"The Waldo Moment" is the third episode in the second series of the British science fiction
anthology television series ''
Black Mirror
''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fiction ...
''. It was written by series creator and showrunner
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
and directed by Bryn Higgins, and first aired on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
on 25 February 2013. The episode originated in an idea for ''
Nathan Barley'', an earlier TV show by Brooker and
Chris Morris.
The episode tells the story of Jamie Salter (
Daniel Rigby
Daniel Rigby (born 6 December 1982) is an English actor and comedian. He received a BAFTA TV Award for his leading role as Eric Morecambe in the 2011 television film ''Eric and Ernie''.
Early life
Rigby was born in Stockport, Greater Mancheste ...
), an unhappy comedian who plays a blue animated bear called Waldo in a satirical television programme. After a politician he interviewed—Liam Munroe (
Tobias Menzies
Tobias Simpson Menzies (born 7 March 1974) is an English stage, television and film actor. He is known for playing Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the third and fourth seasons of Netflix's series ''The Crown'', for which he won the Primetime ...
)—enters a
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
to become
member of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
, Waldo stands as a candidate. Meanwhile, Jamie and another candidate Gwendolyn Harris (
Chloe Pirrie
Chloe Pirrie (born 25 August 1987) is a Scottish actress. She has played main roles in the 2014 miniseries '' The Game'', the 2012 film ''Shell'', and the 2015 television film ''An Inspector Calls''. She has also appeared in the 2016 miniseries ...
) develop feelings for each other. Waldo's popularity continues to rise, but Jamie becomes increasingly discontented with the role he is playing.
The episode is in contrast to other ''Black Mirror'' episodes with its contemporary setting; it explores public distrust of politicians. Initially based in part on the politician and future British prime minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
, the character of Waldo was widely compared to business magnate
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
following his successful
2016 campaign to become President of the United States. The episode was considered by critics to be very poor in comparison to other ''Black Mirror'' episodes, with criticisms made of its reliance on tropes and its ending. The characters of Waldo and Jamie received mixed reception.
Plot
On a topical comedy show, Jamie Salter (
Daniel Rigby
Daniel Rigby (born 6 December 1982) is an English actor and comedian. He received a BAFTA TV Award for his leading role as Eric Morecambe in the 2011 television film ''Eric and Ernie''.
Early life
Rigby was born in Stockport, Greater Mancheste ...
) plays Waldo—a vulgar, animated blue bear who interviews public figures under the pretence of a children's television programme. After
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
politician Liam Munroe (
Tobias Menzies
Tobias Simpson Menzies (born 7 March 1974) is an English stage, television and film actor. He is known for playing Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the third and fourth seasons of Netflix's series ''The Crown'', for which he won the Primetime ...
) files a complaint over his interview, a
television pilot
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distr ...
starring Waldo is commissioned. Despite this, Jamie is unsatisfied with his life, particularly over a recent breakup. Executive Jack Napier (
Jason Flemyng
Jason Iain Flemyng''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 25 September 1966) is an English actor. He is known for roles in British films such as ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998) ...
) notes that Munroe is standing to become a
member of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
in the
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
for the fictional
constituency of Stentonford and Hersham. It is agreed that Waldo should also stand.
Appearing as Waldo via video screens on the side of a van, Jamie goads Munroe into confrontation as he campaigns. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn Harris (
Chloe Pirrie
Chloe Pirrie (born 25 August 1987) is a Scottish actress. She has played main roles in the 2014 miniseries '' The Game'', the 2012 film ''Shell'', and the 2015 television film ''An Inspector Calls''. She has also appeared in the 2016 miniseries ...
) has been chosen as the
Labour Party candidate, though the constituency is a
safe seat for the Conservatives. Harris and Jamie get drunk together, Jamie expressing his displeasure at being stuck as Waldo and Harris admitting she will not win. They have sex and agree to continue their relationship. Harris' campaign manager Roy (Michael Shaeffer) is alarmed that she talked to Jamie, telling her that she cannot see him during the campaign.
Waldo and the other candidates are invited to a student-organised
hustings
A husting originally referred to a native Germanic governing assembly, the thing. By metonymy, the term may now refer to any event (such as debates or speeches) during an election campaign where one or more of the candidates are present.
Devel ...
, in which Munroe details Jamie's mostly unsuccessful television career and derides his message as meaningless. Jamie attacks both Munroe and Harris as disingenuous career politicians, using information Harris divulged during their encounter. Waldo's rant goes viral on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and receives media coverage; Waldo is interviewed by political pundit Philip Crane (
Pip Torrens
Philip D'Oyly "Pip" Torrens (born 2 June 1960) is an English actor.
Known for playing urbane, authoritative figures, Torrens portrayed courtier Tommy Lascelles in the Netflix drama ''The Crown'', aristocrat Lord Massen in the HBO series ''Th ...
