Critic Reviews

The streamer’s bitingly funny, hastily assembled and slightly deranged comedic retrospective lampoons the worst year ever.

It goes down easily enough, at least ... Really, though, it’s hard to get past the word “necessary” for nearly all of this. Does anyone need more gags about Biden being old? Trump being a piece of shit? The world being a never-ending nightmare, from which the only escape is death?

Where “Death to 2020” really falters is in the writing. Brooker, Moss, and the team too often take the easiest road in terms of analysis, or humor, almost as if they know the jokes are going to make you groan.

Some jokes are sharp and carry Brooker’s acidic wit and giddy surrealism. ... The problem is that most of the jokes – and observations – here, we’ve all already made, lazily, on social media, time and time again.

It’s easy to see that most of the “interviews” could be shot in less than a day, especially given COVID safety protocols, which contributes to making “Death to 2020” feel like HBO’s “Coastal Elites” all over again — an indulgent, actor’s exercise that’s seemingly unaware that nobody asked for this in the first place.

Death to 2020 is a generally hacky piece of recycled political satire and tired documentary parody reflecting on the year that was in a way that will feel fresh to you only if you've self-imposed a strict media blackout since February. ... There are chuckles here, but they come almost exclusively from the enthusiasm of an impressively star-studded cast.

The cast is game — in addition to Milioti and Kudrow, Leslie Jones and Samson Kayo also seem to be invested in their characters — but there’s just not enough funny material for their performances to overcome the special’s structural problems. 2020 has been bad enough; there’s no need to relive it via an unfunny special like Death To 2020.

Death to 2020 is a limp, unimaginative recap of a year that surely few viewers need help remembering.

It’s all incredibly banal and deeply uninspired. ... Brooker achieves something close to meaningful commentary on the year only when he and the rest of the writers stop cracking tired jokes and allow the absurdity of the year’s images to speak for themselves.

More a whimper than a sick burn, "Death" is a collection of underwhelming jokes about a tragic year that have either already been delivered better by other comedians and the internet or are too lame even for your embarrassing uncle to have texted the family group chat.