Main News Stories About 'Black Mirror':

• Robert Downey Jr to make Black Mirror movie (11/02/13)
• Channel 4 confirms Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror Series 2 (12/07/12)
• Charlie Brooker writes new satirical drama series (11/05/11)

Charlie Brooker: there are scripts for Series 3

Charlie Brooker says he has "ideas" for another run of Black Mirror if the show is recommissioned.

The Radio Times, 20th March 2013

Charlie Brooker has been kind to me in print, so I must be careful not to be too kind about him, lest people suspect that I am dishing out a quid pro quo. On the downside, his weekly show behind a desk (Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe, BBC Two) sometimes makes it look as though he wants to eat the desk in his anger at the world.

But his larger dramatic creations reveal a Swiftian intelligence that is quite unusual when translated into an updated, high tech, electronic (squrrk!) field. There is quite a lot of squrrk! in Black Mirror. He wants you to know that your attention is being zapped into lightning trips from one field of reality to another.

The main reality in the latest show seemed to be that a helpless young woman was on the run from dozens of zombie-type vigilantes: shades of A Clockwork Orange, Assault on Precinct 13, etc.

But (squrrk!) not so fast. Towards the end it turns out that she is really the victim of a deadly game. With her wiped brain - Brooker is fond of the idea of the human mind being annihilated by television - she is being made to experience the suffering she caused when she tortured a child. But did she? Are the organizers of the game (see, as Brooker undoubtedly has, The Game, with Michael Douglas) normal people like us, at last getting the chance to inflict a just punishment that the psycho criminal will actually feel? Or what?

Doubts remain as the soundtrack says squrrk! Brooker used to be a companion at arms for Chris Morris but it is starting to look as if he, Brooker, has a scope all his own, and more powerful for being less parodic. He doesn't just make fun of television, which even I can do. He can see the fractures in life itself, as Swift could. On top of that he has the great virtue of having seen everything and yet not being derivative. His desk-eating savagery is too heartfelt for that.

Clive James, The Daily Mirror, 7th March 2013

TV Review: Black Mirror

Essentially, the second series lacked the key ingredients of the first: freshness and surprise.

Shouting At Cows Blog, 5th March 2013

Strong lead performances (Hayley Atweel, Lenora Crichlow and Daniel Rigby) have made the most of the nightmartish, almost ludicrous set-ups in Charlie Brooker's latest blast of three dystopian futures. Rigby is in perhaps the best of them, as a comedian who voices a rude satirical cartoon bear that ends up standing in a by-election.

Jack Seale, The Radio Times, 2nd March 2013

Black Mirror: 2.03 - The Waldo Moment

It seems like Black Mirror Series 2 had barely started, yet it's already over. Never shall we see its like again, at least until the inevitable third run.

Written by Nick Bryan. The Digital Fix, 28th February 2013

Black Mirror - 'The Waldo Moment'

As much as the episode wanted us to believe Waldo was a hugely popular figure, the story also didn't sell that very well.

Written by Dan Owen. Dan's Media Digest, 26th February 2013

Black Mirror series 2 episode 3 review

With its message so prominently in place by the midpoint, The Waldo Moment leaves little else for us to discover; protagonist Jamie is powerless to stop the media juggernaut he's set in motion, and with her brief career in tatters, Gwendolyn eventually shuffles out of the narrative with nothing more to do.

Written by Ryan Lambie. Den of Geek, 26th February 2013

Black Mirror saw Charlie Brooker nail the zeitgeist

This was no simple swipe at the state of modern politics. 'I wasn't even articulate - or funny. Which is almost worse,' lamented lugubrious comedian Jamie, Waldo's voice and puppet-master.

Written by Keith Watson. Metro, 26th February 2013

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror (Channel 4) satirical dramas are fast gaining a cult status. Not all succeed, and some are unwatchable, notably the opener of his first series, where the prime minister had sex with a pig. But this follow-up series has, generally, shown more nuance than the first.

