Netflix series 'Social Distance' hopes to capture the 'human stories' from 'this crazy period of time,' creator says
Netflix’s new anthology series, “Social Distance,” unfolds chronologically, but aims to be a “time capsule” for the roller coaster reality of quarantine and unrest, its creator says.
“It’s not about the pandemic per se,” Hilary Weisman Graham said of the coronavirus-era show, which premiered Thursday. “It’s about people experiencing life during social distancing … just capturing human stories.
“It’s a time capsule for when this crazy period of time is someday over, something right now (in which) people could see a piece of themselves,” adds the “Orange is the New Black” writer and producer. “We all are experiencing so many emotions and so much intensity, the roller coaster that’s happening on a daily basis.”
“Social Distance” begins as the coronavirus shutdowns take effect, with a barber (Mike Colter) attending virtual Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It progresses as the calendar flips: to a Zoom funeral; a home nurse (Danielle Brooks) who keeps an eye on her 6-year-old daughter through a video security system; to a group of teens livestreaming and FaceTiming, their lives barely upended by being stuck at home.
The eight-episode show ends with “When They See Us” alum Asante Blackk, 18, and his real-life dad fighting about how to protest.
Each episode is supposed to represent a different stage of quarantine. “Social Distance” isn’t the first such coronavirus-themed show. Freeform’s “Love in the Time of Corona,” HBO’s “Coastal Elites” and NBC’s “Connecting” all preceded it. Each has called itself a time capsule, but each looks a little different and tells a different story.
Blackk’s episode, the season finale, is perhaps the angriest, written after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer May 25.
Playing a teenager trying to skip out of work to join his girlfriend at an anti-police brutality protest, Blackk’s character, Corey, finds himself at odds with his boss (played by the young actor’s real-life dad, Ayize Ma’at) about how to fight systematic racism. For Corey, it’s rallies and signs and hashtags. For his boss, it’s about succeeding as a self-made Black man.
It’s two sides of the same coin, Blackk said.
“You can’t get out of the matrix if you don’t realize you’re in the matrix,” Blackk said. “You can’t step outside of this horror movie you’re living inside of unless you realize it. This is one of the biggest social movements that has ever taken place in this country. We have a responsibility to make sure this never happens again.”
It’s a commentary Blackk also voiced two years ago in an interview with The News, when he played Kevin Richardson in “When They See Us,” Ava DuVernay’s story of the now-exonerated Central Park Five.
“We’ve made mistakes in the past; the biggest mistake was electing the man who’s in office right now,” Blackk said of President Trump. “If we would have showed out more, we wouldn’t be in this. If the presidency went the other way, where would we be? I don’t think the pandemic would be as severe, don’t think racial tensions would have been as tight. We see where we made those mistakes and now we have to continue reminding people not to do it again.”
“Social Distance” also explores adjusting to the new reality, like in “A Celebration of the Human Life Cycle” about a Zoom funeral. “Zero Feet Away” immerses itself in the story of a couple trying to avoid their marital issues with a threesome. “Humane Animal Trap” finds a man (Dylan Baker) trying to enjoy retirement until his wife (real-life wife Becky Ann Baker) is drafted back to work as a nurse on the medical frontline of the pandemic.
“We wanted to find stories about the specific of the universality. They’re stories that are so unique to this time,” Weisman Graham said.
“I really just hope that people watch this show and see their lives and experiences reflected and have some catharsis in these crazy times. At the end of the day, these stories are important to humanity. They help us process our own emotions and our own reality.”
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