). Jamie is reluctant to continue as Waldo, but does so after Jack threatens to play him instead. Afterwards, Jack and Jamie meet with American agent Jeff Carter (
David Ajala
David Ajala (born 21 May 1986) is a British actor. He is known for his roles as Manchester Black in '' Supergirl'' (20182019), Captain Roy Eris in ''Nightflyers'' (2018), and Cleveland "Book" Booker in '' Star Trek: Discovery'' (2020present).
...
), who talks about the advantages of a cartoon figurehead over a human in spreading political messages abroad.
Jamie tries to apologise to Harris, but she is furious with him. The next day, Jamie
breaks character and urges everyone not to vote for Waldo; Jack assumes his role as Waldo and frivolously rants to incite a member of the public to assault Jamie. In hospital, Jamie sees the results of the election: Munroe won, Waldo was second and Harris was third, though Jack, using Waldo, incites a riot. In the final scene, a homeless Jamie is ordered to move on by the police. He sees a screen displaying Waldo on every channel, in different languages. Out of frustration, Jamie throws a bottle at it, but the police tase and attack him.
Production
"The Waldo Moment" was the third episode of the second series of ''
Black Mirror
''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fiction ...
'', produced by Zeppotron for
Endemol. It aired on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
on 25 February 2013 at 10 p.m. On 22 January 2013, a trailer for the second series was released, featuring a dream sequence, a factory location and a large dust cloud. The advert ran on Channel 4 and in cinemas. A trailer for "The Waldo Moment" premiered on 19 February 2013.
Conception and writing
The episode was written by series creator
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
. It originates from an idea by Brooker and
Chris Morris, conceived when the pair were writing ''
Nathan Barley'' in 2005. They imagined a politician based on the British virtual band
Gorillaz, whose members are animated cartoon characters. When Brooker came to write the episode, he took inspiration for Waldo's character on British politician
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
,
and
Ali G was also an inspiration.
Jón Gnarr
Jón Gnarr (; born 2 January 1967)This is an Icelandic name. ''Kristinsson'' is the patronymic, but he is properly referred to as ''Jón Gnarr'' as he had it legally removed. is an Icelandic actor, comedian, and politician who served as the Ma ...
, a stand-up comedian who became mayor of
Reykjavík
Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...
, was another reference point, and after the episode idea was conceived.
![Chris Morris 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Chris_Morris_2010.jpg)
Brooker said that the episode is "asking what satire's about". Some of Jamie's dialogue is based on Brooker's own perspective from his career, such as co-presenting ''
10 O'Clock Live
''10 O'Clock Live'' is a British comedy/news television programme that ran from 2011 to 2013, presented by Charlie Brooker, Jimmy Carr, Lauren Laverne and David Mitchell.
The programme was commissioned following the success of ''Channel 4's Alt ...
'', a political comedy which ran from 2011 to 2013.
Brooker commented that the episode was rushed due to time constraints, as he was busy rewriting drafts of another series two episode, "
White Bear". He had wanted to do more research, though he did consult with his sister-in-law
Rupa Huq
Rupa Asha Huq ( bn, রাবেয়া "রূপা" আশা হক; born 2 April 1972) is a British Independent MP, columnist and academic. Elected as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Central and Acton at the 2015 genera ...
, a then-Labour politician. Brooker said in 2018 that the idea should have been executed in a longer format, such as a two-part episode, miniseries or movie. He also wanted Jamie to be in more jeopardy, and to further develop the idea of Waldo as a "lightning rod for dissatisfaction with politicians".
He expressed regret at rejecting the idea of having Gwendolyn and Jamie be ex-partners.
Pre-production
Brooker based Waldo on Ratz, a virtual floating cat head from the first series of 1990s children's show ''
Live & Kicking
''Live & Kicking'' is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for ''Going Live!'', and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, c ...
''. As Waldo was controlled live during filming, using state-of-the-art live animation techniques, several months of pre-production work was done at the design studio Painting Practice. Staff at
Passion Pictures worked on animation, having recently developed the animated meerkat Aleksandr for the advertising campaign
Compare the Meerkat.
Filming
Bryn Higgins directed the episode. Describing the comedy as "implicit", Higgins aimed to film the episode in the style of a "fairly slick modern thriller". The technology shown in the episode was not too far beyond what was possible at the time, as Brooker wanted the episode to veer away from science fiction. The rig used mapped the emotions and facial movements of the performer onto the Waldo character, and it is seen in the episode. As well as Rigby, four puppeteers controlled Waldo, assigned to the roles of his eyes, his mouth, his body and the rest. Brooker requested Waldo's animation to be purposefully clunky so that the viewer would believe that Jamie was controlling him live.
The Waldo van was taken to
High Wycombe
High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...