Last night's closing instalment introduced us to an interactive cartoon bear, Waldo, who, in the manner of Ali G, did interviews with real-life people. He tangled with an almost equally caricatured Tory party candidate (Tobias Menzies), whom Waldo proceeded to stand against in a by-election. As a mockery of the deeply compromised ideals of modern politics - people who simply hated politics could now vote for Waldo - the satire worked.

This was because Brooker didn't over egg it, at least not until the end, which descended into a hammy dystopian vision of Waldo becoming a means of universal mind control. But before that final five minutes, Brooker didn't let Waldo actually win the by-election, and he made the comedian controlling the bear utterly reviled by his own actions - "He's not real! He doesn't stand for anything!" He also gave the Tory one rather good line: "If that thing is the main opposition then the whole system looks absurd. Which it may well be - but it built these roads." The message that we may complain about our politicians but they're all we've got scored a bleak bulls-eye.

Serena Davies, The Telegraph, 26th February 2013

Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment, Channel 4

Second run of Charlie Brooker's dystopian drama gets our vote.

Written by Lisa-Marie Ferla. The Arts Desk, 26th February 2013

#BlackMirror: Your reviews of The Waldo Moment

There was general Twitter apathy for episode three, series two of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror. Fans tweeted messages of disappointment that "The Waldo Moment" didn't live up to the first two episodes of the second series, and criticised the "clumsy and obvious" satire.

Written by Daisy Wyatt. The Independent, 26th February 2013

In the last of his Black Mirror series, Charlie Brooker pulled off another unexpected turn, setting us up for a crass "all politicians are con artists" satire but leaving you thinking a little harder about the consequences of such blanket cynicism. The storyline featured a melancholy television comic, trapped in the career cul-de-sac of providing the voice for a scabrous animated bear, who conducts Ali G-style interviews with unsuspecting politicians. When his producer decides he should stand in a by-election, he's horrified to discover that the electorate find him more interesting than the issues - his feelings further complicated by the fact that he's fallen for the Labour candidate. Like last week's drama, it felt a little rough around the edges here and there. But I wish we had more roughness like it.

Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent, 26th February 2013

Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment, Channel 4, review

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror (Channel 4) satirical dramas are fast gaining a cult status. Not all succeed, and some are unwatchable, notably the opener of his first series, where the prime minister had sex with a pig. But this follow-up series has, generally, shown more nuance than the first.

Written by Serena Davies. The Daily Telegraph, 25th February 2013

Black Mirror: 'The Waldo Moment' review

It's a shame that Black Mirror had to end on such a grey note, but overall the series managed to produce some stunning observations conjured up through eerily plausible alternate realities and hopefully will have done enough to pave the way for a third series.

Written by Lee Robson. Cult Box, 25th February 2013

The last of Charlie Brooker's dystopian dramas is the sharpest and lightest on its feet. It's also the most nakedly political. Daniel Rigby plays a depressed comedian, Jamie, who has found success on TV as the voice of Waldo, a foul-mouthed cartoon bear. Waldo's slot taking the mickey out of politicians on a weekly satire show is so popular that his media masters dream up a new stunt: Waldo will stand at a real by-election! (The producer figure, played by Jason Flemyng, who approves this idea is a priceless media twonk of the kind Brooker has been satirising since Nathan Barley.)

But things get complicated in the course of the by-election and the drama evolves into a story of why reviling politicians gets us nowhere. The system may be rotten but, as one character observes, "It built these roads."

David Butcher, Radio Times, 25th February 2013

Could it happen? A cartoon bear mocking politicians

The finale from Charlie Brooker's Channel 4 series could spark a new line in insults.

Written by Jane Simon. The Daily Mirror, 25th February 2013

Would anybody really vote for a TV cartoon character in a by-election? As imagined in the final, chillingly plausible satire in Charlie Brooker's technocentric trilogy, the worrying answer is, quite possibly, yes.

