'2020 Never Again' is the satirical retrospective of the creators of Black Mirror

We are at that time when the retrospectives of the year are happening. But how to look back on 2020? After all, we are talking about one of the most complicated and remarkable years of the 21st century. 

To play with this challenge, the Netflix will launch "2020 Never Again” (“death to 2020”, in English), a satirical retrospective created and produced by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, who are also the creators of the dystopian series “Black Mirror".

As Netflix itself summarized in the synopsis of this special, the proposal is as follows:

Among these fictional commentators are big names such as Samuel L. Jackson (MCU's Nick Fury), Hugh Grant (Bridget Jones Diary) Lisa Kudrow (Friends) to Joe Keery (Stranger Things).

The comic (and tragic) retrospective opens on December 27, to pack the farewell atmosphere between Christmas and New Year. Remembering that this is a work of fiction and any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental, ok?

'2020 Never Again': what to expect?

The idea of ​​this retrospective is to be “the comic catharsis event you will never forget”, as described by Netflix. The special will range from the political crisis of the US elections to, of course, the pandemic of the new coronavirus.

Who directs “2020 Never Again” is Al Campbell, who previously worked with Brooker on “Wipe“, a British TV show about movies, series, news and games, written and hosted by the creator of Black Mirror on the BBC.

In addition to the actors already mentioned at the beginning of this article, the special will feature Kumail Nanjiani (Dolittle), Tracey Ullman (Mrs America), Samson Kayo (Truth Seekers), Leslie Jones (Ghostbusters, 2016) and Diane Morgan (Me Before You).

In late November of this year, actor Hugh Grant – who plays a historian in the special – said, in an interview with return, who was working with Charlie Brooker on a “fictional documentary”. So we have another way of defining the proposal of “2020 Never Again” (in the Netflix catalog the special is categorized as “pseudodocumentary”).

Another intention of the retrospective is to mix real images, from archives, with fictional scenes, covering what happened in these 12 (strange) months of 2020.

'The real stranger than fiction'

This subtitle is, in fact, a verse of the song “This is not a test” from the album “Sua Alegria Foi Cancelada”, the eighth album by the band Fresno. And let's face it, it's a phrase that sums up well what 2020 has been like.

“But what does this have to do with the Netflix retrospective?” Perhaps you are wondering. Is that, at the beginning of the year, Charlie Brooker informed that he had given a break in the production of the sixth season of Black Mirror. In an interview with the Radio Times in May 2020, he justified this decision by saying the following: 

In other words, for Brooker the reality was already bleak enough. And until 2018, it was tradition at Netflix to end the year with a new season of the dystopian series. Since the streaming service bought the series, new episodes have hit the catalog in December, close to the New Year.

At the time of this interview, Brooker also said that he was thinking about revisiting his "comic vein" and that he was writing some stuff just for fun. Now let's see the result of this in "2020 Never Again".

Watch the trailer for Netflix's satirical retrospective below:

Sources: Hollywood Reporter, Netflix, Radio Times e return

I liked the idea of ​​this retrospective”2020 Never Again”? So take a look at this list of all Netflix releases in December!