Television directly addressing the coronavirus pandemic is a hard sell, to put it lightly. Throughout the pandemic, people wanted to use TV as an escape, and as more people get vaccinated and life starts to return to something resembling normal, there's likely going to be a lot of desire to move on from the struggles of the past year and a half. One-off specials have successfully addressed the topic, but most attempts at making shows about life in the pandemic have been failures, which makes Season 2 of Everything's Gonna Be Okay all the more impressive.

For those unfamiliar with the show, Everything's Gonna Be Okay is a comedy series on Freeform about Nicholas Moss, an awkward gay entomologist who moves from Australia to Los Angeles to take care of his orphaned half-sisters, Matilda and Genevieve, after their father's death. Nicholas is played by and heavily based on series creator Josh Thomas, who created and starred in Please Like Me. Everything's Gonna Be Okay garnered a lot of press in neurodiversity circles for casting openly autistic actress Kayla Cromer in the role of autistic main character Matilda, the first case of such authentic autistic casting on American television.

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Everythings Gonna Be Okay title card

In Season 2, the Moss family and Nicholas's boyfriend Alex are all quarantining together. Alex video chats with his dad, Matilda's girlfriend Drea and her lovably eccentric parents become part of the group's "pod," and Genevieve eventually makes social plans with both potential boyfriend Oscar and her old trouble-making friend Barb, but that's basically it as far as the pared-down cast goes for this pandemic-based season. Yet this all feels like a natural continuation from the previous season, and many of the show's themes have become all the more relevant.

Matilda was already dealing with anxiety and uncertainty about the future at the end of Season 1; a trip to New York City proved too overwhelming and she had to cancel her plans for attending Julliard. It seems likely she'd be taking a gap year in Season 2 even if a pandemic hadn't happened, but the pandemic certainly heightens that anxiety. Stuck at home with Matilda, Genevieve feels more even more driven to be the responsible one and stop what she sees as her older sister's bad decisions, but she's still dealing with her own personal anxieties. Both sisters are naturally still dealing with grief, a theme that has gained extra universal relevancy.

Perhaps the smartest way Everything's Gonna Be Okay Season 2 utilizes the pandemic for storytelling is in regards to Nicholas and Alex's increasingly strained and unhealthy relationship. Alex was already barely putting up with Nicholas's general obliviousness and self-centeredness in Season 1, but in Season 2, he and Nicholas are caught in a situation all too relatable to many over the past year: they're physically trapped in a relationship together because it's so much harder to leave. It's sad for both of them, though the hardships ultimately bring about positive experiences of self-exploration that solidify the show's status as the most neurodiversity-friendly show on TV.

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Everythings Gonna Be Okay Nicholas Matilda

Everything's Gonna Be Okay Season 2 adapted to the pandemic without really having to change much about the character dynamics, sense of humor and honest handling of underrepresented issues that made the first season great. Amazingly, for all its many moments of emotional discomfort and heartbreak, the show never became what anything pandemic-related risks becoming: a bummer.

Obviously, there's already an escapist element built into the series that allows it to distance itself from more depressing pandemic experiences. The Moss family is extremely wealthy, and their house is a nicer place to quarantine than what 99% of viewers could ever hope to have. But there's also a more relatable positive element that keeps the show uplifting: it's filled with love, both within the quirky family dynamic and within Matilda and Drea's nontraditional romance. Even if you never want to think about the pandemic ever again, you should watch Everything's Gonna Be Okay Season 2.

Everything's Gonna Be Okay stars Josh Thomas, Kayla Cromer, Maeve Press, Adam Faison, Lillian Carrier and Lori Mae Hernandez. Both seasons are streaming on Hulu.

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