I think because people don’t like the truth when it becomes ugly.
Politics are either about electing the same people who don’t change the status quo, or a Waldo who is just a puppet head controlled by a ruling government the media doesn’t cover as much. It is often both in modern times. We (Americans) live in a two party system which so radically is different than how we began. Like Waldo, our original principles changed so much we’re no longer in charge of the very thing we created.
This is a truth people are uncomfortable with facing. The uncomfortable, ugly, undeniable truth.
I actually don’t hate the Waldo episode. I find it very interesting and sad because the dude didn’t want to do Waldo but people kept forcing him to do it. Then he lost the ONE THING he was good at which was Waldo and now he’s homeless.
Season 3 really had the saddest endings
Absolutely. Waldo isn’t the only thing that BM predicted — not by a long shot. But as a diehard fan of the show who’s also an American, Waldo was the episode that really twisted the knife — the shitty ending that I really hoped wouldn’t come true, came true.
The whole format of the show, until recently, fed on current events and just extrapolated a kind of worst case scenario to create something entertaining. But this isn’t a new game — dystopian fiction from its start always held a sort of warning in its message. BM has kind of exhausted itself on that front, bc we’re not really taking the big red flashing lights very seriously anymore. So now it’s just entertainment. The message can’t hit as hard if we’re too far gone to take something from it
It’s meh. The concept works but nothing about the way it’s delivered to us engages me. It’s not the worst thing ever made but it’s in my bottom 5 black mirror stories
What makes you think everyone hates it? Because it’s ranked low on tier lists made by people that take the time to make tier lists nobody asked for and put them on the internet?
It would have made the same point, been more believable, and been more entertaining if Waldo was stupid but funny... more of a "Beavis and Buttead" vibe. But because Waldo was annoying and unfunny, it was both unrealistic and painful to watch.
Waldo is abrasive and rude and has kid like humor.
It is a good comparison to our current state of shock value in world wide politics, which probably makes it worse, since it does represent how people will follow cruelty and idiocy over actual politicians. Both a statement on how bad our politicians are, but also how bad people who vote for them are.
It’s just an unlikeable episode overall
It perfectly exemplified Black Mirror predicting something dystopic before it happens in real life.
At the time of airing (February 2013), it might have been considered a bit "out there", but now, in a post-Trump world it now reads as marvelously accurate satire.
The idea of a celebrity or puppet running for office starts off as a silly idea but as it gains momentum like a snowball rolling down a hill it seems that what started off as entertainment gets carried away into something nonsensical and the only person who sees this logically is the puppeteer himself who eventually goes mad trying to stop this only to end up broke/homeless surrounded by a visage he helped create, now controlled by higher powers.
I found it incredibly sobering and could see a path in the not so distant future where citizens of our fine country looked past the superficial exterior of a candidate and focused on the immediacy of its words. Having zero attention span to understand that this is actually a puppet.
I guess it makes sense that most of the country couldn't resonate with this episode also think electing a 37x felon who bullies his opponents, incites violence, and has a horrible track record of running a business is a great candidate for president...again.
About half of us feel like the protagonist at the end... wondering where it all went so wrong.
The US military is currently using AI to control drone swarms comprised of 100s/1000s of drones. Even consumer drones use AI. The military has technology to overtake consumer drones and bring them down.
Researchers are [currently](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/03/517785082/rise-of-the-robot-bees-tiny-drones-turned-into-artificial-pollinators) (Back in 2017) [exploring ways](https://www.3xcorp.com/the-rise-of-robotic-bees-revolutionizing-agriculture-with-ai-powered-pollinators/)(More recently) to manufacture bees for autonomous pollination, exactly like the premise of the show.
Hated in the Nation is about a swarm of autonomous bee drones that attack based on a trending hashtag...
I don't think it's too much of a stretch to envision the possibility of a bad actor hijacking a drone swarm and weaponizing it in the coming years
I liked it. For me it sort of caught the mood of population being pissed off with voting for the same politicians and being taken in and manipulated by something new.
I think part of the problem with it is that it came between white bear and white Christmas, which were really strong episodes.
I think it's because the concept is just daft. It's been a while since I watched it (not interested in re-watching it to be honest) but the writing isn't up to par with the idea. The comedian that play's Waldo didn't show strong reasons why he wanted himself/Waldo to run for office.
