Erin Burnett, Trevor Noah, and the peeps from Pawnee have been welcome sights. An ill Chris Cuomo and those cloying ads not so much.
As we make our way through this uncharted territory, TV talent has been struggling to provide us with news and entertainment despite the production issues that go along with social distancing. There have been pluses and minuses to their efforts, and there will continue to be as long as the pandemic limits us. Here is my subjective list of my likes and dislikes so far.
LIKES
LATE-NIGHT INVENTION: Usually when the nation undergoes a crisis, the late-night hosts serve as consolers, empathizers, jesters, and, most importantly, emotional lightning rods. Think Jon Stewart and David Letterman after 9/11. This time, however, they have to work a little harder to play those roles. Left without their infrastructure, they have been forced to fall back on their natural resources. Some have fared better than others, and the ones you’ve enjoyed most are probably the ones you were watching pre-pandemic. I’m still with Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Samantha Bee, and I think Trevor Noah has been especially sharp on his now-45-minute “The Daily Social Distancing Show.” But all of them have risen to the challenge. Perhaps this moment is a gateway to a renewal of the late-night genre, which has desperately needed fresh energy and tweaks for years.
VIEWERS = CHOOSERS: This is anecdotal, but I’ve noticed that people have become more selective about what to watch. Perhaps it’s because they have fewer options for entertainment now; TV has become the great storytelling machine since we’ve been unable to go to clubs, concerts, openings, and readings. For a TV critic, this is good news. The more deliberate viewers are and the more they “go to” shows rather than passively await them, clicking through the hundreds of channels merely to watch what’s there, the more they can appreciate the best that’s being offered. Happily, I have been receiving more e-mail than ever from readers seeking advice.
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ERIN BURNETT: I’ve always had an anchor crush on CNN’s Erin Burnett, who, to me, radiates stillness with her Mona Lisa smile but seems to speak volumes with her eyes. In the past weeks, she has provided excellent coverage of all levels of the crisis, including the medical, political, and social points of view. I want levity and emotion from the late-night comics, but I want good questions and stability from news anchors. OK, Burnett did have a tearful reaction to a widow talking about saying goodbye to her husband over FaceTime — but I will allow it. She is human, something worth declaring at a time when inhumanity has surfaced so virulently.
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A ‘PARKS AND RECREATION’ SPECIAL: I was surprisingly better-than-OK with this reunion, even though I usually get cranky about reviving old shows. This re-gathering of the Pawnee peeps, a collection of civil servants fighting the odds, was as timely and sweet as can be, and it did nothing to endanger the legacy of one of the decade’s better sitcoms. Was it a perfect half-hour, script-wise? No, although there were funny bits including some of the fake ads and little character moments, such as Rob Lowe’s Chris noting “my blood type is just . . . positive.” The strength of the special was the way it took advantage of one of TV’s truths, that characters become our friends, and openly embraced it — both to make us feel held and to raise money for Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund.
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DISLIKES
SANCTIMONIOUS ADS: It must be extremely difficult to be making TV commercials right now. The last thing housebound viewers probably want is to have products thrown in their faces when they may be unemployed, or grieving loved ones, or terrified, or simply unable to go out and buy. But the sudden pivot to compassion by Verizon (“We are here, and we are ready”) or McDonald’s (“We’ll be here”) is eye-roll territory, and so is the bragging by the likes of Burger King about donating money during the pandemic. Uber has resorted to reverse psychology, saying “Thank you for not riding.” So now you all have a heart? The tone of too many ads has become cloying and bogus; there has to be a better way to keep your brand in front of people without disingenuousness.
THE INSTINCTIVE FLINCH: It’s that thing where you’re watching a TV show or a movie and people keep bumping into and breathing all over one another and, without meaning to, you flinch for a split-second — maybe even get a little angry, too, at the injustice of seeing people who clearly aren’t trying to protect other people, until you realize that that was then and this is now and those actors on the screen kissed and hugged long before coronavirus left us all peeking over masks and dodging aerosol transmission. Once this is over, I imagine it will take weeks to stop flinching.
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CHRIS CUOMO: One of the most important developments in coverage of COVID-19 has been the increase in stories of sick people and those who didn’t make it. Those stories make the virus more real to those who may not quite understand its potency. But after Cuomo tested positive and become ill, he continued to appear on CNN. I suppose he was showing audiences how bad it can get, but, after a while, it struck me as grandstanding and, worse, the opposite of what he may have intended. He was sick, but he was still able to come on TV and articulate his feelings — so, many viewers might have felt, not really that sick. An occasional check-in might have worked, but his regular presence felt gimmicky. And, as my former colleague Joanna Weiss pointed out in a Politico piece, his unwillingness to take a sick day modeled “a pervasive, troublesome, even dangerous attitude about the virtues of working through illness.”
PRESS BRIEFINGS: What can I say? When I’ve watched them, I’ve been saddened by the political overtones and the bad information. President Trump’s moodiness and shmooziness have been equally unsettling in the face of the current global emergency. Now is a time for leadership that transcends party, not for bragging, self-pity, and the clear dodging of answers. We need to see him out there at the helm, perhaps, but not in this way.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at matthew.gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.
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May 08, 2020 at 03:58AM
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Pandemic TV has delivered the good and the bad - The Boston Globe
"TV" - Google News
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