You’re probably thinking: Why would we want to watch a documentary about 2020? That was so last year. Well, you’re right, it’s a weird concept. At the beginning of it, Samuel L. Jackson asks the producers what this special is about, and they respond by telling him it’s to relive the events of 2020. He responds, “Why the f*ck would you want to do that?” and they should have left it at that.
“Death to 2020” is a Netflix original British mockumentary (that’s what they call it) by the creators of “Black Mirror.” Who better to make a film about 2020 than the “Black Mirror” people right? Wrong! Let me explain.
“Death to 2020” stars many famous names like Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Lisa Kudrow, Leslie Jones, Joe Keery, and others. Just by that lineup, you’d assume it would be hilarious. Leslie Jones was on “SNL,” Lisa Kudrow is just amazing, and Samuel L. Jackson is…well it’s Samuel L. Jackson. It only took 10 days to film in late November, which is a very quick production time, and it was released on Dec. 27, 2020. After watching, I think they should have spent a little more time filming and allowed for the actors to do some improv. It was very scripted, and obviously so.
I’d like to call it a comedy. It’s not super funny, but the fact that they’re trying to make subpar jokes is laugh-worthy. Essentially, we laugh at them, not with them. The mockumentary goes through everything that happened in the US and UK in 2020 chronologically starting with last January. Feels like forever ago, right? Well, it’s kind of satisfying to rewatch what you’ve experienced last year and remember things. Like, remember those murder hornets? Yeah, me neither.
They talked about the bushfires, impeachment, Megexit, coronavirus, Black Lives Matter protests, the election, and everything in between. It’s like “SNL.” They dressed up as public figures and did the mockumentary in an interview-style with each of the characters separately. However, it is NOT like “SNL” in the way that none of the jokes were ever finished and most of them were circulating Twitter when the event actually happened.
The structure was really weird as well. Due to the fact that it was highlighting events in the US and the UK, it kept jumping back and forth, and a lot of the UK jokes were over my head, and I bet the same happened vice versa to an English viewer. I get they were trying to tailor to a global audience, but it made the film worse, and to be honest, it would have been better if they picked one or the other.
The mockumentary got lots of negative reviews because some of the jokes were obvious and maybe insensitive – although the first time I watched it none of them really stood out to me as bad. It was supposed to be satirical; however, I guess some people didn’t really like the impersonations or the jokes. Basically, if you think the jokes on “SNL” are offensive, then this is probably not for you. Many also said it was too long and the run time could have been much shorter, which I agree with. A lot of the jokes kind of dragged on and were not really finished, but some scenes were very well done. Again, the jokes were kind of repetitive and we’ve all heard them on TikTok or Twitter before.
I feel like they could have made this one heck of a season of “Black Mirror,” but instead of going the dark thriller route they usually do, they went the satirical comedy route, which didn’t really work out.
If you’d really like to see it just to see it, you can stream it on Netflix. But don’t get your hopes up. Some of the jokes will make you laugh, but others will make you want to regain the minute it took them to finish the punchline.
