The COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in the early months of 2020, causing massive economic and social disruption. In addition to the disease itself, populations have often dealt with lockdowns, shortages and pandemic fatigue, political and cultural turmoil. This made the pandemic a time of exceptional stress, driving some people to seek peaceful escapism in media and others to consume media concerning fictional pandemics (i.e., zombie apocalypses) in an effort to make sense of the event. Themes include contagion, isolation and loss of control. The pandemic also impacted people's use of social media as well as the sports industry.
Some commentators have referred to the pandemic as a "distinct cultural era".
In media
The pandemic has been included in the narratives of ongoing pre-pandemic television series and become a central narrative in new ones, with mixed results.
Film and television
Horror The horror film Host (2020), a computer screen film, was produced and released during the pandemic and centers on characters attacked by a supernatural presence after conducting a seance via Zoom.
Another film, Safer at Home, filmed in 2021 and set in 2022, envisions Los Angeles as a police state as a result of the pandemic. It depicts an online party going "terribly wrong."
The slasher film Sick is set during the pandemic.
Comedy Staged is a British television comedy series set during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. It was primarily filmed using video-conferencing technology. In the first series, released in June 2020, David Tennant and Michael Sheen play fictionalized versions of themselves, trying to rehearse a play online during lockdown.
The film Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a sequel to the 2006 mockumentary film Borat, was released on Amazon Prime Video in October 2020. It features the fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) traveling around the United States and interacting with Americans during the pandemic. The film's conclusion jokingly postulates that COVID-19 was created by the Kazakhstan government, which used Borat to spread it and start the pandemic.
Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea is a dystopian dark comedy distributed by BayView Entertainment about a vile landlady who wreaks havoc on her tenants during a zombie epidemic. The screenwriter Brian Patrick Butler was inspired by political division that stemmed from the pandemic.
Writing for The New York Times about the then-upcoming BBC sitcom Pandemonium on 16 December 2020, David Segal asked, "Are we ready to laugh about Covid-19? Or rather, is there anything amusing, or recognizable in a humorous way, about life during a plague, with all of its indignities and setbacks, not to mention its rituals (clapping for health care workers) and rules (face masks, please)."
The film Locked Down, about a jewelry heist during the pandemic, was released on HBO Max on 14 January 2021, after being filmed in September 2020 and set the previous spring. It received mixed reviews.
Bo Burnham: Inside is a Netflix comedy special released in May 2021 and filmed during the pandemic without a crew or audience, with Burnham directing, shooting and editing the special while quarantined. It features themes of balancing the impulses to "stay in bed, stay in the dark, stay alone", and "to create, create, create, stay busy, and make jokes", as well as thoughts on the irrelevance of one's own work during a perceived global collapse.
The satirical American TV cartoon South Park did two double-length episodes about COVID-19, "The Pandemic Special" and "South ParQ Vaccination Special". It then did two approximately hour-long television films, South Park: Post Covid, and South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid.
Friend of the World is a COVID satire and body horror film distributed by Troma Entertainment. Similar to The Divine Comedy, The Twilight Zone, and Night of the Living Dead, it was "deeply embedding some of the concerns of civil unrest people were facing at the time with the story of a disturbed man in an underground bunker."
Drama/thriller The Gone Game is an Indian psychological thriller web series directed by Nikhil Bhat, shot almost entirely within the confines of homes and directed remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. It premiered on Voot on 20 August 2020. The show follows the death of a COVID-19 patient with the plotline getting messier in each episode.
The U.S. medical drama television series The Good Doctor and Grey's Anatomy began airing their season 4 and season 17, respectively, in November 2020. Both featured COVID-19's impact on the characters working at, and patients of, the hospital where the shows are set – including recurring characters becoming infected by the disease.
The U.S. drama franchise One Chicago premiered on 11 November 2020, with Chicago Med featuring a COVID Unit in the hospital, where incoming patients were tested by paramedics in season 6.
The U.S. procedural drama television series 9-1-1 began airing its season 4 in January 2021. The opening episode number 47, "The New Abnormal" featured a storyline centered around the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on both the recurring characters and everyday individuals.
Songbird, an American dystopian romantic thriller film directed by Adam Mason and produced by Michael Bay, in which "COVID-23" has caused the world to remain in lockdown for four years, filmed in Los Angeles during the real-world pandemic with consequently disrupted-production. The initial response was negative, with critics arguing that it was "cashing in on human suffering" and "throwing nightmare fuel on the fire of conspiracy theorists." It is described as the first American film derived entirely from the pandemic, was released on 11 December 2020, to generally negative reviews. At least eight of the 75 movies announced for the 2021 South by Southwest included COVID-19 in their narratives.
