Meet You On The Other Side: TV After The Pandemic

[Llywela]

58 minutes ago, Raja said:

 There seems to be two trains of thought. First 2020 sucks and entertainment should just time jump over it. Just as shows historically omitted partisan political seasons and kept real life political candidates out of the script. But then they have public health production problems, especially with extras on set. So we see some signs of PPEs that generally were not worn before this year, even in Asian societies public transportation in the background scenes.

Second if you do include COVID the demand that the entertainment double as education training films on how properly maintain social distance and don PPEs. Which then ignores that many on the real life streets do improperly wear PPEs as they had not been trained to scrub and enter a surgical theatre or a biowarfare lab. And many do wear the minimum to avoid public scorn.

The way our soaps approached it was, they are set in the here and now, and this pandemic is what is happening in the here and now, so they have to reflect that in their storytelling, they can't just timeskip over it. Because where US soaps are an escape from reality, British soaps are meant to reflect reality. It is a tricky balance to strike, since they film several weeks in advance and restrictions keep changing, too fast for them to keep up with the latest guidelines completely, but in general their characters are dealing with the impact of the pandemic on their lives same as the rest of us, with their planned storylines for the year continuing around those restrictions. So the pandemic isn't a storyline in itself, they aren't making a big deal out of it, but as they play out their scenes, characters are seen to maintain social distancing, they wear masks in indoor public spaces, they have restricted numbers at weddings, and so on.

Then, filming in covid conditions is another challenge entirely!

[SVNBob]

The Mary Sue had an article this week about this question:

https://www.themarysue.com/coronavirus-on-tv/

[Trini]

Also one at TV Line: 'TV Takes on Pandemic: How Well 14 Shows Incorporated COVID, Ranked'

[Raja]

Magnum PI took the time jump to an optimistic future route.  A quick line by a reoccurring character that business had not yet returned to Rick's bar was the only evidence of the pandemic that I remember. No extras running around it the background masked up  

[Llywela]

Just to note that here in the UK, the long-running medical drama Casualty returned to our screens this week to kick off a new series filmed in lockdown with a special episode highlighting the pandemic - a really powerful, emotional, heartbreaking hour of TV showing the pandemic through the eyes of the emergency services and how they cope day-to-day on the wards as the virus spread. Staff togged up in restrictive PPE as they looked after patients, catching the virus themselves one after another, watching patients die, losing loved ones, a deaf staff member struggling to communicate as face masks prevent her lipreading - and finally, devastatingly, losing a colleague to the virus. The character who died was a receptionist who'd been in the show for 12 years, a black man about to become a grandfather for the first time, underlining the disproportionate impact the virus has had on the BAME community as well as emphasising the fact that every single victim of this virus was a unique individual with a life and a family who will be mourned by their friends and loved ones. Really devastating and difficult to watch, the cast, and crew worked incredibly hard to tell the story of frontline workers - a story that needs to be told, reflecting the reality of what our frontline workers are facing every day through this pandemic. Very well done.

Edited January 4, 2021 by Llywela

[janie jones]

That's kind of a rough way for the actor to lose his job.

[Ceindreadh]

45 minutes ago, janie jones said:

That's kind of a rough way for the actor to lose his job.

It's Casualty.  When an actor leaves, there's pretty much a 50-50 chance that their character will be killed off.

[Irlandesa]

23 minutes ago, Ceindreadh said:

It's Casualty.  When an actor leaves, there's pretty much a 50-50 chance that their character will be killed off.

But what if he didn't want to leave?  Then he's fired for being part of the race that is disproportionately affected by COVID.  It's akin to "we want to send a message about how much people of your race are being fucked over by fucking you over."

 

[Llywela]

8 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

But what if he didn't want to leave?  Then he's fired for being part of the race that is disproportionately affected by COVID.  It's akin to "we want to send a message about how much people of your race are being fucked over by fucking you over."

Way to jump to the worst possible conclusion and ignore all the positives in favour of an assumed negative. The actor had decided to leave and it provided an opportunity for an important and powerful story to be told.

[Irlandesa]

It was just a hypothetical question.

[shapeshifter]

12 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

But what if he didn't want to leave?  Then he's fired for being part of the race that is disproportionately affected by COVID.  It's akin to "we want to send a message about how much people of your race are being fucked over by fucking you over."

Or

3 hours ago, Llywela said:

…The actor had decided to leave and it provided an opportunity for an important and powerful story to be told.

No doubt both have happened. 
 

[Raja]

This sounds like Sharif Atkins on ER. They had an Army Reservist so of course his character didn't make it back from Iraq.

[merylinkid]

From what I understand British acting contracts are very different from the US.   There are no (or very few) long term contracts.   They are all one year deals, so you know going in that you might not be back next year.   You can plan accordingly.   

[Llywela]

16 minutes ago, merylinkid said:

From what I understand British acting contracts are very different from the US.   There are no (or very few) long term contracts.   They are all one year deals, so you know going in that you might not be back next year.   You can plan accordingly.   

Quite. The UK and US TV industries work very differently and you can't judge one against what you know of the other. Cast turnover is high on Casualty - the show is seen as a staging ground, a stepping stone for actors, they do their stint and then they move on to other projects. Staying as long as 12 years is unusual. The actor here was out of contract and wanted to move on, which is the most normal thing in the world where this show is concerned. Casualty wanted to tell a story about the pandemic - and that episode, as I said above, was really powerful and has received high praise. Those two details came together to create a particular exit story for the character, which also provided the opportunity to underline a particular aspect of the pandemic. That's all. I mentioned it not to start a debate about race relations as viewed through an American lens but because this thread is all about how the TV industry is responding to the pandemic, and this was an angle that hasn't been discussed here yet, a show filming a season in lockdown and choosing to confront the reality of the pandemic head on, reflecting the reality faced by so many millions around the globe.

