Testing COVID’s bounds: Freevee’s ‘Sprung’ takes a comic look at lockdown and looters

“I was kind of pissed off,” she says now, months later. True, Plimpton was already working on another series, but when it didn’t work out, she got that expected call and jumped right in – with just three days’ notice.

The series, “Sprung,” stars her old “Raising Hope” co-star Garret Dillahunt as an inmate released from prison when COVID threatens to run rampant through penitentiaries. Uncertain as to his next move, Dillahunt’s Jack agrees to live with the family of a fellow inmate until he can get his life on track. The inmate’s mother – a brash, enterprising woman named Barb – just happened to be the role Plimpton wanted and got.

With the last piece in place, Garcia, who produced “Raising Hope,” put the old gang back together.

“I’ll work with Martha anywhere,” Dillahunt says. “I was really happy that we got to do something so completely different.”

A veteran porch pirate, Plimpton’s Barb convinces her new boarder to join her in stealing from the rich and giving to the poor during COVID. They sense something is awry with a crooked congresswoman and decide to lure her into a trap.

The concept came to Garcia when he, too, was on lockdown. He and Dillahunt had talked about doing a series but nothing started to jell until he read about unjust drug crime sentencing. “Then I started reading about people getting out early because of the virus and I thought, ‘Let me take that little bit of an idea and turn it into something else.’ Before I knew it, I had a script written and I was sending it around town.”

Like “Hope” and “My Name Is Earl,” another Garcia offering, “Sprung” relies on quirky characters doing quirkier things. The big hang-up: The idea that people might think it was about how funny COVID is.

“I had people that I knew who, early on, passed away from this and it was never the intention to make light of anything,” Garcia says. “It’s just the incident that starts our characters’ journey. It’s a backdrop to the show, but we try not to hit it too much.”

Garcia’s biggest coup was recalling how people reacted when they first heard of the virus. He plays with the idea of masks (a SCUBA mask is used at one point; Barb covers her mouth with her hand when she enters a bank). “We were naïve and didn’t know what we should do.”

Since “Spung” takes place during the first weeks of the pandemic, plenty of theories were viable.

As soon as Plimpton got to the set, “we jumped right back to where we’ve always been with each other,” Garcia says. “The chemistry those two have on set is infectious.”

Plimpton’s inspiration for Barb: A Disney villain. “I don’t want to say which one it was. I want the audience to figure it out.”

Dillahunt channeled Jack’s naivete and found a character that worked.

Both have had strong careers in drama; he scored with “Winter’s Bone,” “No Country for Old Men” and “Where the Crawdads Sing.” She won an Emmy for “The Good Wife” and has three Tony nominations for work on Broadway.

“It’s all about context,” Plimpton says. “I heard someone really quite brilliant say that when you boil it right down, the essential difference between comedy and tragedy is this: In a tragedy, people don’t get what they want. In comedy, they get what they want. That’s a very simplistic way of putting it, but, ultimately, you end up using the same tools. It’s all the same bag of tricks.”

Dillahunt says he just plays the character in front of him. “It’s not really any contortions you have to go through. You just try to fulfill the writing.”

The house down the street

Filmed last year, “Sprung” referenced the pandemic as a way into the story, but it’s unlikely that will be the driving force.

“Greg works with what interests him and makes him laugh. That’s the impetus for that,” Plimpton says.

“He’s interested in that part of the humanity that might not get the reality show,” Dillahunt says. “He said one time, ‘I’m not interested in that mansion. I’m going to go look in the window of that house down the street with all the junk in the yard. What goes on in that house?’”

That’s where “Sprung” lives. In addition to Barb and Jack, it boasts Barb’s son, Rooster, Rooster’s would-be girlfriend Wiggles and the guy down the street who hoards toilet paper.

Their adventures spin out in a number of ways.

“It’s pretty great to have someone that I have so much faith in,” Dillahunt says. “You get old and cranky in this business and you start not trusting people.” Garcia, however, is someone who explains what he wants and “I trust him. He’s like the writer version of Martha.”

“Sprung” airs on Prime Video beginning Aug. 19.