Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Daniel Rigby, Chloe Pirrie, Jason Flemyng, Christina Chong, Pip Torrens, David Ajala, Amber Anderson, Kenneth Collard, Ed Gaughan, Tobias Menzies, Abigail Thaw.
Be careful what you wish for, it’s been an underlying theme for Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series. Whether it has been Hayley Atwell desiring to have one last moment with her husband who has been killed or the nightmarish and positively dystopian longing of perpetual retribution and televised public backlash for a heinous crime, the future has been a possibility; and decidedly and chillingly achievable.
In The Waldo Moment, the nightmare is not just achievable, it is a moment that could be frighteningly and surreal nearby as people become more and more disenfranchised with the way that their lives are turning out. It is perhaps the more terrifying scenarios that Charlie Brooker has devised for the second series of Black Mirror, a world in which a comic character, a piece of animation starts to make an impact so much within popular culture that the next logical step is to put it forward as by-election candidate. The moment comes and then just as fleetingly the control is snatched away, the cartoon becomes all. It wouldn’t be the first time that a country in the world has elected a joke to high office but in this dystopian world it has a graphic and disturbing end that is quite sickening and brutal.
The Waldo Moment sees some great acting talent make effective use of Charlie Brooker’s script, especially from Daniel Rigby who showed there is so much more to his acting ability than playing a stooge in certain commercials, Chloe Pirrie as the career politician, Christina Chong as the marvellous woman behind the scenes of the cartoon blue bear with stinging retorts and a fabulous turn by Jason Flemyng as the man who ultimately controls it all. A great cast given their all for the final and worthy episode and although it didn’t quite match up to the intensity and appeal of the first two stories, it was more disturbing and had the ring of horrible truth to it that sends chills up the spine.
Dystopia it seems; is never that far away.
Ian D.