Death to 2020 - Charlie Brooker mocumentary

[Jockice]

"Diane Morgan is insufferable.

I am so glad that at least one person on here/in the world agrees with me.

New page I quite liked A Touch Of Cloth.

[Old Nehamkin]

Did he say that socialists are holocaust deniers again I love when he does that.

[up_the_hampipe]

The big problem with these things now is that most of us have been online all year and have seen all of these events occur alongside hundreds of different jokes and memes. I think that's undermined this type of show. Everyone's seen and read about these things a thousand times over - Trump and the disinfectant, Rudy Guiliani's hairdye, Boris' handshaking - the whole exhausting nature of the pandemic, and COVID deniers, and Zoom-based observational comedy, and antimaskers, and antivaxxers, and BLM statue debates, and Biden and Trump and the election fraud claims and demands for recounts, and FUCKING HELL. It's all been exhaustingly omnipresent for everybody all year. It's hard to breathe life into these things when we're so immersed in them already.

This has been a problem with satire on TV for a few years now, I think. Simpsons Twitter did it!

[Peru]

It's petty beyond words, but I did lose some lingering respect when Konnie Huq said something like "oh, he said he didn't want kids, so I said I was off otherwise" - and he caved in. Fuck that shit - be a proper stubborn twat like I've been in the past and tell her to take a hike.

You lost respect for someone because they came to a decision to have children with their wife? You would have respected him more if he'd dumped her instead? Jesus mate, that's really odd.

[pigamus]

Yes, I assumed that was a joke, but apparently not. Bit rum.

[oy vey]

As others have said, hearing what is pretty on-brand Brooker funnelled through generic voiceover man doesn't work, something about the tone stops the humour landing. It's made worse by the same comic voice coming through in the other characters, what for me always felt like an impressive gag-rate when it was almost all Brooker sitting in his flat feels really thin was spread across a bunch of A-listers (the criticism of Extras that the guest stars were just interchangeable audience hooks providing little plot function feels much more on-point with this).

I was thinking of Extras too. I didn't like Extras because most of the celebs (oh look who it is!!!) threw me out of it. Totally interchangeable, like you say, rather than being spot on casting so you soon forget it's a well known face not taking themselves too seriously because their agent reckoned it was a good move. Same issue with A-listers doing voice acting in animations and we soon discover voice acting takes a bit of skill. Fucking A-listers should stick to A-listing.

[BritishHobo]

Maybe it would have worked better if he had done a Time Trumpet. Historians and that in 2058 or something, looking back at what a stupid year it was.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The lack of accountability and unwillingness to provide and receive honest feedback will mean this unsuccessful work will be insufficiently scrutinised, and the absence of much that's any better will be held up as proof that 'I can't see anyone else doing any better' rather than a sad moment to reflect on the decline of both ambition and standards.

[Jockice]

You lost respect for someone because they came to a decision to have children with their wife? You would have respected him more if he'd dumped her instead? Jesus mate, that's really odd.

As someone who has never wanted to reproduce for a single second of his life I can understand it. Luckily (apart from one pregnancy scare - and it really was a scare - when I was in my early 30s) I've never been in the position where I could have done. If a partner had decided that she wanted kids and I didn't it would have been very difficult. Because I really REALLY don't want kids.

[Junket Pumper]

Did he say that socialists are holocaust deniers again I love when he does that.

When did he say that?

[Peru]

As someone who has never wanted to reproduce for a single second of his life I can understand it. Luckily (apart from one pregnancy scare - and it really was a scare - when I was in my early 30s) I've never been in the position where I could have done. If a partner had decided that she wanted kids and I didn't it would have been very difficult. Because I really REALLY don't want kids.

But why would you lose respect for someone else - someone who is not you - if they did?

[Jockice]

But why would you lose respect for someone else - someone who is not you - if they did?

It's a hypothetical situation but if someone (male or female) who really didn't want kids agreed to do it just to please their partner I'd think there was something strange going on. I dunno, would you class that as normal behaviour? Bringing a life into the world that you wouldn't have done otherwise and letting them know (subconsciously at least) that this was the case.

I can't remember Brooker ever saying he didn't want kids but if he did then had them (or helped create them) it's either a total change of mind or he's been pressurised against his will. Or maybe he just didn't mean it and was saying it for effect. Which as someone who has genuinely never wanted children under any circumstances I would find a bit insincere. And of course there are people who have really wanted children but for various reasons haven't (I can think of two people I know in that situation, one male, one female, and it has really screwed them up) so I bet it would piss them off too.

[Jumblegraws]

Putting aside that I think maybe Culture Bunker was being a bit ironic/self-deprecating in their original post, I think chances are that Brooker's misgivings about having children were superficial and based more on a general fear of adulthood than on a real aversion to procreation and that he was self-aware enough not to make it a deal-breaker. It's moot anyway since he's clearly very happy and loving as a father.

