The moment you rewatch this episode in 2016 and you suddenly realize: Donald Trump is Waldo.
Well done. Besides making a merciless critique of Populism, which is the part that is immediately evident, there is also an underground critical that you grab only in the dystopian end: also the system, performed by the CIA, if it pilots public opinion and is not controlled by a truly democratic mechanism leads to disastrous solutions
This one scared away the Americans.
So British...which is just one of the reasons this DIDN'T predict Donald Trump like everyone says - I hate the poster that Letterboxd has for this episode (it literally features a USA flag when this is clearly the most BRITISH episode Black Mirror has ever done).
The original idea came from the show Nathan Barley in 2005 so if anything it predicted Boris Johnson becoming mayor in 2008 (and later prime minister) after just being a public jokester on comedy talk shows. You could argue that Brooker deciding to redo the idea for this hit show in 2013 was a warning that the idea of a 'honest politician' winning votes just because of his character was only gonna get worse in the years to come, which it absolutely did predict, but I hate how people just draw this episode down to 'haha Trump won too' - I can't help but scorn at the irony of everybody saying this being the same people the entire episode is making fun of...
- The message is really a critique, or perhaps just a neutral observation (?), of the people's lack of awareness and understanding of why politicians are running and also on the dangerous modern fusion of entertainment and politics.
In the end brand becomes bigger than anything, including policy. And THAT is how free speech ends.
I dont understand why this episode was such a flop with the majority; I thought it was right on point, actually, then and especially now.
It's a strong critique on how systems work now and that the "system" just allocates someone based on popular demand, and nothing else.
From "White Bear" to a blue bear, I didn't really enjoy this one as much. What I did get out of it was it seems like every other episode of Black Mirror, there would be people doing it. I was also eating blue M&M's while watching this one, coincidentally.
I highly recommend revisiting this episode now that Trump won the US elections. I don't know how we missed that.
At first glance you’d think this entire episode is completely idiotic. I mean, who would actually vote for Waldo? He has no substance, has nothing intelligent to say, and worst of all, he is not even remotely funny!
However, if you actually take a look at global politics, you’ll notice that very similair figures do tend to win over the public for some reason. And that’s when you realise: Waldo could actually become an internet-sensation people rally behind in real life. And why? Because people truly are this stupid.
The weakest episode so far
It could be a great episode but there was no ending scene for me..6.8/10
That was a terrible episode. Even the satire couldn’t save it.
This episodes premise initially felt as wild and gimmicky as the original "The National Anthem" episode, its concept detached from reality, but not its characters. As the years have passed since this episodes premiere, it's felt more and more relevant. The episode feels less like satire, and more like social commentary. To think that this was originally a plot conceived for the "Nathan Barley" show in 2005, demonstrates how ahead of their time the creators were.
If you want to dive deeper into this concept, and the notion of post-truth politics... then I'd highly recommend giving "Hypernormalisation" from Adam Curtis a watch.
Waldo was a shithead LOL. All I did was feel bad for the main character and that's it. I don't even really get what they were trying to say - it wasn't strong enough of a message to affect a wide group of people, but rather an individual who has problems like the main guy.
Torn between finding the drama/story not very effective, blunt and kind of grating, and finding the concept soooo scarily prescient about today's political landscape that I am in deep admiration despite myself. Maybe next time be perceptive about something more utopian and have it come true, please, Brooker?
the ending was a little bit extra... i can see the uk making that kind of disastrous plummet into armageddon but not the rest of the world
I hope that something like that will not happen
1/10
Weak Source
Piss-poor and
Ultimately Pointless.
They dropped the
ball with this one.
Didn't work for me
this one at all,
Waldo was annoying
as fcuk, then to base
that all todo with
politics which is
Bull-shit anyway,
it all amounts to being
unoriginal and
uninteresting.
Verdict: worst episode
of the entire show.
Swing and Miss
So despite having the lowest rating of the first 2 seasons, I enjoyed this more than the last episode (mainly because the acting was so bad in that one) but yeah, this concept sucked.
Rankings:
this episode is unfairly maligned
One word to describe this episode: "Shitifying."
One of the worst episodes from Black Mirror, but not silly or unrealistic with everything going on. Still annoying through. I wish some things just stay in Black Mirror.
What a terrible episode. Sigh...
Why were the writers doing TV when they obviously had a perfectly working time machine to 2016 America.
Step 1 - Pick up future newspaper
Step 2 - Bet on the Cubs/Trump double
Step 3 - Buy penthouse villa in Monaco
Shout by HaibaraBlockedParent2016-10-16T17:00:53Z
That was the worst episode in my opinion. It wasn't actually that bad, but it lacked any suspense or surprises the previous episodes had. There was no real twist and the ending seemed a bit over the top. Also, I hated Waldo.