THE CRITICS
ON TELEVISIONWHAT WE'l\E WATCHING
In our self-isolation, video has replat:ed social lift, and TV is grappling with a new reality.
8Y 001\EEN .IT. FELIX0
n the evening ofMm:h 6th,I went David Muir was hosting a special edi- squares in Italy, and the Grand Princess
out to eat with friends in Brook- ti.on of "20/20." Analysts were seated cruise ship, still stranded somewhere in
lyn. The restaurant was a no-nonsense around a curved desk, typing on tablets. the Pacific, miles from the PortofOak-
family-run spot. There was a :Bat-screen ABC had transformed the show's stu- land. On the floor of the studio was
television mounted on the wall,consid- dio into a sloping, L.E.D.-striped pan- what looked like an illuminated elec-
erately out of the sight lines of most optic lair for the election-which was, ti.on map that had been repurposed to
diners.As we got up to leave after finish- just days after Super Tuesday, the story highlight the states with confirmed cases
ing, a flash of red colonized my periph- of the year. Walls doubled as screens, of the coronavirus, which were shaded
eral vision. I turned to get a better look. but the images were of empty town blood red. Outside the restaurant, we
Live streaming, which once seemed Jo presage the dissolution of human intimacy, nO'W looks like its preservation.
ILLUSTRATION BY WENKAI MAO 65