Episode no. Series 2
Episode 3 Written by Charlie Brooker | Directed by Bryn Higgins Running time 44 minutes | |
Original air date 25 February 2013 (2013-02-25) | ||
The Waldo Moment is the third episode of the second series of British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by Bryn Higgins, and first aired on Channel 4 on 25 February 2013. The episode originated in an idea for Nathan Barley, an earlier TV show by Brooker and Chris Morris.
Contents
The episode tells the story of Jamie (Daniel Rigby) a failed comedian who is the performer of a blue cartoon bear named Waldo, who comically interviews politicians and other authority figures. One day, Jamie's producer (Jason Flemyng) decides to make Waldo enter the ongoing election to become the town's Member of Parliament, as a way to get public attention; however, the joke takes unexpected proportions. Chloe Pirrie and Tobias Menzies co-star as the candidates representing the Labour and Conservative parties, respectively.
The episode received mostly positive reception.
Plot
Jamie Salter (Daniel Rigby) is a failed comedian who performs the voice and movements (via a remote manipulator called a Waldo) of a blue cartoon bear named Waldo, who interviews politicians and other authority figures. The interviewees are fooled into thinking the Waldo interviews are for a children's TV program, when they're actually for a late-night, topical comedy show. Waldo the bear is extremely popular with the British public, and a pilot for his own series is commissioned. Despite the character's success, Jamie is depressed and unsatisfied with his life.
During a brainstorming session for the Waldo pilot, producer Jack Napier (Jason Flemyng), who owns the rights to Waldo, jokingly suggests that Waldo should compete against real politicians in an upcoming by-election in the town of Stentonford, so he can stand against one of his past interviewees, Conservative candidate Liam Monroe (Tobias Menzies). Jamie reluctantly agrees, worried about entering the world of politics. The production company head off on a campaign trail, projecting Waldo onto a screen on the side of a van and driving to wherever Monroe is campaigning, so Waldo can publicly humiliate him. During the campaign, Jamie meets Gwendolyn Harris (Chloe Pirrie), the by-election's Labour candidate who, despite having no chance of winning, is entering the by-election to further her own political career. Jamie and Gwendolyn sleep together, but afterwards Gwendolyn is warned by her campaign manager to keep away from Jamie during the campaign. Jamie can't understand why she is avoiding him and develops a disdain for career politicians.
Aggravated by Monroe's attempt to mock him on a TV panel, Jamie issues a rant against the artificiality of politicians, exposing Gwendolyn as a career politician in the process. This rant becomes a hit on YouTube, and Waldo gains more public support while Gwendolyn's campaign quickly falters. Both Jamie and Napier meet with Jeff Carter (David Ajala), part of an unidentified American agency who claims that, because Waldo is not a real person, he has the potential to become a popular face of otherwise unpopular global authority. Jamie resists this idea. He tries to apologise to Gwendolyn for his actions, but she turns him away, enraged that he has damaged her career. On the final day of the campaign trail, he begs the public not to vote for Waldo, leaving the van and trying to smash the screen. Napier takes over Waldo's controls and orders the public to attack Jamie. On the day of the election, Jamie watches the results from a hospital bed; Monroe wins, with Waldo (now voiced by Napier) coming second and Gwendolyn coming third. Napier prompts the audience to riot.
During the end credits, Jamie is shown to have become homeless. Waldo is seen plastered on screens, showing the American agent's vision of a palatable face on authority has come to fruition. He tries to destroy the screen in anger, and is taken down by the police.
Production
The episode was filmed in and around the Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe; many of the scenes involving Waldo's van are filmed around the town centre. Brooker's sister-in-law Rupa Huq is thanked in the credits; she herself ran in the 2005 election for the nearby Chesham and Amersham constituency, a Conservative stronghold similar to the fictional safe seat shown in the programme.
Critical reception
The A.V. Club rated the episode a C+, concluding: "There's just not enough there to suggest that Waldo's moment would last much longer than 15 minutes, and the show doesn't help by having all of its characters agree." Den of Geek concurred, stating: "This was a lesser episode of Black Mirror, then, but that's partly because the quality of other entries has been so high. 'The Waldo Moment' was still full of keenly observed scenes (the toe-curling job interview was one highlight, and the gleeful demolition of a disgraced MP on a topical comedy feels like a pointed jab at the humour in his own current affairs show, 10 O'Clock Live". The Telegraph gave the episode 3/5 stars, and wrote: "Brooker didn't over egg it, at least not until the end, which descended into a hammy dystopian vision of Waldo becoming a means of universal mind control."
Several news reports, including one by Chris Cillizza, political reporter for The Washington Post, compared the 2016 Donald Trump political campaign to the episode; later, in September 2016, episode writer Charlie Brooker also compared the Trump campaign to "The Waldo Moment" and predicted Trump would win the 2016 election. On the night of the election, at the hour when Trump's victory was becoming clear to the nation, Black Mirror sent out a tweet proclaiming: "This isn't an episode. This isn't marketing. This is reality."