Love in the Time of Corona

An easy, breezy binge, “Corona” puts a welcome, mostly upbeat spin on trying times.

Love In The Time Of Corona isn’t telling any stories that’ll blow you away, but the couples have understandable chemistry, and the production values are surprisingly high, given the restrictions the producers and crew were under.

Essentially the length of a movie split into four parts, it's a credibly made look at life under quarantine, capitalizing on real-life acting families to offer more than just another Zoom-call special, and a show with a fair amount to like, if not love.

Some of the stories are fresher than others, but all of them fit together nicely as a portrait of this juncture. The overall tone has a rom-com sweetness to it — none of the central characters is facing financial disaster or death from the disease, and there are no never-maskers afoot.

Screenwriter and producer Joanna Johnson applies a nice, smooth coat of “This is Us” lip balm on your chapped pandemic soul throughout. It’s an easy watch, though I found it hard to take my eyes off the amazing LA pandemic circumstances showcased here, with all those spacious views. It’s entertaining, that is, until we get to the show’s strident lesson plan. ... It’s all in your outlook, according to “Corona.” You’re either improved by the pandemic, or you’re not.

“Love in the Time of Corona” isn’t exactly good television. But as time capsule of how some were thinking and operating in the nascent days of an ongoing crisis, it is, at the very least, fascinating. ... Robinson and Odom Jr. do some solid work portraying a different version of their marriage, while Bellows and Kihlstedt struggle to embody their characters’ on-and-off again dynamic. Real life friends Dorfman and Qualley clearly have a level of comfort with each other that translates onscreen.

A production as impressive and emotional as it is unbearably on the nose and oversimplified.

Love in the Time of Corona ultimately manages to rouse with its grand romantic gestures, but too much of the preceding material feels unimaginative, expository and dramatically DOA.

The scripts aren't witty or exciting enough to make us want to relate to these characters, none of whom is compelling enough to make a person want to stick around.

Too hesitant to engage fully with the most devastating effects of the pandemic, “Love in the Time of Corona” works desperately to polish a pleasant veneer upon this deeply troubled time, and the result is a blandly superficial reflection of what we are still living through. The interconnected narratives and characters lack depth, and the four episodes do little to comfort or entertain.