They Create Nightmare Worlds for TV. Now They’re Living in One.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/arts/television/westworld-handmaids-tale-virus.html

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They tried to warn us.

In their television dramas, they sought to depict the most chillingly dystopian scenarios they could imagine — terrifying alternate realities in which life as we knew it had been devastated by revolutions, plagues, technology run amok or hordes of bloodthirsty zombies.

At the time, the writers of these series — “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Westworld” and others — wanted to entertain and challenge audiences with dark reflections of society that they could tell themselves were avoidable or too outrageous to transpire.

But now, amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, the people who make these shows are looking at their work in a different light.

These creators and producers are in no mood to gloat or to chastise viewers for failing to heed their admonitions. But they have a clear understanding of why we remain drawn to dystopian entertainments and they wonder whether current events will have some lasting impact on their work.

And they admit to pangs of remorse for asking audiences to engage with the nightmares they invent.

“You do feel guilty about putting these anxieties in people’s minds,” said Bruce Miller, the creator and showrunner of Hulu’s adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

“There’s no way not to feel like you somehow wished things into being,” he said. “But it shows you how television, and drama in general, has something to tell people about how the world works.”

Alison Schapker, the showrunner of Netflix’s dark science-fiction series “Altered Carbon,” said she had become acutely aware of how her work is being received “when television has become one of the fundamental outlets we have to pass time and process what’s happening in the day.”

She added that viewers’ amplified discomfort would invariably seep back into her writing. “What I want to say as a storyteller always comes from the life I’m living, and that life has been completely upended,” Schapker said.

On “The Handmaid’s Tale,” adapted from the Margaret Atwood novel, America has been ravaged by disease and environmental disaster, and remade as a totalitarian state where women are enslaved. “Altered Carbon,” based on Richard K. Morgan’s novel, imagines a future when immortality is made possible by technology — but only for those who can afford it. In HBO’s “Westworld,” adapted from Michael Crichton’s thriller, lifelike automatons are subjugated in a world of declining morals and brutal economic disparity.

While these dehumanizing scenarios have proliferated in popular culture, Jonathan Nolan, a co-creator and showrunner of “Westworld,” said they all derived from a shared human curiosity to imagine society under stress — while observing from a safe distance.

“As a culture, we’re collectively trying out different strategies and outcomes, trying to get a sense for where we might screw things up,” Nolan said. He added that though there are utopian fantasies out there too, “people are more interested in watching versions of the world in which things have gone wrong than have gone right.”

Lisa Joy, Nolan’s fellow creator and showrunner, said that dystopian narratives can serve as a psychic proving ground to explore in moments of relative calm.

“If you look at history, there’s cycles of war, of poverty, strife, famine and disease,” she said. “You know it would be hubris to think we were immune to those cycles forever.”

Alex Garland, who wrote and directed the high-tech thriller “Devs” for FX on Hulu, said that its central ideas — “massive tech companies with unregulated authority, massive imbalances of power and wealth” — required no conjecture on his part. “There’s nothing remotely insightful about pointing it out,” he said. “It’s completely obvious. We all know it’s there.”

Garland has also contemplated apocalyptic scenarios in his films “Annihilation” (which finds Earth imperiled by alien mutation) and “28 Days Later” (the planet is overrun by zombies). He explained that these kinds of stories offered an enticing form of “wish fulfillment.”

“When I was a kid and watching zombie movies,” Garland said, “I’d partly be thinking zombies are scary. But I’d also be thinking, wow, it would be amazing if you could bust into any shop and take whatever you wanted.”

Of course, Garland said, this kind of voyeurism is satisfying when it occurs “in anticipation, from the safety of things not being like that.” He said that creators and audiences had persuaded themselves that “by engaging with the dystopia, that will vaccinate us against them happening.”

Now that civilization has arrived at an authentic crisis, not unlike the kinds he has dramatized, Garland could not help but wonder if this storytelling had been futile.

“It’s a bit like doing a Twitter protest,” he said. “It sounds like I’m saying something. But what’s the actual result? Probably just another noise bouncing around the echo chamber.”

