Get Ready to Laugh With Netflix's Comedy 'Death to 2021'
By Riley Hammond
Death to 2021 (2021) via Netflix
Another year, another package of events to unwrap. And lucky for us, Netflix released a sequel to last year's mockumentary of 2020. This one is called Death to 2021 and contains a recap of the bizarre events this year has brought us. Let's take a look at which events and cast members appeared in the satirical special.
The audience was happy to see returning stars Hugh Grant, Joe Keery, Diane Morgan, Cristin Milioti, and Samson Kayo assume their roles from last year. There were also some new additions to the cast of the throwback film this time around. William Jackson Harper played the character Zero Fournine, who is a tech entrepreneur and head of a social media company - a character similar to Bark Multiverse from Death to 2020. Another new face was Lucy Liu, who played Snook Austin, a journalist offering her view of some of the major events that happened in 2021.
So what exactly did this comedic retrospective remind us of? The mockumentary started off with one of the biggest events of the year - the riots at the U.S. Capitol in early January. In between footage from the actual events, the different characters of the show provided satirical commentary. Kathy Flowers, played by Cristin Milioti, is edited into the footage as a protestor writing "MAGA" on the walls of the Capitol in her own feces. "I was writing, and that counts as free speech, actually," she commented. Meanwhile, scientist Pyrex Flask (played by Samson Kayo) admitted to binging the Netflix show Bridgerton instead of developing the vaccine.
The film went on to cover more of 2021's content, from celebrities who became victims of cancel culture to the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan. Also featured in the special were the ongoing debates between pro-vaxxers and anti-vaxxers and Mark Zuckerberg's decision to turn Facebook into Meta. Throwback videos and headlines from these events mixed in with the amusing commentary of the show's characters offer viewers an almost cathartic way to look back on an overwhelming year. The official Netflix synopsis describes the special as a "comedy event that tells the story of another dreadful year."
What do you think? Did Death to 2021 manage to recap the eventful year that we're about to say goodbye to? Be sure to let us know!
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