''Death to 2021'' is a 2021

mockumentary A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...

produced by

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. A sequel to '' Death to 2020'', the special features a series of fictional characters discussing US news in 2021, including the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

vaccine misinformation Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines circulates in mass media and social media despite the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination ...

and

Big Tech Big Tech, also referred to as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans, is a collective term for the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. The label draws a parallel to similar classifications in other industries, such as "Big Oi ...

Cast

Credits adapted from ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

''. *

Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor. He has received List of awards ...

as Tennyson Foss, a right-wing historian *

Joe Keery Joseph David Keery (born April 24, 1992), known professionally in music as Djo, is an American actor and musician. He became known for playing Steve Harrington in the science fiction series ''Stranger Things'' (2016–present), and has since sta ...

as Duke Goolies, a

social media influencer A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...

William Jackson Harper William Fitzgerald Harper (born February 8, 1980), known professionally as William Jackson Harper, is an American actor and playwright. He gained acclaim for his role as Chidi Anagonye in the NBC comedy series ''The Good Place'' (2016–2020), f ...

as Zero Fournine, a social media company CEO *

Lucy Liu Lucy Alexis Liu (; born December 2, 1968) is an American actress, producer, and artist. Widely regarded as a trailblazer for Asian Americans in arts and entertainment, Asian American representation in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, she is t ...

as Snook Austin, a journalist *

Tracey Ullman Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman; 30 December 1959) is a British-American actress, singer, dancer, screenwriter, producer, and director. Despite being frequently referred to as a comedian, Ullman considers herself a character actress. Critics h ...

as Madison Madison, a

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

conspiracy theorist A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

news anchor *

Samson Kayo Samson Kayo (born 1991/1992) is a British actor, producer and writer. He was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance in 2018 for the BBC sketch show '' Famalam'' (2017–2020). He created, wrote and s ...

as Pyrex Flask, a scientist researching

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the Novel coronavirus, provisional nam ...

Stockard Channing Stockard Channing (born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard; February 13, 1944) is an American actress. List of awards and nominations received by Stockard Channing, Her accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a nomination for an Acade ...

as Penn Parker, a journalist *

Cristin Milioti Cristin Milioti (born August 16, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for playing The Mother, The Mother (How I Met Your Mother), Tracy McConnell, in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' from 2013 to 2014, and Sofia Falcone in the HBO ...

as Kathy Flowers, a mother who supports

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and believes conspiracy theories *

Diane Morgan Diane Morgan (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress, comedian and writer. She is notable for portraying Philomena Cunk on the review programme '' Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe'' (2013–2020), the mockumentary series '' Cunk on Britain'' (2 ...

as Gemma Nerrick, a member of the public

Production

''Death to 2021'' is a sequel to '' Death to 2020'', both productions of Broke and Bones—a company founded by

Charlie Brooker Charlton ‘Charlie’ Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English screenwriter, producer, presenter, author, cartoonist, and social critic. He first became known for creating and presenting satirical television shows that featured biting criticis ...

and

Annabel Jones Annabel Jones (born January 1972) is a Welsh television producer, best known for producing ''Black Mirror'' with Charlie Brooker. She is a co-writer of the 2018 book ''Inside Black Mirror'', with Brooker and Jason Arnopp. Jones is co-founder of ...

, best-known for their work on science fiction anthology series ''

Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology series, anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Most episodes are set in near-future dystopias containing Science fiction, sci-fi technology—a type of speculative fiction. The series i ...

''. It followed several years of ''

Weekly Wipe ''Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe'' was a British television review programme created and presented by Charlie Brooker. The programme was an amalgam of the earlier ''Wipe'' series, with reviews of current television programmes, news events, games, ...

'' specials, hosted by Brooker, that humorously recapped news events from the year. ''Death to 2020'' received negative critical reception. For the 2021 special, Brooker had a reduced role—a Netflix spokesperson told ''

British Comedy Guide British Comedy Guide or BCG (formerly the British Sitcom Guide or BSG) is a Great Britain, British website covering British comedy, British comedies. BCG publishes guides to TV and radio situation comedy, sketch shows, comedy dramas, satire, va ...

'' that he was working on other productions for the streaming service. A number of cast from 2020 returned, but others—for example, Lucy Liu, Stockard Channing and William Jackson Harper—debuted in 2021. Ullman plays a different character to the 2020 special—an American news anchor, rather than the Queen.

Reception

'' Entertainment.ie''s Eoghan Cannon rated the film 2.5 out of 5, saying that it would be "unwatchable" without the strong cast, and is not sufficiently memorable for viewers to remember it the next morning. However, Cannon praised the coverage of light-hearted stories. Ed Power of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' gave it 1 star, lambasting it as lacking originality and nuance. He negatively portrayed the absence of Brooker, calling it a

negative image In photography, a negative is an image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occurs because the ...

of ''Black Mirror'', but praised Morgan's joking comparison of ''

Squid Game ''Squid Game'' () is a South Korean Utopian and dystopian fiction, dystopian Survival film, survival Thriller (genre)#Television, thriller horror television series created, written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. The series revol ...

'' to ''

The Great British Bake Off ''The Great British Bake Off'' (often abbreviated to ''Bake Off'' or ''GBBO'') is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, atte ...

''. ''

Screen Rant ''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and comic books. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publications including Comic Book Resources, Collider, MovieWeb and XDA Developers. ...

'' criticized that the special had a "refusal to talk about cultural events outside of Netflix's domain", with segments about their original productions ''

Bridgerton ''Bridgerton'' is an American alternative history regency romance television series created by Chris Van Dusen for Netflix. Based on the book series Bridgerton (novel series), of the same name by Julia Quinn, it is Shondaland's first scripted ...

'' and ''

'' but omitting other television and film of the year. According to '' The National'', a joke about

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

being part of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

was well-received by Scottish viewers. Bruce Dessau of ''Beyond the Joke'' wrote that ''Death to 2021'' was targeted at an American audience, to a further extent than the previous year's special. Dessau praised Morgan, Grant and Kayo, and said that pushback to a joke about

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

's death came from people "that

ave is a Latin word, used by the Roman Empire, Romans as a salutation (greeting), salutation and greeting, meaning 'wikt:hail, hail'. It is the singular imperative mood, imperative form of the verb , which meant 'Well-being, to be well'; thus on ...

clearly not seen a Brooker programme before".

References

External links

* * * {{Josh Ruben 2021 films Films set in 2021 Netflix original films 2020s mockumentary films American films about the COVID-19 pandemic 2020s English-language films 2020s American films American mockumentary films