Television in the Time of Corona

We usually watch two shows a day – a House Hunters at around 4:00 and a network show after dinner. At first television was a welcome respite from our fears of the coronavirus and its effect on the economy but then the commercials for these “unprecedented times” began airing. Not only did they interrupt the escapist aspect of the shows their fuzzy electronic music and their euphemistic language made watching them quite unpleasant. But since I was unwilling to stop our daily viewing I needed a coping mechanism. Not surprisingly this turned out to be a collection – a collection of the euphemistic phrases used instead of accurate and scary language like “deadly viral pandemic”.

So here goes:

Unprecedented times

Uncertain times or Time of uncertainty or Time of tremendous uncertainty

Times like these, These times, This time, or All this

Tough times

Troubled times

Difficult times

Turbulent times

Challenging time or times

Unusual of times

Extraordinary times

Unsettling times

Strange new times

Current situation

It got even worse when the shows started ending either because they had reached the final episode or because they were unable to make more due to these (pick your favorite phrase). So we were very happy to find out that we could watch Amazon Prime shows on our TV through our cable box. So far we’ve watched one season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, two episodes of The Boys, and one episode of Bosch. Now we’re adjusting to shows with no commercials at all!