“Death to 2020” proves that Hollywood is not ready to face the pandemic year – and, for now, it probably shouldn’t.
You watch “Death to 2020”, “Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooke, and Annabel Jones’s special mockumentary now broadcast on Netflix, with an empty look. That’s because, at this point, on December 27th, most of us are ravaged by war and tired at the end of a deflating year in hell, and the last thing most of us want now is a reflection of that year, written in anyway, it echoed back to us. Despite the tense charms of the talking heads that represent various points of view of the pandemic, played by Hugh Grant, Cristin Milioti, Samuel L. Jackson, Leslie Jones, Lisa Kudrow, Tracey Ullman and more, “Death to 2020” is deeply bland. It is a recap of the year peppered with charming comments and stereotypes apparently sucked from the guts of Twitter – and from times when we prefer to forget, such as when “Tiger King” reigned supreme.
Announced as a special documentary, but with a curious duration to suggest that more could be reserved, “Death to 2020” is in serious trouble since the credits. The Netflix special has, including Brooker, 18 credited writers, and the commotion of voices is deeply felt. A kind of internal war is also felt at the page level as to why this project is being done. Samuel L. Jackson, in his cool, calm commanding voice as a member of the White House press, addresses this issue up front while his character is told by the “filmmakers” that this project is a summary of the year 2020. “Why the hell would you want to do this? Dash Brackett of Jackson, New Yorkerly News reporter, asks. Good question.
It is also one that is not addressed. Hugh Grant’s history professor, Tennyson Foss, offers a dry and basically prejudiced summary of the year’s events, but the actor’s crying performance (as usual) hardly seems invested in anything other than Netflix phone money. In fact, it’s easy to see that most “interviews” could be filmed in less than a day, especially given the COVID security protocols, which contributes to making “Death to 2020” look like HBO’s “coastal elites” again – an indulgent, an actor exercise that apparently doesn’t know that nobody asked for it in the first place.
“Death by 2020”
SAEED ADYANI / NETFLIX
Cristin Milioti is fun, but inevitably repeating the role of Kathy, incorporating the Karen stereotype of a “self-styled regular football mom” who receives news from YouTube videos and thinks the vaccine is a Bill Gates invention to control the minds of the population . Frankly, it’s tiring to see these guys coming back to the screen. Death to the jokes about mothers who play football in Peloton, please. Equally tired is the personification of Queen Elizabeth by Tracey Ullman, oblivious to her ivory tower of the world collapsing around her. Ullman’s opinion of His Majesty could be that of any of his other specials. It is not certain that anyone wants to be here.
Weaving archival footage from the first half of 2020 that arguably no one wants to relive in the first place, “Death to 2020” leans from a focus on the pandemic and Brexit to, inevitably, the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the Black Lives Matter summer movement. And you’re almost afraid, wondering how showrunners are going to make it funny. They can’t, because 2020 was so difficult, it’s too early for much of it to be funny, and the special never quite convinces it should be. “Death to 2020” tries to circumvent partisanship, as it sets out to stick everyone on all sides of the political fence, including President-elect Joe Biden, with many jokes about his age and personality as a benevolent “ghost”. Those jokes are so … mid 2020.
Some of the casting choices are inspired, like Lisa Kudrow as an extravagant “unofficial White House spokesperson”, probably hired to do whatever she wants with the character. Joe Keery, like his character “Spree” earlier this year, is a millennial worker in the giant economy that turns to YouTuber during the pandemic. As one of the most statistically “ordinary people” in the world, Diane Morgan’s character develops multiple personalities to keep her company during the pandemic. Leslie Jones plays a behavioral psychologist whose hallmark is anger, but also provides the most sensitive center for the film. Kumail Nanjiani, for his part, is underutilized as a technology tycoon similar to Elon Musk who buries himself in a mountain to avoid dealing with the reality of the year.
Which, honestly, in the context of this film, is good for him. While we can certainly wish death by 2020, we will focus on wishing death for pandemic-focused films and TV specials that promise catharsis, but we will hardly shrug. Because this is proof that Hollywood is not ready to face it and, for now, it probably shouldn’t be. At least until 2021, but “Death to 2020” is certainly not going to help us get there.
Note: D +
“Death to 2020” is now being streamed on Netflix.
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