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The most comforting show on television right now is notThis Is UsorThe Great British Baking Show.
Its the daily coronavirus briefing broadcast every morning by New York governor Andrew Cuomo.
None of that sounds like a recipe for great, or even mildly interesting, television.
The presentation of each press briefing is efficient and tailored to the socially distanced moment.
Cuomo and everyone else on the dais sit six feet apart, as do the journalists in the room.
The air of the whole operation says: Do what I say, as well as what I do.
In 2020, its a press conference in which a governor talks about ventilators.
There are a bunch of reasons for that.
Every day, Cuomo is sharing crucial information that people crave.
On Thursday morning, he kicked things off by talking about facts.
Of course, we all know that facts can be uplifting, depressing, confusing, or empowering.
He genuinely seems to care about his family and other families, which should be a given.
Publicly, he has displayed the gamut of emotions most of us are experiencing privately in our homes.
He has expressed concern.
What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?
he asked of the federal government during Tuesdays briefing.
You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators.
Hes even gotten a little mushy.
I promise you that.
Does that sound like something President Bartlet might have said in a really treaclyWest Wingepisode?
But we need a strong and sturdy cornball right now.
Our routines have been destroyed by the coronavirus pandemic, and so has our broader sense of safety.
That makes all of us, even the grown-ups, feel as vulnerable as little kids do.
Andrew Cuomo has been providing both.
Day by day, hes making an incomprehensible disaster a little easier to understand.
Is he Mister Rogers?
But hes the closest thing we have.
