The Washington Post - 19.03.2020

The coronavirus crisis has us stuck at home

(working from home, if you’re lucky enough to

have a job like that), socially distanced and

stoically trapped. everything’s canceled,

closed, kaput.

so now you’re interested in what the TV

critic has to say. I see how this works.

What else, after all, can physically distance

us from one another more effectively than

television, while keeping us together as a

culture? There is so much of it now that this

sense of belonging is fading — w e are rarely all

watching the same thing.

We don’t even watch the same way. of the

many frantic pleas I’ve received in the past few

days seeking advice for what to watch, some-

one wanted me to recommend a show she

could watch on one screen, while doing her

job on the other. Bleh. It’s tempting to have

something playing at all times: cable news all

day, snatches of YouTube while you dawdle,

your umpteenth cycle through every season of

“The office.”

For your own sanity, however, my first and

best advice is to try to keep the television off,

especially while you’re working or trying to

learn. In ordinary times, I am platform- and

consumption-agnostic; in these very unordi-

nary times, I urge you to “watch TV” on

something other than the laptop, smartphone

or desktop PC that dictates your workday. For

some of you, this may mean buying an actual

TV, and why not? You can always donate it to

charity when the CDC gives the all-clear.

The goal here is to treat TV as your day’s

only figurative getaway destination — that

“third place” status we usually grant to cafes,

bars, gyms, theaters, museums, parks, sports

arenas and retail stores. TV must now be

see noteBooK on C2

BY ROBIN GIVHAN

In offices, they call it power

dressing and business casual and

dressing for success. The invita-

tions tell us to gussy up in cock-

tail party finery or unleash our

imagination with creative black

tie. We buy something new be-

cause we have tickets to the

theater or a concert. We hunker

down in front of a television with

a bowl of popcorn and become

armchair critics as we watch a

parade of fashionable — or not —

celebrities on an awards show red

carpet.

These are our personal fashion

moments, both real and vicari-

ous. For the time being, they no

longer exist. They have evaporat-

ed in the midst of mandates to

work from home, bans on large

gatherings and other precautions

against the unknowns of the

coronavirus.

The public square has shut

down. employees are banned

from their workplaces. schools

are closed. The smithsonian mu-

seums are shuttered. Broadway is

dark. Disneyland is locked. And

we’ve lost a little bit of ourselves.

An essential part of our identity is

rooted in how we relate to the

people around us, how we situate

ourselves within the social hier-

archy. We are defined, in part, by

our tribe. We dress to tell a story

about ourselves and if there is no

one there to hear our narrative,

we’ve been put on mute — turned

into mere ectoplasm in pajamas.

We are accustomed to slipping

on a mantle of public person-

hood. When that is no longer part

of our morning routine, without

that quotidian fashion moment,

we can become unmoored. Work-

see gIVHAn on C5

Hanging up

our clothes

and public

personas

BY PAUL FARHI

AND SARAH ELLISON

In a typical week, ABC counts
on shows like “The Bachelor” and
“A merican Idol” to deliver its big-
gest ratings.
But the weeks are no longer
typical.
With the coronavirus crisis be-
ginning to grip the nation last
week, the most-watched program
on television wasn’t a frothy reali-
ty show — it was a newscast. The
Thursday night edition of ABC’s
“World news To night” attracted
10.8 million viewers, a 21 percent
spike over the show’s average for
the year and a highly unusual
accomplishment for a news pro-
gram.
The program’s rapid ascension
to the top of the nielsen rankings
was the most visible sign of the
tsunami that has hit the news
industry. With millions of people
isolated at home and hungry for
the latest information about the
pandemic, the covid-19 outbreak
has sent a surge of viewers and
readers to some media organiza-
tions. But it is also threatening to
drown others outright amid an
economic crash.
The outbreak has created mas-
sive uncertainty about the future,
including questions about wheth-
er advertisers — some of which
are shutting down — will main-
tain their support in the face of
deepening economic peril. The
pandemic has already tipped
some smaller news outlets into
suspending publication or laying
off staff, an especially agonizing
decision as they struggle to cover
a story with implications global
and local.
“everyone here is working not
see news on C3

As news

abounds,

a struggle

for media

BY HANK STUEVER

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

Streaming insanity?

Hand me the remote.

WArner medIA/HBo Hulu

colleen HAyes/nBc mIcHAel pArmelee/FX

BY TIM CARMAN

Workers were affixing small

black-and-white signs to the

stone patio outside Zaytinya on

Tuesday morning, each one ex-

actly six feet from the next. The

signs indicated where customers

for one of ThinkFoodGroup’s

new community kitchens should

stand while waiting for meals

outside a restaurant that would

be, under normal circumstances,

packed with lunchtime diners.

But Zaytinya was closed, one

of hundreds of restaurants and

bars across the city affected by

the D.C. government’s order on

Monday to stop all dine-in ser-

vice. The clampdown is part of a

growing movement to curtail

public gatherings and “flatten

the curve,” the popular short-

hand for limiting the spread of

coronavirus by dramatically cut-

ting back on social interactions.

As the virus has spread, public

officials have steadily lowered

their recommended numbers for

public gatherings: first 1,000,

then 250, then 50 and now 10.

José Andrés understands the

importance of these recommen-

dations. They can save lives. But

he also understands people need

to be fed, especially those house-

holds that have relied on (now

closed) public schools to feed

their children or don’t have the

means to stockpile their pantries

for weeks on end, as the corona-

see Andres on C3

Flattening the curve while satisfying appetites

mArVIn JosepH/tHe WAsHIngton post

restaurateur José Andrés turned Jaleo and his other

d.C. establishments into community kitchens.

CLoCKwIse FroM toP LeFt: Yvonne orji, left, and Issa rae in HBo’s “Insecure”;

Maya erskine, right, and taj Cross in Hulu’s “Pen15”; Billy Porter in FX’s “Pose”; and

Kristen Bell and william Jackson Harper in nBC’s “the good Place.”

KLMNO

Style

THURSDAy, MARCH 19, 2020. SECTION C eZ re

Book World

get lost in escapist novels and

fantasies from a long time ago. C4

Carolyn Hax

this web of romance may not be as

tangled as he thinks. C8

Theater
American shakespeare center
fights for s urvival amid crisis. C5

Health
germaphobes were ready for this
— and have been for too long. C5