Staying In With Emily and Kumail

Celebrity couple Emily V. Gordon and  Kumail Nanjiani  are uniquely qualified to offer guidance and comfort during the pandemic. Gordon, as fans of the couple’s based-on-true-events movie  The Big Sick  will know, has a chronic illness that forces her to occasionally quarantine herself even during non-pandemic times. She also happens to have been a therapist before she pivoted to screenwriting. She and Nanjiani offer excellent advice on how to survive quarantine—mentally, physically and emotionally. The two have an easy comic energy and seem to genuinely like one another as human beings (surprisingly rare on couple-hosted podcasts). They talk about watching movies, working out and befriending the animals in their yard as they endure a lockdown. Nanjiani plays doting-to-the-point-of-paranoia husband to Gordon, scorching all their takeout orders in the microwave for fear of germs. Gordon will sometimes switch into couple’s therapy mode when the two have (extremely relatable) disagreements on what level of distancing they should be employing to stay safe. For the months they recorded episodes at the beginning of the pandemic, the show was hilarious and helpful and soothing. Its only shortcoming is that it didn’t last longer.