Death to 2020 reviews: Charlie Brooker’s
‘disappointing’ Netflix mockumentary torn apart by critics
Spoof documentary accused of rehashing tired and
predictable jokes about events of the past 12 months
Roisin
O'Connor
@Roisin_OConnor
Critics
have branded Charlie Brooker’s Netflix mockumentary Death to 2020
“disappointing”, comparing it unfavourably to his shows Screenwipe and Black
Mirror.
The
70-minute spoof documentary was released on Netflix on Sunday 27 December.
It stars a
celebrity cast including Samuel L Jackson, Lisa Kudrow and Hugh Grant, who play
fictitious talking heads.
In The Independent’s
one-star review, critic Ed Cumming said the show was “a mess” that “can’t make
up its mind whether it is for a British audience or an American one”.
“Death to
2020 is a mess and you’ll be glad when it’s over. In that sense, at least, it’s
appropriate to its subject,” the review concluded.
Other
critics have echoed the sentiment.
A review in
The Hollywood Reporter called it a “hacky piece of recycled political satire
and tired documentary parody… that will feel fresh to you only if you’ve
self-imposed a strict media blackout since February”.
“It's
astonishing how lazy everything is, from the predictable insulting of various
high-profile figures… to various familiar moments that surely have been chewed
over, digested and pooped out countless times already,” the review added.
In a kinder
review from Metro, the reviewer said Death to 2020 “stands out on its own”,
apart from Black Mirror and Brooker’s Wipe shows.
”The
writing team try to cover everything, it results in the film spreading itself a
bit too thin,” the reviewer said.
“The most
obvious argument for this is how criminally underused some of the guest
speakers are – some being given only a couple of minutes of screentime – while
others are used more than they’re needed.”
A two-star
review in The Telegraph called Death to 2020 a “disappointing rehash of tired
jokes and predictable satire”.
“It is a
huge disappointment,” the review said. “You expect greatness from Brooker, but
the jokes here are as predictable as the targets of the jokes, only
occasionally rising above the quality of this year’s dreadful Spitting Image
reboot. At least that had funny puppets.”
Another
two-star review in the Evening Standard said the show “outstays its welcome”,
despite praising the performances.
Overall,
Hugh Grant’s role as the bigoted professor Tennyson Foss received the most
praise, as he was described as a rare highlight in the otherwise disappointing
production.
Death to 2020 review: Charlie Brooker’s Netflix
mockumentary is a complete mess
One of the few things you can say for the show is that
it’s appropriate to its subject, in that you’ll be glad when it’s over
Ed Cumming
@EdCumming
Charlie
Brooker’s Screenwipe format was honed over many years to a fine balance of
commentary, news footage and spoof talking heads. He already made a solid
coronavirus programme, the Antiviral wipe, for the BBC in May, his first since
the 2016 Wipe, which won a Bafta. So it's baffling that for this Netflix
one-off, Death to 2020, he and his longtime co-producer Annabel Jones have
taken their unbroken idea and tried to fix it, with the usual results.
The concept
has been spun out into a 70-minute spoof documentary looking back at the year,
narrated by Laurence Fishburne and featuring fictitious talking heads played by
famous actors. There’s the snappy New York journalist Dash Bracket (Samuel L
Jackson), a tweedy British historian Tennyson Foss (Hugh Grant), a craven
political spokesperson (Lisa Kudrow), a racist soccer mom (Cristin Milioti).
Tracy Ullman plays the Queen. They go through the big events, starting with the
Australian wildfires and running through Covid and the US election, with a bit
of George Floyd and Boris thrown in for good measure.
It badly
misses Brooker himself, who usually serves as the acerbic, sometimes zany,
ringmaster but is only heard in glimpses behind the camera. Without him, Death
to 2020 flaps around. Normally these programmes focus on mocking the coverage
rather than the subjects themselves. Here, it sometimes shifts into honest
crusading, especially on Black Lives Matter. That’s fine, but it’s a different
kind of show. Why invent characters to say things real interviewees might say?
It also can’t make up its mind whether it is for a British audience or an
American one, and ends up pleasing neither.
The
highlights, like the running gag about Biden’s age and Diane Morgan’s
Cunk-esque turn as “average citizen” Gemma Herrick, are fleeting. You feel for
Grant, not given a single decent line, and several that make you want to slide
under the sofa. The credits list 18 writers. How many of them did it take to
come up with the idea that Joe Biden is old? Too often you find yourself
waiting for punchlines that never arrive. With Trump, as ever, it’s nearly
impossible to write something as funny as the real footage, but you can surely
do better than “experimental pig-man”.
It’s hard
to know what’s happened here. Clearly there’s money behind Death to 2020, given
its provenance and the calibre of the contributors. Between Black Mirror and
the Wipes – to say nothing of Brooker’s previous career as a critic of acid
brilliance – its creators are too good at TV not to know that this is
substandard. Is it a kind of televisual cash-in-hand plastering job for their
bosses at Netflix, who wanted a piece of the Wipe action? Was there meddling
from above about its tone and direction? Was there not enough time to apply the
usual quality control?
Whatever
the answer, Death to 2020 is a mess and you’ll be glad when it’s over. In that
sense, at least, it’s appropriate to its subject.
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