Pandemic Comedy 'Staged' Remains the Ultimate in Comfort TV

The COVID-19 pandemic was a significant blow to the entertainment industry. From large-scale complications like multi-year production delays (or outright series cancellations) to subtler shifts in audience viewing habits, the repercussions are still echoing today. The long-term production delays meant networks had to adapt, whether shifting streaming-only hits to broadcast, buying the rights to previously aired properties, or projects requiring less in-person interaction. But the absolute best oddity to come about during the "lockdown era" was Staged, a six-episode comedy series starring everyone's favorite BFFs, Michael Sheen and David Tennant, whose first season was filmed entirely over Zoom.

Grounded in the real-life friendship between its stars, the show follows a (slightly) fictionalized version of the pair as they attempt to rehearse a play together while stuck in lockdown, with two further seasons, each of which gets more self-referential than the last. However, the plot — such as it is — is almost incidental to the larger show. Instead, Staged is a warm and charming reminder of the power and necessity of connection, friendship, and laughter at a time when they were all sorely needed. 

Four years after Staged's original premiere date, most of the pandemic-era rules have rolled back. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the world is a less frightening place than it was when this series first launched. As we stare down the barrel of the mid-2020s being fueled by chaos and uncertainty, maybe we still need to curl up with something that feels like the televised equivalent of a cup of hot chocolate just as much as we did then.

Staged's first season premiered in the summer of 2020 at the height of global COVID lockdowns, when virtually everyone (including the folks on the show) seemed to be *thisclose* to losing it from anxiety, boredom, frustration, or plain old fear at virtually any moment. Whether you responded to the pandemic in the vein of this series's version of Tennant, wearing the same ratty emotional comfort hoodie for what seemed to be weeks at a time, or its Sheen, freely imbibing wine and spying on the neighbors, Staged's first season felt so familiar precisely because its experience was so universal. Celebrities are just like us, as it turns out. 

From meandering conversations about seemingly nothing to playing intense rounds of Battleship to settle an argument, much of the appeal of Staged is how unstaged it feels. The Zoom-based framework makes the audience feel like they're eavesdropping on a call where everyone forgot they were there. Still, no matter how scripted some of the jokes may occasionally sound, nothing about the show ever feels less than genuine. 

Though Staged is a pandemic show, it's also not a show about the pandemic, which is a big reason that, despite its uber-specific setting, it's such fun to rewatch. Deeply absurd and genuinely sweet by turns, it's a show that contains everything from Good Omens references to existential dread. More importantly, it's a constant reminder that hope can be found in the seemingly darkest times. That hope can take many forms, of course, but it is primarily found in other people, and that — then, as now — is no small thing.

While Sheen and Tennant's seemingly nonstop banter is the primary hook of the series, the pair are bolstered by an outstanding supporting cast, including a note-perfect turn from real-life theatrical director Simon Evans, who plays (what else?) a neurotic theater director, and scene-stealing performances from their significant others, Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg. Casting the actors' families while filming in their own houses and backyards allows Staged to deftly and purposefully blur the line between fiction and reality, satirizing the more ridiculous elements of pandemic living while dealing honestly with the frustration and fear that resulted. 

(Plus, there's fun to be had in voyeuristically admiring the Tennants' statement wallpaper. Drop your decorator, Georgia!)

The episodes, which each clock in at a brisk twenty minutes or so, feel less like television and more like mini-slice-of-life snippets, even though Staged boasts running gags and several ongoing subplots throughout. Big-name guest stars, including American Samuel L. Jackson and living legend Dame Judi Dench, pop up at crucial moments, even as the series' leads are mulling over everything from whose name should appear first on their fictional play's poster to the meaning of life now that they're all stuck in lockdown. 

But what stays with you is how deeply, genuinely funny the show is. Its humor is a perfect blend of high-brow and silly, often delivered via little more than an eyebrow raise or a shift in tone. Given the series' stars, there's plenty of banter about their previous roles, their mutual knowledge and love of Shakespeare, and their homelands of Scotland and Wales, all bolstered by the sort of pointed, aimless bitching that anyone who has a best friend will instantly recognize. (Spoiler alert: I laughed until I cried more than once.)

Staged concluded after three seasons, each reflecting the current emotional climate as restrictions eased, and the series adapted accordingly. Embracing an increasingly meta format and self-aware narrative, the comedy adopts a show-within-a-show style that further blurs the line between fiction and reality. By the time Season 3 rolls around, a third layer has been added to the mix, and while it's genuinely more fun if I don't tell you what those twists and shifts are, it does make the premise increasingly complicated.

As a result, Staged shifts more toward a comedy about the entertainment industry than a story of two friends routinely one-upping one another on a video call. There's still plenty to laugh at throughout, including Sheen and Tennant's willingness to poke fun at both themselves and their (admittedly, frequently ridiculous) profession. But as the series barrels toward an ending that feels inevitable and somehow too soon, its humor becomes laced with something that edges close to bittersweet. But perhaps that's the point. We've all got to figure out a way to go on in a world that looks different than before, both then and now. 

Thankfully, despite its topical and narrative shifts, Staged's central themes of friendship and change still resonate long after the final credits roll. If we take anything away from this entertaining, brash little experiment, let it be that, as Sheen himself artfully puts it in the series closing moments, no matter what happens: "We'll be okay."

All three seasons of Staged are currently streaming on BritBox.