On Media in the Time of Corona

So, we're close to three months into the COVID-19 pandemic, great swathes of the country are still under shelter-in-place orders, and everybody's getting a little stir-crazy, including the entertainment industry. There's a good reserve of already filmed and completed content being carefully parceled out by various platforms, and many news and talk shows have made adjustments so that hosts can film from home, or with carefully socially-distanced skeleton crews. John Oliver and Charlie Brooker have adapted particularly well. However, everyone wants to work, even with limited resources. This has lead to various talented folks doing their best to produce content, by thinking outside the box.

First, a few thoughts on Zoom, which has become the leading online chat and videoconferencing app practically overnight as so many people have transitioned to working from home. In the future, the Zoom interface is almost certainly going to be the common visual shorthand for the year 2020, along with face masks and Dr. Anthony Fauci. Media being produced with Zoom and other videoconferencing technology are suddenly all over Youtube and mainstream outlets. Everyone has gotten used to seeing videos with screens divided into multiple boxes, streaming up to nine video feeds at a time. This allows some measure of interaction among the participants, enough to stage some amusing skits for "SNL" and for Disney to throw together some quick "Family Sing-a-long" specials.

Because we're in the middle of a national crisis, we've had the usual charity concerts and celebrity telethon-type stunts, including the marathon eight-hour "One World" fundraiser. The big, virtual graduation ceremony with President Obama's commencement address got a lot of press. However, because the crisis is so extended, there have been more of-the-beaten-path types of media getting the spotlight. A ton of celebrities are reading books for kids online, including a star-studded new version of "James and the Giant Peach," or participating in virtual jam sessions. Zoom lends itself well to reunions, with its ability to conference so many people at once, so we've seen a lot of specials for charity popping up, often reuniting TV show or movie casts. Josh Gad started up a web series called "Reunited Apart" to check in on the stars of "The Goonies" and "Back to the Future." "Parks & Rec" did a reunion special based around all the characters being in a Zoom calling tree. My favorite so far has been the "Community" table read, which nicely ties into the webcast/podcast that Joel McHale and Ken Jeong started, "The Darkest Timeline."

What's especially fun about the reunions, is that everyone is available for just about everything. Since even the most high profile, busy actors are stuck at home with all their projects on hold, and travel distance is no longer a consideration, suddenly it becomes very feasible to schedule virtual playdates for the scattered casts of "The Office" or "The Nanny" or even the wacky old NBC soap opera "Passions." Suddenly, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt are pitching in skits to "SNL." Suddenly, Robert Downey Jr. is dropping in on a "quarantine watch party" for "Avengers: Endgame." Suddenly Cameron Diaz - who has been retired since 2014 - is throwing down in Zoe Bell's all-girl virtual fight video.

And then there's John Krasinski, who whipped up his own short-lived webseries called "Some Good News" to counter the gloom and doom of the early weeks of the pandemic. He threw a virtual prom, got himself ordained to marry a couple online, and even persuaded Oprah and Malala to join in the fun. His efforts seemed to best embody the sentiment that these projects are about fostering a sense of togetherness in tough times, and providing some welcome distractions. Unfortunately, his decision to license the show to CBS All-Access with a different host suggests otherwise. Is anyone going to want to want to watch this kind of content when things get back to normal? I doubt it.

Not all of these efforts have gone well - see Gal Gadot's well-meaning but tone-deaf "Imagine" video, but I've enjoyed more of these stuck-at-home projects than I expected to. There's something charming about a familiar celebrity showing up in these videos, with their crummy production values and severely limited camera operation, knowing that they're in the same situation as everybody else. And there's a strange, intriguing ephemerality to the videos that have been produced. Shelter-in-place restrictions look to be slowly coming to an end, and we'll no doubt be back to our regularly scheduled mass media soon enough. But for now, during uncertain times - well, standards for entertainment are different. And I really do appreciate everyone's efforts to keep us distracted.

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