Death to 2020: A Black Mirror “Special” in Mockumentary Format

In June 2020, a humoristic advert appeared on the side of a bus shelter in Madrid that was referring to Netflix’s Black Mirror series. The mirrored surface had mimicked the show’s font layout with the words “Black Mirror. 6th Seasons. Live now, everywhere” on it. The weird thing? It wasn’t Netflix or the tech-horror series creators behind the idea. However, the “ad” got the attention of Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones (co-creators and show-runners), and Death to 2020 was launched not long after.

Wrapping up the Year a Bit Differently

Brooker and Jones have already delivered an early take on the pandemic situation around the world in May’s punky Antiviral Wipe for the BBC which proved it was possible to laugh at such events. Now, they wrap up the year of turmoil in a similarly-nosed comedy production called Death to 2020 with the major difference of a lot more budget for the production.

The new Netflix mockumentary has an A-list castр including Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Joe Keery, Lisa Kudrow, Leslie Jones, Tracey Ullman, and many others.

An Overall of Death to 2020

While it might seem like an uneasy experience with Samuel L. Jackson making a limp gag about the cliche of candid establishing shots in talking-head interviews, Death to 2020 quickly finds a pace and maintains it for the next hour or so.

The movie ties together in a hilarious way 2020’s various, er, plotlines into one cohesive story. It’s a story of fake news, the technocracy, media bias, polarisation, the climate emergency, Karens, “lib-tards,” anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, and everything in between. Apart from the huge budget, it really takes a unique talent to portray such events in a humoristic way, skewering public figures in a short descriptor without being offensive and somewhat accepted by the masses, but Brooker has proven himself once again with this Death to 2020 Netflix mockumentary.