Putham Pudhu Kaalai () is a 2020 Indian Tamil-language anthology film, consisting of five short film segments. It was entirely shot during the COVID-19 pandemic in India and is set against the backdrop of the country's 21-day lockdown in March 2020, the five short films talk about hope, love, and new beginnings during the pandemic. The film released on Amazon Prime Video on 16 October 2020.
Karthik Dial Seytha Yenn () is a 2020 Indian Tamil-language short film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. A sequel to his Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010), it stars Silambarasan and Trisha reprising their roles from that film. The film was primarily shot using an iPhone and released on 20 May 2020 on YouTube. It follows filmmaker Karthik who is at home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tamil Nadu without work as theatres are shut down, affecting his career as a screenwriter. While experiencing writer's block, he hesitantly calls his ex-girlfriend Jessie, who fled the effects of the pandemic in New York City and is under lockdown in Kerala. After the phone call, Karthik resumes his writing and composes Kamal & Kadambari – A Love Story.
Coronavirus is an Indian Telugu-language film that explores life of a middle-class family amidst COVID-19 lockdown in India. The film was released on 11 December 2020.
Operation MBBS Season 2 is an Indian Hindi-language medical drama set in the COVID-19 pandemic in a medical college which is under the impact of the pandemic. Directed by Amrit Raj Gupta, the series was released on Dice Media YouTube channel, with its first episode uploaded on 15 March 2021.
Eeswaran is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action-drama film written and directed by Suseenthiran. It tells the story of a familial dispute during and due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
A Pencil to the Jugular is a 2021 Australian drama directed by Matthew Victor Pastor. Set during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne it is the second instalment in a 2020 trilogy of feature films directed by Matthew Victor Pastor. The film premiered at the 43rd Moscow International Film Festival in April 2021.
On 13 March 2025 it was aired 7291, which is focused on the casualties in Madrid and it also includes commentaries about family victims, doctors and responsible of the residence for the elderly.
Season 3 of The Family Man is set during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The series is an Indian espionage thriller created by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. It follows the story of Project Guan-Yu, planned by Chinese terrorists during the pandemic to strike over India. This was hinted at in the post-credit scene of the second season's final episode. Season 3 is set to be released on 21 November 2025.
In season 1 of The Pitt, an American medical drama that debuted in 2025, the protagonist Dr. Robby is shown to suffer flashbacks of treating patients during the pandemic and losing his mentor to COVID-19.
Short film Pablo Larrain coordinated a short film anthology entitled Homemade, created during—and featuring stories about—the COVID-19 lockdown period. Each of the 17 directors were asked to produce a five- to seven-minute-long film, using only equipment found at home, and for a general audience. The project was conceived in March and released only three months later in June, via Netflix.
Gotta Get Some Tissue! is an animated short film and music video inspired by the pandemic, released in 2021.
The Last Butterflies with Cooper Andrews and Whitney Wegman-Wood was inspired by Wegman-Wood's nightmares during the pandemic.
Music videos and competitions The annually televised Eurovision Song Contest was forced to be cancelled at short notice, the first time in its 65-year history. A special broadcast called Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light was quickly produced and aired in its place across 45 countries.
The music video for the song "Phenom" by Thao & the Get Down Stay Down was recorded entirely via the "rigid grid format of the teleconferencing app Zoom," while the band members were in home isolation. Described as "the finest music video to emerge from our age of isolation," it took eight days to complete.
The music video for "Lose Somebody" by Kygo and One Republic used large green screen footage and wild images while working remote from each other due to COVID-19 restrictions. The video for "Freedom", also by Kygo and featuring Zak Abel, was shot separately from their homes and focused on their lives while under stay-at-home orders.
In November 2020, K-pop boy band BTS released the song "Life Goes On", which described their lives during the pandemic as they lived in isolation, without the in person interaction of their fans and concerts. More personal and "sentimental" in nature, it presented the band living together in isolation in their dorm. The video is intercut with a clip of V driving his bandmates around South Korea and eventually past Seoul Olympic Stadium, where the band was slated to kickoff their Map of the Soul Tour several months prior before it was cancelled due to the pandemic. The video ends with a sequence of the band envisioning themselves singing the song in the empty stadium. At a press conference held the day of Be's release, Jungkook said that his intent with the music video was to express the "sadness and the longing" the band felt due to the tour's cancellation "and because we couldn't see ARMY much".
Arivum Anbum () is an Indian Tamil-language song released on 23 April 2020, by Think Music India on YouTube in response to the pandemic in India. The song was composed by Ghibran and lyrics by Kamal Haasan. It was sung by 12 singers and recorded by the artistes from their homes. The lyrics of the song talk about the need to use "our heart and intelligence" to battle the crisis. The video also features visuals of the mass exodus of migrant labourers from cities across the country.
Release schedules