has announced it has cancelled the series Gentleman Jack after two seasons. The show finished out its second season a few months back, and now those final episodes will have to serve as the last word for the series that followed the true-life experiences of Anne Lister, a British industrialist in the 19th century.
The show was co-produced by BBC One with showrunner Sally Wainright at the helm. The series starred Suranne Jones as Anne “Gentleman Jack” Lister. The narrative was based on the historical figure’s coded diaries that detailed her extensive romantic endeavors despite the stigma against homosexuality in 19th century England.
Also starring in the series was Sophie Rundle who played Ann Walker, the woman with whom Lister would eventually have what is considered the first lesbian marriage in the U.K.
Like many shows, Gentleman Jack ran into production difficulties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. And though it was picked up for renewal for a second season quickly after its US premiere, the second season was much delayed due to COVID setbacks.
Perhaps it was the delay that caused viewers and HBO to lose interest, but whatever the case, the cancellation is a loss in terms of telling diverse stories about overlooked figures from history. Also centering around overlooked figures from history, Netflix’s Glow, an ensemble based on the real women’s professional wrestling league of the 1980’s, met a similar fate early in the pandemic despite having solid ratings, tons of social media buzz, and a fervent fandom.
RIP Gentleman Jack and Glow. Ye shall be totally missed.
Related: Netflix’s The Sandman (2022) Is Now Streaming