I love the Black Mirror series, it is incredibly inventive and its modern day parables are so close to the bone we should all feel uncomfortable (ashamed?) watching them.
I didn’t watch The Waldo Moment during the initial run unfortunately. Life is very busy you see, but I finally got around to it last night and I was very impressed.
The story in brief terms is of a disillusioned comedian who performs the voice and movements (via performance capture) or an animated blue bear. This creature interviews (and annihilates) unsuspecting important figures and politicians, and this is where things get interesting.
I’ve read some reviews of this episode and they generally rate it as decent but not the best Black Mirror. I think that’s at least in part because those reviewing it took the underlying message to be people’s loss of faith in politics and authority causing them to respect something as utterly ridiculous as Waldo because It was seen as honest.
That is certainly a major part of the story, but there’s a far more sinister subtext if you look for it. Sadly you only have to look at the very real life Monster in America right now to realise this episode wasn’t as “ridiculous” as you first thought.
What happens when a figure (Waldo/”unnamed American” in this case) emerges who is happy to shift the blame of all your ills onto another? What happens when you’re so down on your luck that you don’t know where you’re next meal is coming from? Thank god someone is there to tell us exactly who to blame I guess.
Waldo’s closing scenes of a dystopian future at first viewing seemed very far fetched, especially given the characters’ own admission that he wasn’t to be taken seriously.
The more I look at the way things are going in the world I’m not so sure. Because if we stop thinking for ourselves we just might let a real life monster go too far.
All of this happened before and all of this will happen again.
fireupthedeathstar 