Netflix has once again proved how solidarity between the creative and scientific communities is the need of the hour.
In its latest instalment of the Explained franchise, Coronavirus Explained, co-produced with the media house Vox, it explores the what and why of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
Netflix Announcement
In 2020, the world changed.
— See What’s Next (@seewhatsnext) April 22, 2020
Vox Explained tackles COVID-19 and examines how coronavirus became a pandemic. The new episode launches April 26 pic.twitter.com/e0SEgslGzj
In a rather prescient move, Netflix had released an episode of its flagship Explained series in 2019 titled ‘The Next Pandemic‘. The episode detailed the efforts underway to prevent the spread of a global pandemic.
Later, in March 2020, when the real pandemic was here, Netflix approached Vox for an expansion on the episode. And thus was a new mini-season of Explained, devoted entirely to the coronavirus, was conceived.
The first episode premiered on April 26, with an additional two installments planned for the summer.
“We thought it was a great opportunity to provide a public service,” says showrunner Claire Gordon. “This was a moment that was incredibly confusing for the whole world and it felt like a thing that our show could do well in trying to make it understandable.”
Rushed Production
Keeping in mind the topical nature of the series, Vox Media put the foot on the pedal and rushed the first episode in a little over two weeks. Vox usually spends at least 8 to 10 weeks on a single Explained episode while working under a single roof unlike now, when its team is distributed around the world.
“Many of the interviews that we use in the piece were filmed before the pandemic began,” executive producer Joe Posner told The Hollywood Reporter.
However, about two-thirds of the episode is still new production. “We added a lot of context around their concerns and their information.”
For those updates, producers turned to the day-to-day reportage of the outbreak by Vox newsroom. They also pulled archival footage and relied on animators working round the clock.
Academy awardee J.K Simmons, who had earlier narrated the pandemic episode in 2019, also provided voiceover to the new episode while sheltering at home.
Toughest Challenge?
According to Vox founder Ezea Klein, who is also an executive producer on Explained,
“One of the hardest things to do as a reporter is (to) communicate uncertainty… Sometimes the explanation that you can give people that helps them understand why, say, public health authorities or politicians are doing what they’re doing is to show them that this is where the knowledge stops, and after this it becomes guesswork.”
Number of Episodes
Producers are prepping at least 3 instalments in all, one of which will focus on the impact of the pandemic on public mental health as well.
The episodes will be packaged as a mini-season much like its previous franchises, including Sex, Explained and The Mind, Explained.
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