Death to 2020 - Charlie Brooker mocumentary

[WhoMe]

QAnon soccor-mom and doublethink Trump spokeswoman are played well, and largely transcend the on-the-nose, obvious material they are working with. Enjoyed the Karen harassing exasperated black people montage, and the line 'the lack of any evidence just proves there's been a cover up'.
Overall it just seemed to be written down to what it thinks a modern, vaguely right-on audience wants to see and agree along to. I think Brooker's earlier Wipes drew people in due to their fairly uncompromising, insightful and bluntly funny perspective. This has no real rough edges or moments that take you aback, aside from perhaps soccer mom yelling

Spoiler alert

SEIG HEIL

[close]

at the end. Just mainly felt like the result of a series of collective agreements and back slaps in the writing room.

[monkfromhavana]

Just mainly felt like the result of a series of collective agreements and back slaps in the writing room.

Between the 19-20 writers who were credited. Any creation isn't going to have a coherent tone (unless it's a bland one) by having so many writers. God knows why they needed so many given that they didn't need to create a story, just respond to real-life events.

[Alberon]

I think maybe the old Wipe and TVGoHome fans hope for something with more venom. I think Brooker does want to do other stuff than Dystopian Nightmare (especially as we're increasingly living in one) and sarky reviews of stuff. As I think I mentioned before he'd like to do something utterly silly like A Touch of Cloth again. Which is fine. If he wants to do other stuff go do that rather than half-heartedly repeating himself.

Of course, all that is assuming he was allowed to do what he wanted and that Netflix didn't approach him and say "We'd like an Americanised Wipe, please. Here's an obscene amount of money to go make one."

[turnstyle]

Some decent moments for me, but otherwise fell flat. I prefer his early stuff, when he was drawing comics for computer mags, you know, before he REALLY sold out and had the bastard balls to get paid for his work. Seriously, what a cunt.

The Netflix promo stuff was a bit fucking much wasn't it? They could have made it a bit tongue in cheek, but it was just like 'WATCH NETFLIX YOU SHITS, WE'VE GOT LOADS OF STUFF', which is a weird message when I was already watching Netflix. Had reek of contractual obligation all over it.

Having Brooker as the producer/interviewer off camera, referred to as Rob (?) despite the fact that it was clearly him, took me out of the show each and every time it happened.

[Shaky]

Having Brooker as the producer/interviewer off camera, referred to as Rob (?) despite the fact that it was clearly him, took me out of the show each and every time it happened.

It's "James" but yeah, that didn't work well.

[OpenMikeKnight]

I find it interesting that somebody who was good years ago continues to make the same sort of stuff even though they have changed as a person. What made Brooker great was that he genuinely was a clever, angry TV and games obsessed single male geek with a crap haircut with arms too small for his body and a touch overweight, so his bile at everything was real. Plus he had an insiders view of the TV industry whilst feeling like an outsider. His TV persona wasn't much of an extension of who he really was. Late night BBC Four was a natural home for him.

Then his life improved and he got married, made money and had kids. The bile disappeared. But he continued to make the same sort of programmes to diminishing returns. He can't channel that outsiders anger when he has a cushty life. His arms probably even fit his body now as well.

[Mister Six]

Think the blowback on here is a bit much. It was fine. Lacked the inventive zing of classic 'wipes, which is disappointing given the number of people writing for the thing, and the extended ad for Netflix was taking the absolute piss, but I thought it was decent enough for a sideways look at a gruellingly shit year that's left millions dead or disabled in a pandemic and millions more traumatised. Especially as pretty much every topic had already been litigated on Facebook and Twitter in real time while we were going through it.

I didn't really miss Brooker as presenter too much because it was clearly going for a different format, and Hugh Grant, Lisa Kudrow and Cristina Miliotti elevated some of the thinner material with fantastic performances.

However, the talking heads element did feel half-baked, like each of the characters was supposed to function as a parody of their particular demographic as well as ragging on the news itself, but they only really seemed to commit to that with Fauxlomina Cunk  (does the BBC own the rights to the Philomena Cunk "brand", by the way?), Kumail Nanjiani and Lisa Kudrow.

Miliotti is introduced looking at a white supremacist website, but then she's portrayed as more of a casually racist Karen type - maybe that should have come the other way around, escalating from annoying white middle-class conservative to burgeoning Nazi?

Likewise, the narrator occasionally seemed to be pro-Trump, but was that supposed to say something about the media or was it sardonic? If sardonic, was that supposed to say something about the media? Grant's Richard Starkey seemed to flit between senile, racist and incisive. And the scientist was either a buffoon who knows nothing about science or a smart guy who could see through tired documentary tropes.

The worst characters for this were Sam Jackson's NYT editor and Leslie Jones's... I dunno, pop-sociologist? Op-ed writer? Social critic? General misanthrope?

Jackson's character didn't seem to have any satirical aspect whatsoever - it would have been nice if they'd taken just a few minutes to rag on the liberal media for fucking over Bernie, for example, or the NYT focusing on upper-middle-class shit at the expense of covering working- and lower-class problems.

And what was Jones there for? What was her character supposed to represent? I wonder if she was originally pitched as a parody of uber-woke firebrands, but the writers got cold feet when they looked at Netflix's demographics and feared a big #cancellation. Maybe she was supposed to fill the Brooker slot of general angry misanthrope, but that doesn't work when the misanthrope is an SNL alumnus movie star rather than a weird-looking bloke with bad hair.