, a town in southeast England, where members of the public were involved in interacting with Waldo. Due to legal concerns, Waldo's penis was not shown in public. Following Liam Munroe's line "He's making the whole system look absurd. Which it may well be, but it built these roads", it was planned for the car to go over a pothole, but this was cut as it looked like a camera mistake.
Analysis
"The Waldo Moment" is a
political satire
Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where s ...
and
dystopia; it features aspects of dark humour.
It differs from most previous episodes in its lack of science fiction elements and absence of technology as a key theme.
It bears similarities to the programme's first episode, "
The National Anthem", which also has a storyline where "the political process is subverted by the general public's insatiable appetite for stupidity and scandal", according to Sam Parker of ''
HuffPost
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''.
"The Waldo Moment" explores distrust and apathy towards politicians.
Ryan Lambie of
Den of Geek
''Den of Geek'' is a US and UK-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture. The website also issues a bi-annual magazine.
History
''Den of Geek'' was founded in 2007 by Simon Brew in London. In 2012, DoG Tech LLC licensed ...
summarised the episode's message in the phrase "self-absorption will be the death of politics",
whilst Parker felt that the episode demonstrated "a desire for a more honest form of politics".
Serena Davies of ''
The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'' commented that the episode was "a mockery of the deeply compromised ideals of modern politics", whilst reminding viewers that politicians are "all we've got".
Morgan Jeffery of ''
Digital Spy'' analysed that the episode criticises satire and "those who persecute others without having anything meaningful to say",
and Emily Yoshida of ''
Grantland
''Grantland'' was a sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. The blog was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons, who remained as editor-in-chief until May 2015. ''Grantland'' was named after famed e ...
'' believed that it exposed the issues of "cheap humour" being leveraged by politicians.
Boris Johnson, a British politician who became prime minister in 2019, was an inspiration for Waldo's character. Brooker described Johnson as "quite a clown", opining that his image "inoculated him from criticism" and set him apart from other politicians, who were seen as "bland robots parroting the same platitudes".
Three years after the episode aired, in 2016, the
presidential campaign
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
of
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
began to take off. "The Waldo Moment" was seen as prescient with regards to Trump.
Several news reports, including one by
Chris Cillizza, political reporter for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', compared
Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign
The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump was formally launched on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election, having won the most state prim ...
to the episode.
Brooker also compared Trump to Waldo, describing the latter as "an anti-politics candidate who's raucous and defensive" and "offers nothing".
Brooker said that Trump and Johnson were both "entertainers" who "upend normality",
and successfully predicted in September 2016 that Trump would win the election.
On the night that Trump was elected, the
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account for ''Black Mirror'' posted in response: "This isn't an episode. This isn't marketing. This is reality."
The episode has also been compared to the
2019 election of
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...
, a satirical actor and comedian, as President of Ukraine. Zelenskyy's campaign was almost exclusively restricted to the internet, with Adrian Karatnycky of ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' commenting that his campaign resembled Waldo's in that he "made no public speeches, held no rallies and gave no press conferences". Like Waldo, Zelenskyy had few clear policy positions prior to election.
The character of Waldo was also compared to "Professor Pongoo", a candidate in the
2012 Scottish local elections who dressed as a penguin and received more first-preference votes than the
Liberal Democrats.
The technology in the episode was later compared with "
animoji
The implementation of emojis on different platforms took place across a three-decade period, starting in the 1990s. Today, the exact appearance of emoji is not prescribed but can vary between fonts and platforms, much like different typefaces.
...
"—avatars in the style of
emoji which animate in coordination with the user's facial movements. Animoji were announced in 2017 as a new feature of the
iPhone X
The iPhone X (Roman numeral "X" pronounced "ten", also known as iPhone 10) is a smartphone designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the 11th generation of the iPhone. Available for pre-order from October 27, 2017, it was re ...
, and resembled the technology used to animate the fictional Waldo.
Reception
The episode aired on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
at 10 p.m. on 25 February 2013, and was watched by 1.28 million viewers, according to 7-day data from
BARB
Barb or the BARBs or ''variation'' may refer to:
People
* Barb (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
* Barb, a term used by fans of Nicki Minaj to refer to themselves
* The Barbs, a band
Places
* Barb, ...
. In contrast to previous episodes, it drew poor critical reviews at the time of broadcast.
On the
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, it holds an approval rating of 50% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "'The Waldo Moment' aims for sharp political commentary, but comes off as uninspired as the obnoxious cartoon that runs for office." It was considered to be the weakest episode to date by Yoshida and the weakest of the series by Parker and Richard Edwards of ''
GamesRadar+
''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites '' Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and ''Computer ...
'',
though Luke Owen of ''Flickering Myth'' found it to be the "best and most ambitious" of the series.
