“A year whose story couldn’t be told until now, because it was still happening.”
Netflix’s Death to 2020 comedy special, from Black Mirror creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, will premiere on December 27th. And we also now have a trailer.
Death to 2020 will feature an all-star cast, including Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Kumail Nanjiani, Tracey Ullman, Lisa Kudrow, Leslie Jones, and Laurence Fishburne.
British viewers will remember that before Black Mirror took up all his time, Charlie Brooker’s end of year ‘Wipe’ shows were a highlight of Christmas TV. Brooker says that the new show is “quite different” to those – but there is at least one nod to the past, with an appearance from Diane Morgan’s Philomena Cunk.
“Those who only know me through Black Mirror may not realize that when not writing speculative sci-fi about people frowning at smartphones, I’ve spent years making comedy shows in the UK – including many topical comedy specials,” Brooker said of the show. “So to me, Death to 2020 feels like the collision of several different strands. (Do strands ‘collide’? No. Apologies).”
“But the approach for this is quite different to most of the topical comedy I’ve done in the past. For one thing I’m not on screen presenting it – a relief for anyone watching in 4K – and it’s more character-based. In the loneliest year on record, I got to work (remotely) with writers and team members from my previous comedies, as well as many sickeningly talented people who were new to me.”
“Death to 2020 features fictional characters discussing real events in a bombastic mockumentary, but quite a bit sillier than that makes it sound. It felt like an apt format for Netflix, which is known for high-end documentaries, but also like a good opportunity to create a different kind of comedy special that deals with the year head-on while also showcasing some brilliant performers. I don’t love the word ‘satire’ but there’s some of that here, alongside some angry jokes, and some goofy jokes. And hopefully viewers will find at least one joke to their liking — because let’s face it, in 2020, any laugh you can emit, no matter how fleeting, is a small but precious victory.”
