In the spring of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic effectively brought the world to a halt. Most of the time, I wrote down my to-do list and in return learned how to reconnect with my leisure time and with long-abandoned hobbies and passion projects. There’s never been a better time to enjoy movies and TV without feeling overwhelmed. In many ways, adaptation to life without the burden of participating in a highly commercialized society has been critical for those who have redesigned their lives to value community and individual satisfaction over external means of success. It’s a whole other can of worms, one that can be collectively explored through introspective and thought-provoking media like film. If the film industry chooses to explore the radically liberating philosophy of a generation of workers who have matured in the Covid era. .
So far, most movies and TV shows that have acknowledged Covid in their storylines do so by requiring their characters to wear masks. glass onionor refer directly to the lockdown and subsequent vaccination efforts. You areOther projects have made Covid-19 the focus of major storylines, often exploring the plight of overworked medical workers or using lockdown isolation as a larger MacGuffin device element of storytelling. I am doing Do viewers really care about Covid being portrayed in the fictional media they consume? Although this exploration of the pandemic can be a highly cathartic experience for some viewers , it is also possible that people just want to forget about this global disaster and enjoy the escapism TV and movies provide.
The impact of Covid in Hollywood and beyond
The term “unprecedented times” has been exhausted in the tropes of corporate and academic emails and newsletters. The ground music was an endless loop of trending TikTok sounds. Lockdown is a strange time for the world, and the shock and confusion of hearing the news of country after country and institution shutting down is hard to forget. What does it mean that Italy is closed? It was a very unpleasant experiment to completely turn our lives upside down in a way that we could not control in a fight against a microscopic enemy. It had to take on new meaning, so it united us and tore us apart when the vocal group debated epidemiology and the validity of science. And the industry as a whole has changed.
When offices and non-essential businesses were forced to close, Hollywood was no exception. Projects had to be put on hold or completely derailed, forcing Hollywood’s creative his machine to come to a standstill. The decision to do so was not a common consensus. While many celebrities have called for unity amid lockdowns, others have circumvented Covid restrictions to pursue secret parties and social events, sometimes through John Lennon’s trope of ‘Imagine’ Nonetheless, my personal take on the matter did not change the fact that Tinsel Town was out of business.
When Covid restrictions began to ease in light of vaccine breakthroughs, movie sets looked drastically different than before, but creatives wasted no time getting back to work. Many production companies have chosen to implement vaccinations for all employees, including cast members. Covid-19 diagnoses among the cast and crew caused the project to be repeatedly suspended, creating logistical problems for filming. Almost three years after the pandemic began, the industry continues to grapple with a devastating virus.James Cameron missed the long-awaited Hollywood premiere Avatar sequels, and Jenna Ortega recently drew backlash when she revealed she tested positive for Covid while filming one of them. Wednesday‘s most beloved scene. By applying strict new rules to sets to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, several projects have incorporated this reality into the art itself.
Films and TV that incorporate Covid into plots/scenes
An early adaptation of Covid on screen was in the wildly successful Netflix series You areCovid is mentioned in full, but also hinted at in another storyline involving vaccination. but the majority of viewers accepted it as a realistic detail in the story timeline. The Peacock Movie Just Released disease Thrasher makes the pandemic a central figure that directly impacts every aspect of the story. This is one of the most realistic depictions of life in Spring 2020 in the context of a movie that isn’t necessarily about Covid.
Other releases have opted to make Covid its own whole story. Grey’s Anatomy We made the entire 17th season entirely Covid-themed. Was this approach a little overkill? The story of a healthcare worker on the front lines of the worst pandemic in generations definitely deserves to be told. But what better way to explore this through a brief documentary than to relive a total of 11.6 hours of a very difficult time in recent history for entertainment?
Admitting the Masked Elephant in the Room: Pros and Cons
Some viewers may feel that using the pandemic as a means of drama is premature. Let’s say you just lost a loved one as a result of Covid-19. In our spare moments when most of us enjoy movies and television, do we want to be reminded of the ongoing disaster that has brought tragedy to our personal lives? It may make the media feel more real, but likewise, some viewers may not want to face reality at this point. Because it’s all around, silver screens and home screens should be sacred moments of escapism.
Again, many of these same movies and shows aren’t true escapism. Many of them address a wide range of real-world problems.I could hardly call You are, a show about escapism, a sick creep who kills all his girlfriends. It draws attention to real-life violent misogyny, which women and women often do not survive, and common psychopathy that may exist in our own communities. If you can, why not talk about the pandemic? Some viewers may feel that Covid acknowledgment is a cure for adapting to a changed world. Overall, this discourse is why it is important that these projects exist in the first place. Watching dramas with masked characters may not be for everyone, but artists should always be free to explore whatever they want.
