REVIEW: Love In The Time Of Corona
This year, the Coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19, impacted our lives and the way we do things. No longer are we able to go out and socialize with our friends the way we did before. Our movies and television programs have been put on hold. Or has it? Freeform aired over the last weekend Love In The Time Of Corona which is, I believe, the first fictional programming having to do with COVID-19.
Told as a four episode series over two nights, the show follows various couples as the deal with relationships during this time. The first is a nuclear family where the parents have separated but are too nervous to tell their high strung daughter. The next is a couple who ponder having a baby at this time. Another is a pair of roommates and BFFs who wonder why they're not dating each other when one of them reveals they are bisexual after years of identifying as gay. And, the final is an elderly couple who have been separated by illness. The side story is the prodigal son returning and his mom wanting to mend his relationship with his father.
I found the series to be wonderfully refreshing in telling stories during this time. I wondered when it was going to happen. I thought this show was clever in telling us a diversity of love stories and how each one is impacted by the pandemic. The family has to deal with close proximity. The couple have to deal with bringing a baby into a hard world. The roommates question themselves while trapped in the same space together. And the elderly couple make it work through video calls with each other.
The show even deals with the Black Lives Matters movement. Part of the couple's problem in bringing a child into the world is because the husband James (Leslie Odom, Jr.) has been emotionally impacted by the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. It makes him hesitate, but, ultimately, he finds an inner peace that allows him to move forward.
And, for the storyline with the bisexual roommate, there was part of me that was nervous that the couple would get together because Oscar (Tommy Dorfman) is very much gay and I wanted him to end up with the cute boy and there was the other part of me that supports the fluidity of sexuality and it doesn't matter who you love so I partially rooted for them to get together as well.
There is nothing too complex in this mini-series and is largely predictable, but, I appreciated this look into love in this very complex time. I would love to see more entertainment like this while we are still largely in quarantine from each other.