The Wunderkind
- Episode aired Apr 25, 2019
- TV-MA
- 40m
IMDb RATING
5.2/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
A down-and-out campaign manager gets a kid elected President of the United States.A down-and-out campaign manager gets a kid elected President of the United States.A down-and-out campaign manager gets a kid elected President of the United States.
Elizabeth McCarthy Meek
- Woman in Bar
- (as Elizabeth McCarthy)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOliver Foley's mother Helen Foley is named after Rod Serling's favourite teacher. She previously served as the namesake of the protagonists of both Nightmare as a Child (1960) and the Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) segment "It's a Good Life".
- GoofsRaff proclaims that they've done it, Maura replies that "no one has counted any votes, yet" but the television news says that the polls are too close to predict, meaning that someone has counted votes.
- Quotes
[closing narration]
Narrator: Society is a fragile ecosystem. Razzle and dazzle people with the right lies and eventually they'll go blind to the madness right in front of their faces. Raff Hanks made a living selling the American dream. But, once sold, he created a true nightmare that he couldn't buy back. Especially not here... in the Twilight Zone.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Twilight Zone: Blurryman (2019)
Featured review
Genius Bar
This was a bit more like it. Back to a parable style story after last weeks . . . whatever that was, but with a twist in the tale, this was the best episode of the run so far (although admittedly that's not saying much).
Following a failed Presidential re-election attempt, disgraced Campaign manager, Raff Hanks (John Cho) spies a way back to relevance by facilitating the run for office of 11 year old Oliver Foley (Jacob Tremblay). Despite Oliver's lack of experience, knowledge, and his childish temperament, he speaks to the public and pulls off an unlikely win. Now Oliver is the most powerful person in the US - only Hank's seems capable of seeing that it's not a good idea to have a child making the decisions - but his decision to speak up is not popular.
So, to be fair the true life parallel of this story isn't particularly difficult to ascertain. If, for some reason it's passed you by, the long red tie at Oliver's inauguration should be a giveaway. The issue I'd have is that I'm not sure the episode goes far enough away from reality to be a parody. I write this review as the actual President tweets about his ratings whilst his electorate are dying from the coronavirus. But the parallels, hiring the best people, refusing to submit to a medical, cheating at golf are all there.
The performances are pretty good, aside from Cho and Tremblay - you have Alison Tolman in the mix too, as a colleague of Hanks who works on both campaigns. It's a step up all round but it's still a long way from touching something like "Black Mirror" at the moment.
Following a failed Presidential re-election attempt, disgraced Campaign manager, Raff Hanks (John Cho) spies a way back to relevance by facilitating the run for office of 11 year old Oliver Foley (Jacob Tremblay). Despite Oliver's lack of experience, knowledge, and his childish temperament, he speaks to the public and pulls off an unlikely win. Now Oliver is the most powerful person in the US - only Hank's seems capable of seeing that it's not a good idea to have a child making the decisions - but his decision to speak up is not popular.
So, to be fair the true life parallel of this story isn't particularly difficult to ascertain. If, for some reason it's passed you by, the long red tie at Oliver's inauguration should be a giveaway. The issue I'd have is that I'm not sure the episode goes far enough away from reality to be a parody. I write this review as the actual President tweets about his ratings whilst his electorate are dying from the coronavirus. But the parallels, hiring the best people, refusing to submit to a medical, cheating at golf are all there.
The performances are pretty good, aside from Cho and Tremblay - you have Alison Tolman in the mix too, as a colleague of Hanks who works on both campaigns. It's a step up all round but it's still a long way from touching something like "Black Mirror" at the moment.
helpful•64
- southdavid
- Apr 2, 2020
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