PvP is explicitly taking place post-pandemic, after a time jump of at least a decade (a preschooler or kindergartener is now an adult earning money at a job).
I can report that several webcomics have a bit of a common theme of treating the main characters as actors, and for special occasions like in the past holidays, the cast of Sabrina on line, Scandinavia and the world, Sequential Art are shown wearing masks and wishing a safe holiday for all. It has to be noted that in the examples I mention here the creators still had other comics where the characters do appear masked.
Kevin and Kell, another long time webcomic does show their characters masked when visiting other families or places. A bit odd because in the comic it is canon that the setting takes place in an earth in a different dimension. Many other webcomics use the excuse for not masking as their locations are in different planets, timelines or universes.
I get the occasional background actor role in a couple of television series currently shooting. Both are in a COVID-19 free world, so we work unmasked. They do a lot of testing to ensure as much as possible that transmission doesn’t take place, off camera distancing and mask rules are strictly enforced, and masks are worn as much as possible on set. They come off right after the director calls “background” and go back on immediately after “cut”.
We’ve had to do a couple of re-shoots because someone in the background forgot to remove their mask, which is kind of embarrassing, but so far it hasn’t happened to me, so more funny than not.
The testing is done in phases, you need to be tested 72 hours before the shoot with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, then the day of the shoot a rapid antigen test. If the shoot is delayed for any reason, like tomorrow’s shoot was postponed for weather, the PCR test I took on Saturday times out, and I need another test tomorrow to be able to work on Friday.
Sunday’s new episode shows that they have 99% given up.
The episode started with a birthday party - no masks for guests or restaurant staff. One passing reference that the party was smaller than they wanted due to covid.
No one in the FBI wore one for the entire episode
The drug cartel members didn’t wear them, but that’s a macho thing. They probably think they can shoot the virus anyway.
White supremacist shooter wore a mask, but that was probably to hide his identity rather than a concern for spreading the virus (while he was shooting innocent people).
Several background NYPD and EMTs were all wearing masks.
Some of the medical dramas addressed it explicitly. Like The Good Doctor (hour-long medical drama, based on a Korean drama, about an autistic savant doctor) focused the season premiere on how COVID affected the hospital in the show, with everything you’d expect; clinicians getting COVID and even dying of it, no visitors, even for dying patients, remote family visits, people outside the hospital applauding the caregivers, etc. And then before the second episode, the actor who plays the main character announced that the show was now portraying a future after COVID. The Resident (another hour-long medical drama) did something similar.
And to be honest, I have no problem with shows ignoring COVID. I already have to deal with it all day long. I watch TV for an escape from reality.
Prodigal Son is another show that made some small references to quarantining, but is now set is some alternate present/future where the pandemic is over, so they don’t have to deal with it. Which works fine. What bothers me is when shows try to have it both ways, Black-ish was one of the worst offenders. Their first couple episodes focused explicitly on the pandemic and how horrible it is for the hospital workers, and then about remote learning and homeschooling kids. And then suddenly they are having a huge backyard wedding with many guests from out of town mingling with not a mask in sight and no one works remotely anymore. Yet it’s still in the same timeline where a week before they were sterilizing everything that came into the house…
Of course, if you’re going the route of “post-COVID world”, then you have to predict what the new normal will be. Like, even after people don’t have to work remotely any more, a lot still will, because they’ve found that they can, and they like it better. And relatives will still have Zoom calls, because even if they’re allowed to come visit in person, this way they don’t need to drive four hours to do so, and so on.
One of the things about that first episode that caught my attention: It started out with the hospital trying to diagnose COVID based on what was known in the early stages of it spreading, and at one point COVID was dismissed as a possible diagnosis for one patient because one of his symptoms was the loss of his sense of taste. Which was realistic because in the early period of the epidemic it was not known that this was a possible effect of COVID.
Seeing how the show has been sweating bullets this season trying to address the subjects of BLM and institutional police racism, I think it would be too much to ask of it to address Covid-19 as well - they’d probably collapse under the weight of their own good intentions.
In Tuesday’s FBI, no masks were seen, but, one business owner had a visible sign that read “Masks are [then a picture of a mask]…” and the rest was hidden. So I don’t know if they were required or not. The owner was not wearing one, at any rate, and he was an anti-government freethinker, so I assume not.
Yeah - it is kinda clunky to keep getting hit over the head w/ social issues when just trying to veg for 30-60 mins. Similar in Superstore. I appreciate some amount of it, but it has been pretty nonstop for the last few shows.
I’ve read that the producers of Brooklyn Nine-Nine are trying to figure out how to do a comedy set in a Brooklyn precinct in the age of police racism and BLM. They touched on the racism in a couple of episodes featuring Terry Crews but presumably in the season yet to premiere it’s going to be more upfront.
I could deal with the social issues. it’s the “Nolan is both the best cop in the history of LAPD, and simultaneously the stupidest” that made me quit watching.
But hey, Adam-12 is on every day!
Obligatory XKCD link
Maybe that is the whole sign, and the store owner is just trying to help out people who don’t know what the word “mask” means: “Masks are these things.”.
My wife is a big fan of that actor - I liked him in Buffy/Firefly.
Not my fave show, but I don’t mind it as my weekly cop show fix.
Was a REALLY annoying arc the last couple eps w/ his uber annoying mother.
The first season of The Rookie was great, the seond started to go downhill then crashed off the cliff in a flaming pile of burning shit in the last episode of S2.
I’m not familiar with all of the webcomics you listed, but most of the ones I know in the second group are not set in our universe modern day. Questionable Content is set in an alternate universe were we have friendly AI and most everyone is progressive except for bigotry against said AI. Pixie Trix is set in a magical universe, although this isn’t necessarily clear in the current comic. Dumbing of Age is set in a single fall semester of college, and no pandemic has happened there (too much other tragedy has, though). And much of My Giant Nerd Boyfriend is showing stuff in the characters’ pasts. In modern day, when they go out, they wear masks, and even remove all outside clothing–the author is Asian and remembers SARS. And they show Boyfriend at home using Zoom/Skype fairly often.
Speaking of webcomics, I’m reminded of this thread, where there could be much less confusion today.
Josh Fruhlinger wrote on Covid in the comics page back in June. From reading his blog (but not the funny pages), I gather that the funnies are still all over the place when it comes to acknowledging Covid.
Funnily, Fruhlinger half-speculates the Crankshaft and other Funkyverse strips may finally begin acknowledging Covid in the next few weeks, if they are, as rumored, written a year in advance.