Here’s what I hate about Richard Scheib’s A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic: Depictions of Plague and Pandemic on Film and TV: I couldn’t buy it when I ran across it while honeymooning in London at summer’s start. There it sat on the shelves of the BFI Southbank theater’s store, yet I had no room left in my luggage. At least not any kind of room that wouldn’t bend the book like Beckham.
Now two months later and home in our not-so-United States, I can report the Headpress-published paperback is a pleasure to read. Chalk up another victory for delayed gratification! (And one that’s less frustrating than the pause-and-squeeze method.)
Not far removed from the COVID-19 hellhole that was 2020, one might consider the subject and think, “Too soon?” (Mind you, those people certainly are not the audience for Headpress’ wares of “unpopular culture.”) But it’s not too soon. Like Goldilocks’ preferences of porridges and pillows, it’s just right. After all, measles is currently making a comeback. Measles!
Virus-borne diseases and resulting quarantines/shutdowns aren’t fun. But A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic sure is, plumbing depths of obscurity and wealth of genre. Although you could reference it like an A-Z guide à la Leonard Maltin (“What’s Scheib say about Ebola Rex vs. Murder Hornets, honey?”), it’s not structured that way, nor by release dates.
Instead, the author weaves his way through themed chapters — some strict, some loose — rooted in reality. Think biowarfare, bird flu, the bubonic plague and assorted historical threats starting with letters other than B. Then he pivots to more fantasy-based flights, from vampire curses and zombie infections to further fictional outbreaks, e.g, The Crazies or Pontypool. In the book’s final section, he looks at COVID-era cinema, where sheltering in place forced creative thinking that didn’t always pay off onscreen.
Whether examining Steven Soderbergh’s all-star Contagion or Charles Band’s hasty Corona Zombies, it’s important to note Scheiber isn’t mocking pandemics. That’s not to say the text is humorless, although fairly subtle; on NBC’s Thirst, a bacteria-soaked telepic from 1998, he notes, “there is some rioting, but this only consists of about a dozen people scrabbling to get water bottles from the back of a truck.”
2023’s recommended Diseased Cinema covered similar ground, albeit limited to American shores and written by three academics. Scheib admits he’s no expert in that regard, but that’s for the book’s betterment. In fact, his introduction details how terrifying COVID was for him and his companion, both at high risk due to respiratory disorders. That vulnerable decision makes A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic personal — and, therefore, relatable. Stay safe! —Rod Lott