Netflix has just about had it with 2020, much like the rest of all of us. Though the streaming platform likely got a lot of traffic in the year that no one could leave their houses without being shamed about it on social media, it still wanted to send the year from hell off with an appropriate goodbye. This year, as we all lived in the reality of a Black Mirror episode, the creators of the highly popular Netflix series have decided to go a different direction for their latest project with Death To 2020.
Comedy, like tragedy, have very similar plot structures. The tragic plot lines of Black Mirror stories are often centered around dystopian futures or the ways in which technology can surpass human control. Between the role that social media played in the Presidential election, the record wildfire year, the global pandemic, and the re-election of Mitch McConnell—to name just a few of the tragedies we’ve faced this year—2020 feels somehow like a dystopian hellscape and an apocalypse movie wrapped into one. So, who better to turn it into a movie than Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, the creators of Black Mirror?
In a new mockumentary movie aptly titled Death To 2020, Brooker and Jones combine news footage with interviews from fictionalized characters—played by comedians like Leslie Jones, Samuel L. Jackson and Lisa Kudrow—to discuss the year as a whole. The movie takes a comedic spin on the impact that this year had on people around the globe, and will likely touch on some of the bigger news topics that were discussed throughout these 366 (yes it’s a leap year) awful days.
The film hits Netflix on December 27th, just in time to send off a few final goodbyes to 2020 before we look toward the hopeful 2021 with news of a widespread vaccine and the inauguration of a new President. Check out the trailer below, and don’t forget to appreciate the jab at Quibi—the streaming platform that saw its launch and eventual demise all within 2020.
