Thoughts on "The Waldo Moment".

“The Waldo Moment”, was most likely a statement about how the media can influence how we think and act. It starts off by showing us the controller Jamie who is a former comedian and now controls a CGI bear that he voices for on a comedy TV show similar to “10’O Clock Live”. He is also shown to be supposedly suffering from mild depression. After an “interview” with a Tory MP who was involved in a sexting scandal, one of the shows heads decides to enter Waldo into the race as a publicity stunt. As this goes on, he gets to know the Labor candidate in the race and has a one-night stand. During this date he learns that this is mostly just a publicity stunt for her elsewhere. When the time comes for a debate with the other candidates, Monroe manages to make him feel insecure about himself and he then goes on a rant about all of the candidates, including the Labor one, on how they are more artificial than him. With this he become a big phenomenon, and gains actual traction. He eventually decides to stop, but the studio takes over from him. It ends with Waldo losing and Monroe getting the position. Jamie leaves and goes off without a job. It is later revealed in a post credits sequence that Waldo has become a form of control in the future and the world has become a dystopia.

       The overall point of this is the power that media can have over our lives, especially how we think. A TV host or program that a large amount of people watch could wield influence in society if they are allowed. Some people have said that this is how Donald Trump was able to do so well in the election, due to his past experience as a TV host. It also touches on the dissatisfaction of people in current politics. A large amount of voters in the end put their votes to a man behind a cartoon character instead of politicians. Even though he had no prior experience compared to the career politicians, a large amount of people considered him a legitimate candidate, or another interpretation was that he was illegitimate, but the other people and system was illegitimate as well. In the end, we should consider how we let TV and the media influence how we think and act, and also how we view politics and vote.