LIVES IN LOCKDOWN
New fictional series ‘Social Distance’ takes a sweet, stressful look at pandemic isolation
A new fictional series, “Social Distance,” takes a sweet, stressful look at isolation during the pandemic.
The Villareal family is trying to memorialize their father over Zoom. Ike is trying to stay sober with the help of online meetings and FaceTime calls. Single working mom Imani is letting her in-home camera be her babysitter, because her daughter’s school is closed and what other choice does she have?
These may sound like people you know, but they are not. Ike, Imani and the beleaguered Villareals are characters in “Social Distance,” a new Netf lix anthology series that takes a fictional look at the lockdown lives we have been living during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are mute-button mishaps, securitycamera shenanigans and a spiraling trip down the Instagram rabbit hole, as these characters try to keep body and soul together while their everyday worlds are going off the rails.
This may sound like a series you would not want to watch now or ever, but humor me when I say that it could be.
The show’s eight half-hour episodes take place during the stressful early months of the pandemic, and given that most of us are still sheltering in place and still stressed, there is an argument to be made that this is all still too close to home to be at all enter
taining. And for some of you, it probably is.
However, if you are the kind of person who finds comfort in commiseration and catharsis in relatable cabin-fever humor, “Social Distance” is the TV equivalent of a CBD gummy. This series is not a cure for anything, but it packs a lot of sweetness and good vibes into its small package, and it might make you feel a little better for a little while.
It will also remind you that pandemic necessity can be the mother of creative invention. The show was conceived, cast and executed entirely remotely during quarantine, with the writers and directors depending on multiple screens and technologies — cellphones, social-media feeds, Zoom, Nest — to tell their stories. The cast members acted and filmed themselves from home, and some of the actors’ real-life relatives were cast in on-screen roles.
In the four episodes I saw, the result of this makeshift filmmaking was television that felt a lot like life. And most of the time, what “Social Distance” lost in glossy visuals, diverting scenery and mind-blowing plot developments it made up for in empathy, intimacy and ingenuity.
The series kicks off with “Delete All Future Events,” as Ike (Mike Colter of “Luke Cage”) is dealing with a misery trifecta. His barbershop is closed because of the pandemic, his girlfriend has dumped him, and he is trying to hold on to his newfound sobriety without the help of in-person 12-step meetings or activities that might get him out of the house and away from temptation. Pretty much everywhere he turns, he is stuck with his four walls and his multiplying issues.
So he does what many of us are doing as we attempt to deal with our challenges during these challenging times. He lurks on his ex’s Instagram feed. He makes unfortunate uploading choices. He orders too much Chinese takeout. There is a lot of mood-swing activity in Ike’s small apartment, and the always-appealing Colter navigates the hysterical highs (Instagram loves me!) and basement-level lows (Instagram is so over me!) with swagger and sensitivity.
If you are so over Zoom, you will be tempted to skip “A Celebration of the Human Life Cycle,” in which the members of the Villareal family try to get over themselves and their many feuds to pay virtual tribute to the family patriarch. The predictable Zoom fails ensue. But if you do skip it, you will miss the finely tuned exasperation of Oscar Nuñez (“The Office”) as the martyred oldest son and the bearer of unwelcome Buddhist philosophy, not to mention the delightful pop-ins of Olli Haaskivi (“Manifest”) as Dean the ever-helpful mortuary consultant, who definitely recommends the Gold Package.
Neither an overzealous Nest security system nor a big muting fail do much for “Zero Feet Away,” a superslight story of a gay couple (Brian Jordan Alvarez from the “Will & Grace” reboot and Max Jenkins from “Dead to Me”) trying to zhuzh up their love life by inviting another man into their quarantine bubble. But just when you think technology overload is going to sink the series’ third episode, the screens and the story merge into one socially distanced group hug that has the warmth of the real thing.
The episode — titled “And we could all together/ Go out on the ocean” from Lyle Lovett’s “If I Had a Boat” — features Danielle Brooks (“Orange Is the New Black”) as Imani, a working single mom who needs to take care of her daughter’s home-schooling needs but who also still needs to show up for her job looking after an elderly woman in a nursing home. Complications and screens abound, as Imani tries to watch her daughter through her phone while juggling calls from her client’s daughter (Marsha Stephanie Blake, also of “Orange Is the New Black”), who is trying to teach a college class over Zoom at the same time.
As director Phil Abraham (“Ozark,” “Mad Men”) expertly cuts from Zoom screens to apartment-cam footage to FaceTime, the episode feels like a multitasking nightmare come to blaring life. But with a little help from Lyle Lovett and Imani’s client (played with a twinkle by Brooks’ real-life mother, LaRita Brooks), the chaotic fragments come together in a heartwarming blast of “it takes a village” unity.
For what it’s worth, all four of the episodes I watched ended on a positive note. For me, that was worth a lot. Like all of us laboring in this weird lockdown world, the members of the “Social Distance” team used all the tools at hand to make the best of an unfathomable situation. When they succeed, the show reminds us that while we might be isolated, we are not alone. That’s worth binging on, don’t you think?