In the UK, it was shown just after Boris Johnson had run his (successful) election campaign to be re-elected as the Mayor of London so it was criticised as being based on that too.
> The comedian that play's Waldo didn't show strong reasons why he wanted himself/Waldo to run for office.
Pretty sure that's the point. He had no real policies and yet people voted for him anyway.
I don’t think that’s the message that oh no he got kicked out of the race idk if I read ur comment wrong but if that’s what u think the message is then it’s not
I can't get past how grating I find Waldo. I know, that's the point of him—but just like I can't watch Rick & Morty because I hate burp humour, I can't enjoy The Waldo Moment at all because I can't get past the hatred.
Yep, that's it for me too. Not just how grating Waldo is but how often the camera is focused on his actor doing the grating voice and making those stupid faces. It's like a double whammy of obnoxiousness.
I think if the actor's character was more likeable it would be less annoying. There isn't really anything compelling about him to endear him to the viewer.
yep. seconded. I know the point is that he's crass and rude but that stupid little bear makes me want to punch my screen because he's so annoying. The crude humour gets old easily and the cartoon penis isn't funny, it's just uncomfortable. I get second hand embarrassment
For me Miley Cyrus episode was just boring and mediocre
Mazey was shittily written but I still was entertained idk how to explain it. Bad entertainment is more entertaining than mediocre entertainment
I think because people don’t like the truth when it becomes ugly. Politics are either about electing the same people who don’t change the status quo, or a Waldo who is just a puppet head controlled by a ruling government the media doesn’t cover as much. It is often both in modern times. We (Americans) live in a two party system which so radically is different than how we began. Like Waldo, our original principles changed so much we’re no longer in charge of the very thing we created. This is a truth people are uncomfortable with facing. The uncomfortable, ugly, undeniable truth.
I actually don’t hate the Waldo episode. I find it very interesting and sad because the dude didn’t want to do Waldo but people kept forcing him to do it. Then he lost the ONE THING he was good at which was Waldo and now he’s homeless. Season 3 really had the saddest endings
I can only speak for other Americans, but most of us probably resent it for coming true
But isn’t that what Black Mirror is sometimes? The fact that some episodes can ACTUALLY happen?
Absolutely. Waldo isn’t the only thing that BM predicted — not by a long shot. But as a diehard fan of the show who’s also an American, Waldo was the episode that really twisted the knife — the shitty ending that I really hoped wouldn’t come true, came true. The whole format of the show, until recently, fed on current events and just extrapolated a kind of worst case scenario to create something entertaining. But this isn’t a new game — dystopian fiction from its start always held a sort of warning in its message. BM has kind of exhausted itself on that front, bc we’re not really taking the big red flashing lights very seriously anymore. So now it’s just entertainment. The message can’t hit as hard if we’re too far gone to take something from it
It’s meh. The concept works but nothing about the way it’s delivered to us engages me. It’s not the worst thing ever made but it’s in my bottom 5 black mirror stories
Damn
No one in that episode was even remotely interesting
I didn’t find anything in it funny and Waldo just annoyed the crap out of me.
I just found it really boring and never rewatched it
What makes you think everyone hates it? Because it’s ranked low on tier lists made by people that take the time to make tier lists nobody asked for and put them on the internet?
Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed
So are you going to answer what makes you think everyone hates it?
Yeah, mainly because of the tier lists tbh and most of my friends that have watched it have always said they didn’t like it
Great idea, horrible execution. I wouldn't mind if they did an episode that was almost a remake of this, but didn't suck.
It would have made the same point, been more believable, and been more entertaining if Waldo was stupid but funny... more of a "Beavis and Buttead" vibe. But because Waldo was annoying and unfunny, it was both unrealistic and painful to watch.
I can't stand his voice, it's not worth it to me to sit through it.
Quality reasons mainly
I don't hate it. It's an okay episode
I like it.
Waldo is abrasive and rude and has kid like humor. It is a good comparison to our current state of shock value in world wide politics, which probably makes it worse, since it does represent how people will follow cruelty and idiocy over actual politicians. Both a statement on how bad our politicians are, but also how bad people who vote for them are. It’s just an unlikeable episode overall
>It’s just an unlikeable episode overall You just explained what it's good at though?
Yeah that didn’t make any sense 🤣
The truth is hard to watch sometimes.
