• Photo Courtesy Of Tilted Productions
• THE NEW NORMAL Oscar Nuñez stars as Miguel Villareal, one of several characters who navigate the isolation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the new series Netflix series Social Distance.

What's it rated? TV-MA

When? 2020

Where's it showing? Netflix

"Conceived, cast, and executed entirely remotely during quarantine," this new series created by Hilary Weisman Graham and Orange is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan examines the how families, couples, and friends navigate the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From AA meetings and isolation to a family forced to mourn the loss of their patriarch via Zoom, each episode of Social Distance features a different scenario with one thing in common—this pandemic. While the premise of the show feels a little predictable, the wide swath of scenarios in each 20-minute slice of life builds on each other and rounds out to be a pretty fun piece of work.

There is poignancy here too—one episode enters the world of Mia (Kylie Liya Page), a teenage gamer and her soul-crushing and incredibly relatable desperation around getting her crush to notice her. She succeeds but quickly learns the guy she's been pining for is actually a racist jerk who thinks calling COVID-19 "the Chinese flu" is hilarious. The past teenager in my soul had her heart broken right along with Mia.

On the lighter side is my favorite episode that centers on boyfriends Marco (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Shane (Max Jenkins), whose botched attempt to spice things up with a threesome goes hilariously wrong. I suggest you watch Social Distance like you would a movie and not a series; the vignettes just work better together. (eight 18- to 23-min. episodes) Δ