After ill-advised tweets lead to the downfall of a regional politician, there's a void to be filled. In the absence of any candidates the voters can believe in, TV PR spin fans social media into a frenzy, catapulting Waldo - a foul-mouthed animated bear - into the political arena.

Daniel Rigby (Eric Morecambe in BBC2's excellent Eric & Ernie) stars as the disillusioned comedian whose voice and movements animate the bitter Waldo.

Carol Carter and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro, 25th February 2013

There seems to be a bit of a Charlie Brooker backlash at the moment, as the former poacher of irreverent TV criticism turns gamekeeper of satirical TV drama. Tonight's series finale of Black Mirror, however, plays to his surprising covert strength - writing a deeply twisted romance. Jamie, the voice of an Ali G-style cartoon bear called Waldo, is put in a tricky situation when Waldo turns on his would-be new girlfriend in a Network-style meltdown. Good stuff, but Brooker is probably still funnier mocking media "players" than political expediency.

John Robinson, The Guardian, 25th February 2013

Sarah Millican: Black Mirror stays with you

I knew that episode one of series two of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror was going to be creepy because I watched the trailer and "ooh"-ed and clapped.

Written by Sarah Millican. The Radio Times, 25th February 2013

When failed comedian Jamie Salter (Daniel Rigby) channels his personal and professional frustrations through Waldo, the aforementioned bear he voices, and unleashes his contempt on an unsuspecting politician (Tobias Menzies), he unwittingly captures the prevailing mood of public disaffection. With a by-election approaching and his backers keen to secure a series for Waldo, the stars are aligned for a paradigm shift in electoral politics.

The most successful instalments of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror have taken latent concerns about techonology and society, infused them real dread and then sent them spinning off in entirely unexpected directions. But The Waldo Project, which closes this second series, springs no such surprises: the execution of the concept is strangely simplistic and linear, while enough jokers get elected these days to make even a blue animated bear running for government barely worth a raised eyebrow.

Gabriel Tate, Time Out, 25th February 2013

Black Mirror played like twisted Tales of the Unexpecte

It's hard to known which would have been the less traumatic of the two: watching last week's Black Mirror on Channel 4 or waking up in a house on some eerily deserted, dystopian sink estate with no knowledge of who I was, where I was or how I got there.

Written by Nathan Bevan. Wales Online, 24th February 2013

Another blisteringly dark satire from Charlie Brooker, this time tackling a very serious subject: rising public disenchantment with mainstream politics. In The Waldo Moment, a lonely comedian (Daniel Rigby) is propelled into the limelight when the provocative little interactive cartoon bear he voices on TV tangles with a politician (Tobias Menzies) live on air. When the incident goes viral, the entire political process begins to look dangerously absurd. It's not a bad stab at dystopian drama, although it's not quite Orwell.

Gerard O'Donovan, The Daily Telegraph, 22nd February 2013

Video: The Making of The Waldo Moment

A look at how The Waldo Moment episode was made.

Channel 4 Press, 20th February 2013

Black Mirror - 'White Bear'

Last week's premiere "Be Right Back", while emotionally rich, didn't take its overused sci-fi concepts anywhere new. Black Mirror's second episode, "White Bear", was also a bit of a hodgepodge of ideas, although the narrative felt more gripping and propulsive. And the trump card resolution added some deliciously dark and satirical flavours that elevated the whole episode in retrospect.

Written by Dan Owen. Dan's Media Digest, 19th February 2013

Black Mirror 'White Bear' (review)

The first 45 minutes of White Bear, the second episode of Charlie Brooker's trilogy of technology-fearing dystopias, played out like a low-budget, low-quality version of 28 Days Later. It's basically the worst thing he's ever written, which, you come to realise, is the whole point.

Written by Sam Parker. The Huffington Post, 19th February 2013