The worst bit was the BLM segment, which just alternated between Jackson and Jones doing Facebook-group-tier sincere liberal zingers rather than actually saying anything incisive about the problems in America, or coming at the whole situation from a new angle. Then again, they'd just used that footage of George Floyd being murdered, so maybe they didn't want to appear too glib. But it felt like cowardice.

Also, using footage of the Lebanon explosion twice without even mentioning it in the show proper was very exploitative.

Shit, maybe I did hate it after all.

[Mister Six]

I've defended Wipe before against this assertion and I will for this. It is very true what you say but also you have to take into account that not everybody pores over social media looking at memes, jokes, SNL sketches or clever videos about every news event.

I think that was probably different this year for most people, though, because all they've been able to do for the past year is fuck around on the internet and share stuff with each other. Even my mum had heard of the Four Seasons thing and she's about as out of touch with reality as the actual Richard Starkey.

Plus, the pandemic is something that everyone was involved in and that was covered in all media continuously throughout 2020, whereas the usual Wipe round-up will include bits of initially significant but quickly forgotten news ephemera and pop-culture shit that the audience could easily have missed. Not so with most of this year's big stories.

[notjosh]

Jackson's character didn't seem to have any satirical aspect whatsoever - it would have been nice if they'd taken just a few minutes to rag on the liberal media for fucking over Bernie, for example

Code Select Expand

run satire
echo "It's just a choice between two old white guys!"
end satire

[Mister Six]

I can't help but think that if that line was intended satirically it would have been challenged by Brooker/"James" in the way he did Kudrow and Grant's characters when they said something obviously wrong or hypocritical. I think it was probably just pitched sincerely by a different writer to the person who did the "anarchist grandpa" gag and they didn't notice the inconsistency, or just wanted to zip along to the election because the pandemic had eaten up so much runtime.

Plus, everything else Jackson's character said was presented as "Genius liberal DESTROYS conservative myth" so it would be weird if that one sentence was supposed to represent his comedic character flaw.

[notjosh]

Not sure if my 'joke' made sense. I was just satirising the laziness of the satirical commentary on the Democratic primary. But it turns out this satire lark as harder than it looks!

[druss]

This was fine, not particularly great but perfectly watchable. Kudrow, Grang and Milioti were definitely the highlights.

Was Samuel L Jackson actually a character? Genuinely thought it was Samuel L Jackson playing himself.

[Mister Six]

He was playing the editor of a New York Times parody I forget the name of. They went to the trouble of mocking up a lobby for the fictional newspaper, then showing it for a half-second a bit before Jackson was introduced.

Not sure if my 'joke' made sense. I was just satirising the laziness of the satirical commentary on the Democratic primary. But it turns out this satire lark as harder than it looks!

Ah, sorry!

[Brundle-Fly]

Even my mum had heard of the Four Seasons thing and she's about as out of touch with reality as the actual Richard Starkey.

Leave Ringo out of this. He was down with the kids once y'know?

[Mister Six]

Haha, fuck, you're right.

David Starkey.

[Brundle-Fly]

Haha, fuck, you're right.

David Starkey.

I knew who you meant. ; )

[petril]

Leave Ringo out of this. He was down with the kids once y'know?

not even the best historian in his family

[Shit Good Nose]

Watched it with Mrs Nose (who is aware of Brooker but has never watched any of his stuff).  I did LOL a couple of times (although I can't remember for the life of me at what), but overall piss weak.  Mrs Nose thought it was okay, until I put on Anti-Viral Wipe straight after (saying "this is more like what he used to do"), which she agreed was much stronger and funnier.

Surprised so many of you thought Cristin Milioti was a highlight - some of the worst stuff in it I thought.

[Sonny_Jim]

Very much enjoyed this one, on the topic of who to choose between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders for the candidacy:

Like being stuck on the character select screen of 'Geriatric Tekken'

Also pretty sure Charlie likes to write the 'blah blah blah, I expect' gags.  Feels like a very Brookerish thing.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Ha! I never even thought of that being a pun. Brilliant. And of course Cunk is such an amazing original comic creation - someone who's thick and has a regional accent but talks about lofty subjects. Never ever been done before  - and Morgan is such a versatile actor I bet when most people saw her they didn't even recognise her as 'Cunk.'

You didn't realise that 'Cunk' sounds exactly, and quite obviously, like a rude word, so I'd simmer down on the old superiority front if I were you.

[lazyhour]

I wonder if it was originally devised as a portmanteau of cum and spunk?

[pigamus]

You didn't realise that 'Cunk' sounds exactly, and quite obviously, like a rude word, so I'd simmer down on the old superiority front if I were you.

I had to think about this. Do you mean cunt? Because cunk doesn't really sound anything like cunt.

[Jockice]

You didn't realise that 'Cunk' sounds exactly, and quite obviously, like a rude word, so I'd simmer down on the old superiority front if I were you.

Hmm, sarcasm REALLY doesn't work even on comedy sites sometimes.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Sorry.

[Jockice]

No need to apologise. It's all part of the fun of being on here.

[OpenMikeKnight]

The other day, some bloke came up to me. I dunno who it was. And he said 'you cunk'.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

No need to apologise. It's all part of the fun of being on here.

Gizza hug, you smasher.

[Brundle-Fly]

I've always thought hee name was inspired by German children's author, Cornelia Funke.

[Coprolite]

It wasn't Cunk or a Cunk-alike. It was just a "random UK person" played by Diane Morgan. She was a bit thick, which was the only resemblance to Cunk.

What? She looked identical.

Although the floss is at least a year out of date itvwas my highlight. More dancing scientists please.

[Jockice]

Gizza hug, you smasher.

Have a socially-distanced one.