"The Waldo Moment" garnered ratings of four out of five stars in ''
The Arts Desk
''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of traditio ...
'',
3.5 out of five stars in ''
GamesRadar+
''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites '' Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and ''Computer ...
'',
three out of five stars in ''
HuffPost
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' and ''The Telegraph'',
and a C+ rating in ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
''.
The characters of Jamie and Waldo received mixed reviews. David Sims of ''The A.V. Club'' criticised the "frustratingly vague" motivations of Jamie's character, who was "poorly sketched out".
Sims further reviewed that Waldo failed to be funny or to make meaningful comments.
Edwards also criticised Waldo's dialogue and called him "too two-dimensional".
He did, however, laud Waldo's virtual appearance and interactivity as a "fantastic premise" which was "brilliantly executed".
Lisa-Marie Ferla of ''
The Arts Desk
''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of traditio ...
'' praised the "perfectly-pitched comedy" in Waldo's speech on the student-organised panel.
The writing was poorly received, with Parker describing it as "unfocused".
Edwards found the storyline to be predictable and filled with tropes and Parker wrote that the characterisation in the episode was "riddled with stereotypes".
Owen criticised that conclusions to the relationship of Gwendolyn and Jamie were "merely afterthoughts".
Sims criticised the American think-tank meeting as "the laziest kind of spoofery"
and Edwards concurred, calling it "totally unconvincing".
However, in praise of the writing, Yoshida, Ferla and Owen believed the episode's storyline to be plausible.
The ending was widely criticised. Lambie described it as "sudden" and "on-the-nose",
Sims opined that it was "ludicrous",
and Jeffery and Davies called it "half-baked" and "hammy", respectively.
Lambie believed that the episode's message was clear halfway through;
contrastingly, Edwards found the message to be unclear throughout.
Owen found the episode to "cram in too much story", saying that its final quarter was paced too quickly.
Episode rankings
Various critics have authored rankings of ''Black Mirror'' episodes by quality. Lambie commented in 2017 that: "You'll find no critical ranking of episodes the same, but they almost without exception share one thing in common: The Waldo Moment always comes in dead last."
Of critics who rated the 23 instalments in the series, "The Waldo Moment" was ranked as follows:
* 18th – Travis Clark, ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...
''
* 19th – Charles Bramesco, ''
Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
''
* 22nd –
James Hibberd, ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
''
* 22nd – Corey Atad, ''
Esquire''
* 23rd – Matt Donnelly and Tim Molloy, ''
TheWrap
''TheWrap'' is an American online news website covering the business of entertainment and media via digital, print and live events. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman
Sharon I. Waxman (born c.1963) is an American author, journalist, ...
''
* 23rd – Morgan Jeffery, ''Digital Spy''
* 23rd – Aubrey Page, ''
Collider
A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators.
Colliders are used as a research tool in particl ...
''
Additionally, the episode was rated 21st of 22 (excluding ''
Bandersnatch
A bandersnatch is a fictional creature in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'' and his 1874 poem ''The Hunting of the Snark''. Although neither work describes the appearance of a bandersnatch in great detail, in ''The Hunting ...
'') by reviewers at
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
, and 16th of 19 by Eric Anthony Glover of ''
Entertainment Tonight'', who ranked episodes from the first four series. Proma Khosla of
Mashable ranked the 22 ''Black Mirror'' instalments excluding ''Bandersnatch'' by tone, concluding that "The Waldo Moment" is the most pessimistic episode of the show. Other critics ranked the 13 episodes in ''Black Mirror''s first three series, where "The Waldo Moment" placed as follows:
* 8th (of the Top Ten) – Brendan Doyle,
Comingsoon.net
* 10th – Adam David,
CNN Philippines
CNN Philippines (abbreviated as CNN PH) is a commercial broadcast, cable and satellite television network in the Philippines. It is owned and operated by Nine Media Corporation, together with Radio Philippines Network (RPN) as the main conte ...
* 11th – Jacob Hall,
/Film
* 13th – Mat Elfring, ''
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
''
* 13th – Andrew Wallenstein, ''Variety''
See also
* The
Portillo moment
The Portillo moment was the dramatic declaration of the result for the Enfield Southgate constituency in the 1997 UK general election, at around 3:10 am on 2 May 1997. The Labour candidate Stephen Twigg defeated the sitting MP, Conservative ca ...
*
"The Wunderkind" (''The Twilight Zone'')
*
"Funnybot" (''South Park'')
*
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is a puppet character created, puppeteered and voiced by Robert Smigel. As his name indicates, Triumph's comedic style is almost exclusively insult comedy. A Montenegrin Mountain Hound, Triumph often puffs a cigar ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waldo Moment, The
2013 British television episodes
Black Mirror episodes
Television episodes about elections
Television episodes written by Charlie Brooker