Do these dystopian stories really have any power to prepare us for impending adversity? Miller, the “Handmaid’s Tale” showrunner, said this genre at least offered the comforting perception that individuals can have some control over their chaotic environments. “We always want to tell stories in which one person’s decisions have an effect,” he said. “And in a dystopian world, because it’s more stripped down to its essentials, the choices are simpler. You can take the problem you’re interested in and put it at the center.”

But in the weeks and months to come, will audiences lose their appetites for imaginary worlds gone wrong, and instead seek out stories where things turn out for the better?

Updated June 5, 2020

So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. Some infectious disease experts were reassured by the fact that the protests were held outdoors, saying the open air settings could mitigate the risk of transmission.

Exercise researchers and physicians have some blunt advice for those of us aiming to return to regular exercise now: Start slowly and then rev up your workouts, also slowly. American adults tended to be about 12 percent less active after the stay-at-home mandates began in March than they were in January. But there are steps you can take to ease your way back into regular exercise safely. First, “start at no more than 50 percent of the exercise you were doing before Covid,” says Dr. Monica Rho, the chief of musculoskeletal medicine at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. Thread in some preparatory squats, too, she advises. “When you haven’t been exercising, you lose muscle mass.” Expect some muscle twinges after these preliminary, post-lockdown sessions, especially a day or two later. But sudden or increasing pain during exercise is a clarion call to stop and return home.

States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you aren’t being told to stay at home, it’s still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.

Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

Taking one’s temperature to look for signs of fever is not as easy as it sounds, as “normal” temperature numbers can vary, but generally, keep an eye out for a temperature of 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If you don’t have a thermometer (they can be pricey these days), there are other ways to figure out if you have a fever, or are at risk of Covid-19 complications.

The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.

If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’t be able to get tested.

These TV producers cautioned against the idea of rewriting their series to address the coronavirus pandemic head-on. “The thing that’s happening at the moment is completely real,” said Garland, whose work on “Devs” is already mostly complete. “You’re not going to get any meaningful reaction to what is happening now for at least a few years.”

Schapker, from “Altered Carbon,” echoed these sentiments, saying that these shows did not need to be turned into sentimental fantasies or dismal dirges either. The responsibility of storytellers, she said was to absorb “the complexity of the moment and reflect it in our work.”

“I don’t think it’s time for saccharine,” she said, “and I don’t think it’s time to just look out my window and stare.”

The cast and crew of “The Handmaid’s Tale” were about two weeks into filming the first new episodes for the fourth season, Miller said, when they had to halt production as concerns about the coronavirus mounted.

Whatever transpires between now and when filming is able to resume, Miller said that it was unlikely these episodes would be changed, whether to reference real-life events or to adjust their tone.

“God knows what things are going to be like by the time this season of the show comes out,” he said. “When you try to hit a target and the target hasn’t even materialized yet, it’s a little difficult.”

At the same time, Miller said that he and his colleagues were still writing the last episodes of this new season, and that it was all but assured the ongoing calamity would influence their process in ways they cannot yet predict.

While their overall goal — “to tell a story and make people feel connected to it” — remains the same, Miller said, “part of my job is to be a delicate flower, to feel what’s going on in the world. It does change what we write and it will certainly change what we discuss, storywise.”

The “Westworld” producers said that they had finished filming the third season of the show, but a lengthy process of postproduction and special effects still lay ahead, one that they were trying to figure out how to run remotely while they worked from home.

Nolan and Joy said they, too, could not suddenly turn their show into a sentimental fantasy. “There’s no way to change our creative DNA and write about something that’s not organic to our thoughts,” Joy said.

What they can do is follow another dramatic tradition and populate their stories with heroic characters who, Joy said, can stand as “models for people to look at them and say, we’ll soldier on.”

Dystopian narratives, she said, may be “drama about a world that can be cruel, random and broken, but the important thing is that, in the face of a world like that, humans do not have to be cruel, random or broken.”