Watching TV under the coronavirus quarantine is challenging when you see so much face-touching

The New York Times

A show like Bob's Burgers is supposed to provide an escape from reality. But it's hard to watch when the Fox comedy and other shows feature face-touching and hand-washing -- once-normal things that are a reminder of life under the coronavirus panic. "It wasn’t long into the outbreak that I began to find that anything I watched, be it an upcoming critics’ screener or a beloved rerun, could slap me back to reality unawares," says James Poniewozik. "The problem wasn’t necessarily pandemic-specific material, like my screeners of The Walking Dead: World Beyond, the latest spinoff of the AMC drama about — well, you know. Some viewers have even sought out such stories, like the recent rush on Contagion, as a kind of cathartic psychological inoculation. No, it’s the once ordinary behavior that’s most triggering, the casual, off-handed references to now-verboten acts that fill shows shot before 2020...How did I never notice before how much TV was a decadent Saturnalia of facial self-exploration? Casual eye-rubbing and breaching the six-foot radius: This is our porn now, and a cruel reminder. What would have been the most minor behaviors a week ago — the unprotected high-five, the leaned-in whisper, the detective getting in a suspect’s face — now seem as otherworldly as wights and flying dragons."

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