This weekend, Freeform debuted their four-part series Love in the Time of Corona that is available for streaming on Hulu. The series’ name is a reference to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1985 novel Love in the Time of Cholera and chronicles the lives of different couples during quarantine. The show stars Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr., Nicolette Robinson, Rainey Qualley, Tommy Dorfman, Rya Kihlstedt, Gil Bellows, Ava Bellows, and L. Scott Caldwell.
The series is set during the ongoing covid-19 quarantine and explores how different relationships evolve as couples were forced to either spend more time together or apart. One storyline follows a couple that contemplates the possibility of having another baby during quarantine since their careers were put on hold. Another deals with an older couple attempting to hide their new relationship status from their daughter. The show manages to incorporate many of the now commonplace elements of living in quarantine, such as Zoom dating and covering up before grocery shopping.
Joanna Johnson developed the idea after production for her other show on Freeform, Good Trouble, was put on hold. Head of original programming for Freeform, Lauren Corrao said that there were several pitches for shows about life in quarantine at the beginning of the pandemic, but this concept felt the most like regular television. The show uses actors who are together in real life so that the intimacy could appear as genuine as possible.
Love in the Time of Corona isn’t the only project that was inspired by the quarantine. Netflix is developing Social Distance, an anthology series from Orange is the New Black creator Jenji Konan. NBC is also working on a comedy called Connecting that follows a group of friends trying to keep in touch during quarantine. HBO has Social Elites, with a star-studded cast and ambiguous plot.
Covid-themed stories aren’t limited to TV. A film starring Euphoria’s Zendaya and Tenet’s John David Washington, Malcolm & Marie will tell the story of a couple stuck in their house during quarantine. The movie is already being compared to Noah Baumbach’s award-winning film, Marriage Story, although its release date has yet to be announced.