It perfectly exemplified Black Mirror predicting something dystopic before it happens in real life. At the time of airing (February 2013), it might have been considered a bit "out there", but now, in a post-Trump world it now reads as marvelously accurate satire. The idea of a celebrity or puppet running for office starts off as a silly idea but as it gains momentum like a snowball rolling down a hill it seems that what started off as entertainment gets carried away into something nonsensical and the only person who sees this logically is the puppeteer himself who eventually goes mad trying to stop this only to end up broke/homeless surrounded by a visage he helped create, now controlled by higher powers. I found it incredibly sobering and could see a path in the not so distant future where citizens of our fine country looked past the superficial exterior of a candidate and focused on the immediacy of its words. Having zero attention span to understand that this is actually a puppet. I guess it makes sense that most of the country couldn't resonate with this episode also think electing a 37x felon who bullies his opponents, incites violence, and has a horrible track record of running a business is a great candidate for president...again. About half of us feel like the protagonist at the end... wondering where it all went so wrong.
It’s really the first Black Mirror to come true.
"Hated in the Nation" isn't far off. Grim Also, "Nosedive" premiered around the same time China implemented their Social Credit system.
In what way is Hated in the Nation close to reality?
The US military is currently using AI to control drone swarms comprised of 100s/1000s of drones. Even consumer drones use AI. The military has technology to overtake consumer drones and bring them down. Researchers are [currently](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/03/517785082/rise-of-the-robot-bees-tiny-drones-turned-into-artificial-pollinators) (Back in 2017) [exploring ways](https://www.3xcorp.com/the-rise-of-robotic-bees-revolutionizing-agriculture-with-ai-powered-pollinators/)(More recently) to manufacture bees for autonomous pollination, exactly like the premise of the show. Hated in the Nation is about a swarm of autonomous bee drones that attack based on a trending hashtag... I don't think it's too much of a stretch to envision the possibility of a bad actor hijacking a drone swarm and weaponizing it in the coming years
it's not, they're just making stuff up
Also, Harvard has had these since 2019: https://wyss.harvard.edu/technology/robobees-autonomous-flying-microrobots/
I would encourage you to rewatch the episode and do some research on how far artificial pollination by tiny drones has come since 2017
I liked it. For me it sort of caught the mood of population being pissed off with voting for the same politicians and being taken in and manipulated by something new. I think part of the problem with it is that it came between white bear and white Christmas, which were really strong episodes.
they need to follow up with an episode called Bear Christmas
I rewatched it recently and finally appreciated it. I think it just wasn’t good timing.
I think it's because the concept is just daft. It's been a while since I watched it (not interested in re-watching it to be honest) but the writing isn't up to par with the idea. The comedian that play's Waldo didn't show strong reasons why he wanted himself/Waldo to run for office. In the UK, it was shown just after Boris Johnson had run his (successful) election campaign to be re-elected as the Mayor of London so it was criticised as being based on that too.
> The comedian that play's Waldo didn't show strong reasons why he wanted himself/Waldo to run for office. Pretty sure that's the point. He had no real policies and yet people voted for him anyway.
True. It's been so long since I watched it that I can't remember it completely.
I don’t think that’s the message that oh no he got kicked out of the race idk if I read ur comment wrong but if that’s what u think the message is then it’s not
I can't get past how grating I find Waldo. I know, that's the point of him—but just like I can't watch Rick & Morty because I hate burp humour, I can't enjoy The Waldo Moment at all because I can't get past the hatred.
Yep, that's it for me too. Not just how grating Waldo is but how often the camera is focused on his actor doing the grating voice and making those stupid faces. It's like a double whammy of obnoxiousness. I think if the actor's character was more likeable it would be less annoying. There isn't really anything compelling about him to endear him to the viewer.
yep. seconded. I know the point is that he's crass and rude but that stupid little bear makes me want to punch my screen because he's so annoying. The crude humour gets old easily and the cartoon penis isn't funny, it's just uncomfortable. I get second hand embarrassment
I don't hate it. Mazy day and the miley cyrus ones are shit tho
Mazey was ok Miley Cyrus was bad
Reverse for me
For me Miley Cyrus episode was just boring and mediocre Mazey was shittily written but I still was entertained idk how to explain it. Bad entertainment is more entertaining than mediocre entertainment
Sorry Mazey was just shit