TV in the time of COVID-19: Why we flock to stories of pandemics and other disasters

When “Brockmire� creator Joel Church-Cooper decided to push his IFC satire about a disgraced sports announcer 10 years into the future for its fourth and final season, which began airing in March, star Hank Azaria had doubts.

“I was a little skeptical of going there,� says Azaria. “He was imagining where we might end up as a society
— and it included a pandemic.� Specifically, a Lassa fever epidemic with such a high body count that people can’t be buried: They’re being burned. (Also, temps on the East Coast are a balmy 115 degrees and the Southwest has collapsed into Disputed Lands.)

Adds Azaria, “Who knew that it wasn’t 10 years away — it was 10 minutes away?�

Long before COVID-19 changed the course of our daily lives, TV writers had spent countless hours finding ways to entertain audiences with dystopias, apocalypses and disasters. And while indulging in end-of-the-world (or change-of-world) scenarios might seem tasteless in the middle of a real-life pandemic, audiences actually began flocking to these topics as the novel coronavirus took hold: In late March, Netflix’s top titles included films like “Contagion� and TV series like “Containment.�

Exactly why we turn to disaster while in the midst of one can be both complicated and simple. Tim Minear, who staged a tsunami that wiped out Santa Monica on Fox’s “9-1-1� last fall, suggests it’s part of our deep psychology. “There’s something Jungian about a destroyed landscape where nothing’s left,� he says. “It resonates in the collective unconscious.�

For Graeme Manson, showrunner for the new TNT series “Snowpiercer,� which takes place on Earth after a climate change disaster has turned it into a frozen wasteland, says it’s much simpler than that. “Postapocalyptic problems come with heroes who have solutions,� he says. “It’s a mix of fatalism and optimism we all have.�

But pandemics on TV are trickier business, even when they aren’t reflecting reality. While the three “Chicago� franchise shows on NBC (“Med,� “Fire� and “P.D.�) aired a block of intertwined stories last year focusing on an outbreak, the network pulled a “New Amsterdam� episode about a flu epidemic in April. And as Minear recalls, “9-1-1: Lone Star� nearly ended its season with a pandemic episode in March — but the writers went with a solar storm instead. Why?

“As [star] Rob Lowe noted, pandemics aren’t super-fun television,� Minear says. “You can’t see the stars — because you put them in space suits.�

“Designated Survivor� showrunner Neal Baer might disagree with that; his show focused on a lab-engineered virus during Season 3 last year and says that a pandemic with a new virus is actually riveting TV. “COVID is unfolding like a detective story, and we sit waiting for the next evidence,� he says. “Uncertainty breeds panic — but it’s also a great device for television and movies and keeps us on the edge of our seat.�

Baer, a pediatrician by training before he became a showrunner, says 1,200 children die every day from malaria — which has a known treatment and could potentially be ended with DNA sequencing CRISPR technology — but because there’s a treatment, “It doesn’t captivate us. My point is that when the uncertainty becomes certainty, reality isn’t as captivating. That’s the case for TV. But on TV, we can provide catharsis and resolution.�

And during a terrifying real-life period where governmental response is muddled at best and solutions are distant, watching world-ending problems that highlight heroism and solutions can feel like comfort food.

Still, “Handmaid’s Tale� (Hulu) showrunner Bruce Miller says that these “solutions� peddled on TV are sheer fiction, as we’re seeing during the coronavirus pandemic. “People are sold a bill of goods about [what a disaster] would be like,� he says. “You think, ‘It’ll be me who saves the world — or someone else.’ But really, it’s a cooperative effort. That’s not the version you see on television. What we’re learning here and now is that it’s a lot of normal people doing small, extraordinary things.�

Which may indicate changes in TV disaster/apocalyptic storytelling, at least if writers are hoping for verisimilitude.

“I’m thinking of what stories in a post-corona world will be like,� says Howard Overman, executive producer on “War of the Worlds� (Epix). “How are we going to redefine community? Will this pull us apart or pull us together?�

“I’m constantly looking at the media response,� says “Snowpiercer’s� Manson. “It’s shocking and galvanizing. People are so ridiculously political in our crises. This pandemic has shown the divisions in our playing fields.�

Whatever real-world scenarios writers end up using as future fodder, though, trust that disaster stories are not about to go extinct. “There’s catharsis in a disaster that can be solved in 12 minutes, or 50 minutes, or two episodes,� says Minear. “And there’s always something inspiring about seeing heroes be heroic. That’s why Superman is still around.