General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Social Distance

Social Distance is an American anthology television series created by Hilary Weisman Graham that premiered on Netflix on October 15, 2020. Set in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, its eight standalone episodes follow families, friends, and couples who are forced apart by quarantine and must rely on video calls, smart-home cameras, and other technology to stay connected.¹^•² The series was conceived, cast, and executed entirely remotely during quarantine, making it one of the most complete examples of the remotely produced "quarantine shows" that emerged in 2020.¹

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	October 15, 2020, on Netflix; all eight episodes released the same day³^•⁴
Format	Eight standalone anthology episodes of roughly 18 to 23 minutes, each told through a different digital interface¹^•⁵
Creator	Hilary Weisman Graham, showrunner and executive producer, with executive producers Tara Herrmann, Blake McCormick, and Jenji Kohan¹
Production method	Conceived, cast, and executed entirely remotely; actors filmed themselves at home with camera and audio equipment shipped to their doors¹^•⁶
Principal cast	Danielle Brooks, Mike Colter, Oscar Nuñez, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Asante Blackk, Guillermo Diaz, Peter Scanavino, Becky Ann Baker, Dylan Baker, and Lachlan Watson, among others⁷
Setting	The first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd²
Reception	58% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 12 reviews; 73% Popcornmeter audience score; 5.9 on IMDb³^•⁸

Spoilers

Episodes and subject matter

Each episode follows a different family or group, and each is viewed through a specific digital interface, an approach Graham justified by the show's premise: the devices through which people experienced social distance were the natural point of view of the series.⁶ The eight episodes, all released October 15, 2020, are:⁴

"Delete All Future Events" (22 min), in which a newly single man finds creative ways to stay entertained and sober while keeping up his online support system⁵
"A Celebration of the Human Life Cycle" (18 min), in which an extended family holds an online celebration of life for their departed patriarch⁵
"And we could all together/Go out on the ocean" (20 min), about a single mother caring for a senior while monitoring her young daughter through home cameras⁵
"Zero Feet Away" (22 min), in which a bickering couple invites a third party into their relationship⁵
"You Gotta Ding-Dong Fling-Flong the Whole Narrative" (21 min), in which a father distracts his young son while his wife suffers from COVID-19⁵
"Humane Animal Trap" (19 min), about a long-married couple, a retired husband and a nurse wife, confronting what they want from life during self-quarantine⁵
"everything is v depressing rn" (23 min), in which a shy teenager works up the courage to tell her esports teammate she has a crush on him⁵
"Pomp and Circumstance" (18 min), in which, as public anger mounts over George Floyd's death, a young man comes into conflict with his employer over racial justice and the history of the United States⁵

The casting mixed professional actors with real-life relatives in several episodes: Danielle Brooks appeared with her mother LaRita Brooks and brother DJ Brooks, Asante Blackk with his father Ayize Ma'at, and Peter Scanavino with his son Leo Bai-Scanavino. Graham said that casting non-actors was sometimes essential.⁷^•¹⁰

Origin and development

Hilary Weisman Graham, a writer who had previously worked on Orange Is the New Black and Bones, conceived the series in the days after New York public schools closed on March 13, 2020. On March 17 she pitched the idea over Zoom to Jenji Kohan, Tara Herrmann, and the Orange Is the New Black writers from seasons 6 and 7, telling them, "Guys, I have a crazy idea." The team pitched Netflix on March 31, the buyers committed during the Zoom call itself, the writers' room opened on April 20, and shooting began on June 15, a pace Graham described as much faster than normal.⁶

The producers framed the project as an attempt to reflect the moment while keeping everyone safe. In a statement reported in April 2020, they said, "Our job as storytellers is to reflect reality, and in this new, bizarre, bewildering reality we are all experiencing, we feel passionate about finding connection as we all remain at a distance." Writers never met physically, director Diego Velasco directed remotely, actors filmed themselves, and Graham ran production from her living room.⁹

Remote production

Working over Zoom. The writers' room met for three- to four-hour days to limit burnout, and the team learned that remote production removed the informal communication that normally shapes television work. Graham noted that conversations that would happen walking to the kitchen or riding in a van on a location scout had to become separate calls, texts, or appointments, and that there was "no whispering in remote production"; she solved the showrunner-director channel with separate text chains for each episode's writer and director.⁶

Actors as their own crew. Each performer received a shipped case of camera and audio equipment, which Graham compared to "the Blue Apron of production." Some actors carried cases weighing about 40 pounds up their own stairs, and COVID-era union agreements meant crew could not even enter homes to help or to deliver props. Departments adapted by advising remotely: the camera department told actors where to place the camera, the props department instructed them on resetting items between shots, and a role the team coined the "Zoom DJ" managed breakout rooms, a green room for actors, and a private director's room.⁶

Reception

Critical response was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds a 58% Tomatometer from 12 reviews and a 73% audience score.³ A review in Time by Judy Berman called it the best of the 2020 quarantine shows, praising the way each brief vignette switched cast, tone, and app of choice, while still judging the anthology scattered and questioning whether fiction about a still-unfolding crisis could say much; the review noted the show's advantage of a strong cast, short episodes, and Kohan's built-in fan base.¹¹ A later Time commentary criticized the series for letting episodes about business owners and white-collar characters vastly outnumber episodes about frontline or low-wage workers.¹²

The series ran as a single season and is listed as ended.¹³ It remains available on Netflix, including in 4K.⁸

Context among quarantine productions

Social Distance belonged to a cluster of remotely produced pandemic projects that appeared within months of one another, including Freeform's Love in the Time of Corona, the HBO special Coastal Elites, and NBC's Connecting.... What distinguished Social Distance within this group was its anthology structure and the completeness of its remote method, from a virtual writers' room to self-filmed performances.¹¹ Scholars of television culture have since treated the pandemic period as one in which mediated connection became an obligatory condition of much social life, a context in which a series built entirely from video calls and home cameras functioned as a document of its moment.¹⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Family and relationship drama › Family and domestic drama › Family sagas and household dramas

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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