Edited January 5, 2021 by Llywela

[anna0852]

Sag-AFTRA is pushing for TV and film production in California to shut down again. Kimmel and Corden are returning to shooting from their homes.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/04/arts/surging-virus-prompts-call-halt-in-person-tv-film-production/

Edited January 5, 2021 by anna0852

[AimingforYoko]

This is cool:

He's the EP for L&O:SVU.

[MissAlmond]

Good for the EP of Law and Order: SVU.  Back when soap operas were based in NYC, many Broadway actors worked on them as day jobs.  Soaps provided the income to supplement theater work.  Law and Order The Mothership did the same; thus the basis for this James Corden Tony Award skit.

 

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by MissAlmond

[Guest]

It has just occurred to me that covid (or 2020) has normalized 9-11 and 9-11 Lonestar.  It used to bug me that every other episode was some massive catastrophe or comically over the top rescue.  Now I'm like 'that is plausible'

[merylinkid]

9 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

It has just occurred to me that covid (or 2020) has normalized 9-11 and 9-11 Lonestar.  It used to bug me that every other episode was some massive catastrophe or comically over the top rescue.  Now I'm like 'that is plausible'

Same with disaster flicks.   Oh there is a massive earthquake/tornado/solar storm about to strike -- oh okay.    Giant sharks going on killing sprees only to be attacked by giant octopi while gatoroids and pirancondas fight on land.   Sure.    

Because every single disaster flicks starts with IGNORING THE SCIENTISTS.

[angora]

Not to mention all the memes comparing the COVID-19 response to the mayor in Jaws.

[shapeshifter]

In the Before Times I used to love disaster flicks and novels -- even started outlining one. 
Not so much now.

[DearEvette]

12 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

It has just occurred to me that covid (or 2020) has normalized 9-11 and 9-11 Lonestar.  It used to bug me that every other episode was some massive catastrophe or comically over the top rescue.  Now I'm like 'that is plausible'

Not just Covid.  I remember thinking how crazy it was how many big disasters LA has on 9-1-1 and then I realized the massive wildfires that happen (each worse than the last) even just last year were horrific and probably got lost in all the Covid and other big world news

 

2 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Because every single disaster flicks starts with IGNORING THE SCIENTISTS.

YES!  OMG.  So true.  LOL.

[merylinkid]

 I put the LA fires in my 2020 quilt (1 month for each row  January at the top go down to August) 

 

[Raja]

It was a strange week in the cop show genre. Two different shows S.W.A.T. and Chicago PD which had their premieres set early in the pandemic suddenly had no signs of the stay at home orders or the public masking up.  by their fifth episodes. Visually except for one paramedic at the end of S.W.A.T. they looked like Magnum PI which specifically set itself up as being in the post pandemic future.

[praeceptrix]

There's an interesting article in today's New York Times about the changes to television productions due to the pandemic and the changing advice/rules for safety protocols.

[LexieLily]

Grey's Anatomy is so far behind real life - they just did an episode two weeks ago about all of the Black Lives Matter protests and George Floyd, so May/June 2020 - and that combined with the main character being in a Covid coma for the majority of the season (aside from her hallucinations on the beach where she meets with all of the dead people she's lost), is just making me tired and sad and ready for them to move on at least a few months. It doesn't help that a lot of the time I'm not watching the storyline but the fact that they aren't masking or distancing properly.

[praeceptrix]

Today's New York Times has an interesting article about the pandemic shut down of Broadway and how various television shows stepped up to hire the actors. I may have to watch some of the shows mentioned, especially The Gilded Age, whose cast consists of "a company of theater heroes, with enough combined Tonys to crowd a mansion’s mantels."

Edited May 13, 2021 by praeceptrix

[Luckylyn]

TV depicting a post-COVID world feels even more awkward in wake of the Omicron surge

 

Grey's Anatomy Season 18 & Other ABC Shows Shut Down Production

Edited January 8, 2022 by Luckylyn

[SusanM]

I don't watch a lot of TV shows that are set in present day so don't notice the Covid depiction, or lack, too often  but what has been creaming my corn lately are all the commercials that are deliberately rejoicing and saying more or less "now that the pandemic is over it's time to ..... " If the pandemic is actually over I missed the memo, and if it is really over somewhere please let me know where that somewhere is, over the rainbow maybe? because I want to move there.

[Haleth]

It's jarring to see the first two episodes of The Amazing Race which were filmed in Feb 2020.  The racers were doing the usual running around, hugging strangers, no concern for social distance.  The show shut down for more than 1.5 years, and while they did finally complete the race we will see it under vastly changed circumstances.  Should be interesting.

[shapeshifter]

17 minutes ago, Haleth said:

It's jarring to see the first two episodes of The Amazing Race which were filmed in Feb 2020.  The racers were doing the usual running around, hugging strangers, no concern for social distance.  The show shut down for more than 1.5 years, and while they did finally complete the race we will see it under vastly changed circumstances.  Should be interesting.

I don't watch The Amazing Race, but one of my daughters is a fan and has spent every spare minute of her life for the last 20 years traveling the world, running races, etc. and yet has managed to avoid getting Covid. She's triple vaxxed, but also says she's "careful" in her travels, although I freaked out a bit at a photo I saw of her in a restaurant at a table for 12 just before Omicron became known. It will be interesting to see what precautions they take on TAR and if the different contestants have different levels of concern about the virus and whether that plays a part in the outcome of that race.

This reminds me of reading in one of the Little House on the Prairie books about a trip on a train in which there was a cup for all passengers to share to drink water. At the time I was reading it to my kids, I had a new baby and Whooping Cough had infected every house on my street because a local doctor's office assistant had administered DT vaccines instead of DTP.