How long will it take before we can look back at 2020 and laugh? Or at least understand what the hell happened? Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker and his producing partner Annabel Jones hope we’re ready right now.
On Monday, Netflix announced plans to sneak one last big comedy special into the hellish calendar year. Death to 2020, devised by Brooker and Jones, is described as a “cathartic comedy event you’ll never forget about the year you really, really don’t want to remember.” The full description for the show sounds like a supercut nightmare by the only people we’d trust to make it:
2020: A year so [insert adjective of choice here], even the creators of Black Mirror couldn’t make it up … but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a little something to add. Death to 2020 is a comedy event that tells the story of the dreadful year that was — and perhaps still is? This landmark documentary-style special weaves together some of the world’s most (fictitious) renowned voices with real-life archival footage spanning the past 12 months.
To properly flip the bird to the last 365 days, Brooker and Jones have recruited a ragtag team of talent. Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Lisa Kudrow, Kumail Nanjiani, Tracey Ullman, Samson Kayo, Leslie Jones, Diane Morgan, Cristin Milioti, and Joe Keery will all lend their comedic services to the special, which by all accounts, is still being finalized.
Brooker loves a late December release. Black Mirror had its own UK-style holiday special with White Christmas, and in in the lead up to New Year’s Eve 2018, the writer dropped Netflix’s interactive special Bandersnatch. As for a specific release date, Netflix only has an ominous, true-to-2020 threat: “Coming soon ... too soon?”