[ProvanFan]

Dad wanker

[Peru]

It's a hypothetical situation but if someone (male or female) who really didn't want kids agreed to do it just to please their partner I'd think there was something strange going on. I dunno, would you class that as normal behaviour? Bringing a life into the world that you wouldn't have done otherwise and letting them know (subconsciously at least) that this was the case.

I can't remember Brooker ever saying he didn't want kids but if he did then had them (or helped create them) it's either a total change of mind or he's been pressurised against his will. Or maybe he just didn't mean it and was saying it for effect. Which as someone who has genuinely never wanted children under any circumstances I would find a bit insincere. And of course there are people who have really wanted children but for various reasons haven't (I can think of two people I know in that situation, one male, one female, and it has really screwed them up) so I bet it would piss them off too.

I suppose I just wonder why it's a thing to get exercised about here. I genuinely couldn't care less about what CB does at home.

[The Culture Bunker]

Putting aside that I think maybe Culture Bunker was being a bit ironic/self-deprecating in their original post, I think chances are that Brooker's misgivings about having children were superficial and based more on a general fear of adulthood than on a real aversion to procreation and that he was self-aware enough not to make it a deal-breaker. It's moot anyway since he's clearly very happy and loving as a father.

Well, yes, I was poking a bit of fun at my own pettiness - which can be pretty biblical on a bad day - as well as my never-changing "no kids" stance being the ruin of many a relationship (until my present one, so needless to say, last laughs to me).

I don't have any real respect for Brooker, but that's because he's just some chap on TV who I don't know, rather than (for instance) my dad.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I like Brooker a lot, and thought the antiviral wipe was great, but this was fucking awful, I think I laughed twice and the most of the rest of the time was spent grimacing, for me it's easily the worst thing he's ever done.

[BlodwynPig]

Its for the next generation. Their Flumps.

[lazyhour]

The voiceover was done by the reasonably famous actor Laurence Fishburne.

You know, the guy who looks exactly like a black Charlie Brooker.

[pigamus]

Sounds like it was made to be amenable to Yanks

[wooders1978]

Fucking heck, that was terrible

[BlodwynPig]

Sounds like it was made to be amenable to Yanks

Been a decade of hawking stuff to America. Black Mirror disappeared up its own arse when Yanks got involved.

"The American Market"

Fuck the American market.

[ajsmith2]

About to sit down and watch this and feel suitably warned that it's a shitey waste of time. I thought viral wipe was pretty poor as it was. Wish me luck. Hoping you're all wrong somehow or I have really bad taste and enjoy it.

[Avril Lavigne]

About to sit down and watch this and feel suitably warned that it's a shitey waste of time. I thought viral wipe was pretty poor as it was. Wish me luck. Hoping you're all wrong somehow or I have really bad taste and enjoy it.

I also read the thread before watching so had pretty low expectations. Almost gave up after 4 mins, carried on watching with the help of booze, now 25 mins in with over 40 mins left to slog through & I think I'm gonna throw in the towel.

[Bernice]

This was exactly what it was always going to be. Brooker's stuff as an angry outsider was great, important and comforting to an angry teenage me. But it's not been where he's at for a while.

I think there's something to be said for the decision to drop the tired wipe format, for which he hasn't seemed to have much enthusiasm for a long time. The talking heads were variable, a lot of the jokes tired and the subject matter - 2020 - doesn't really bear talking about anymore. But it had its moments, it was inoffensive, the occasional flash of pointed anger or Brooker's weird, scatological filter.

Eh.

[chveik]

a quibi joke... fuck off

[Alberon]

Hugh Grant was good and the rest were fine, but it didn't have anything like the bite it needed.

If any year deserves an angry response it's this one. The western world failed in its response to the pandemic letting tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) die unnecessarily. To top it all there's Trump dismantling American democracy purely out of personal spite.

And you get this.

Brooker has said he wants to get back to doing something like A Touch of Cloth which is fine and I love a good dollop of silliness probably more than the next man, but if you're going to do something like this year review put some venom in it or don't bother at all.

[notjosh]

Surprised that he's been saying in interviews that this is very different from his yearly wipes. It's exactly the same but with Samuel L. Jackson as Barry Shitpeas (and a cameo from 2020 Nathan Barley).

Cristin Milioti and Lisa Kudrow were the only ones to get laughs from me. It's a shame as there was an opportunity to do something more formally inventive, like Time Trumpet or 2004: The Stupid Version. I've stopped expecting to actually enjoy these now, but they do still serve a purpose as an end-of-year "oh was that this year too? I'd forgotten that" sort of thing.

[olliebean]

"Generic voiceover man" is famous actor Laurence Fishburne, by the way. But yes, it was basically 2020 Wipe with less Brooker and more actors. The Wipes have been a bit tired and formulaic for a while now, but I largely enjoyed this one, and I liked seeing a nearly entirely different set of faces in it.

It's a shame Rhys Thomas doesn't seem to have done one of his Year in the Life of a Years this year.

[lazyhour]

"Generic voiceover man" is famous actor Laurence Fishburne, by the way.

The guy who looks exactly like a black Charlie Brooker?