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The new Australian show Retrograde is embracing the limitations imposed on the industry by the pandemic to come up with something original. Show creator Meg O’Connell tells Danielle McGrane the story behind the show and why it heralds the future of filmma

S ometimes opportunity knocks when you least expect it.

While film and TV production sets were shutting down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Meg O’Connell was busy making a new TV show happen.

The writer and producer was inspired by what was happening in her own life and knew she could make something original.

She also knew that she could make it happen despite the lockdown restrictions, because just last year she was involved in making a web series called Content, created to be watched on a smartphone.

“This sort of format is familiar to me from my experience on Content,” O’Connell said.

When the lockdown happened, O’Connell got the idea to make this new show, Retrograde, inspired by what was happening in her own life.

“I started an online bar with my friend. We started doing after-work drinks, then some of our friends were keen to join us so we used a browser that allows anyone to drop in at any point, which felt like a real bar,” she said.

“The first night we did it we had so many friends drop in and out over the course of the evening, from three different states, it was lovely. I also met a bunch of people I hadn’t met before and I realised lockdown could be this very special thing where you get to connect with people that you haven’t seen in a while, and meet new people who you wouldn’t get the chance to meet because you live thousands of kilometres away from them.”

O’Connell noticed this was a real opportunity for connection.

“Pretty soon after we started the online bar we came up with the idea that this could be a show,” she said.

“It’s a perfect location – a bit like Cheers or Friends – but online.”

O’Connell saw there was potential in this format, but also in this situation, to make a TV show. She embraced it as a way to tell a story about a young woman who has to face up to some sudden changes in her life.

“The main character is Maddie, and she’s accepted a job and is about to go to Korea and live over there and have a couple of years overseas. She’s about to embrace independence, she’s really excited and then COVID hits. And everything she thought was going to happen this year changes, which is how a lot of people have felt this year,” O’Connell said.

“She’s thrust into this new situation where she’s living with a partner that she didn’t necessarily think was the real deal, or they were maybe going to break up. Now she’s living with him and his kid.

“Then an old flame drops into this online bar whose life has also been upended by COVID. So it’s kind of about the two of them, but it’s also this question of, ‘Who are you when the music stops?’”

The story unfolds over six episodes, all filmed under strict coronavirus guidelines.