Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Well first of all, I have always liked John Oliver. He is yet another talented comedian in a line of many others bred at the talent breeding grounds known as the Daily Show. For people who don't know, Oliver lured away the talented Tim Carvell, former head writer for the daily show, away from Jon Stewart. This was clearly a brilliant move and Stewart was nice enough to part with Carvell. Now that both Oliver and Carvell have a show on HBO with pretty much unlimited creative freedom, they are tackling the most important issues with a fearless tenacity that most comedians/hosts/shows can't afford to have. The reporting is concise and brilliantly edited, the delivery is sharp and witty, and the fact that the show is only 30 minutes long is long enough to hold most people's attention. Good job HBO on creating this gem!

The first few weeks of Last Week Tonight, it was pretty much The Daily Show on HBO. Which was fine; it was funny and smart and you can never get too much of that.

But then the show began to find itself, dropping the interviews and devoting itself primarily to long pieces that are funny and insightful and often represent the best commentary on a particular subject, like their take on Ferguson and the militarization of the police, which was brilliant both as comedy and as advocacy.

I'm not sure how much good the advocacy does - the audience for this show probably goes in agreeing with Oliver - but it's nice to see something both so smart and so entertaining.

No great offense meant to U.S TV, but most of its shows with hosts trying to make some fun of the recent affairs, politicians and all that jazz are usually crappy and saved by the "bring a funny and/or weird celebrity" bell. Of course, "The Colbert Report" and a few bits of the "Daily Show" are exceptions, but overall one must admit that even these don't really dwell too long in deep waters (meaning grave issues of major concern) like "Last Week Tonight" does.

A couple of examples of serious satire from the first episodes are the death penalty, the hypocritical stance of politicians towards people like the Sultan of Brunei or even the fun'n'serious interview of the ex-chief of the NSA. The fact alone that such significant and highly debatable subjects are discussed is a huge win for the show. The end result airing on HBO, comes as no surprise to me. Their only commitment I have seen so far show-wise, is quality and creativity, two traits this show seems to possess.

I am taken in by the first three episodes and honestly believe that this show has the potential to stimulate the brain and instigate belly-aching laughs at the same time. Hopefully, the creators will not take steps back, when possible pressure to "lighten" their material may arise - if and when a lot of people start watching the show.

{Quick note to those who may feel offended by the approach John Oliver has on the ignorance of some people from the States, when it comes to the rest of the world: If you know your way around a world map and have an idea of what is happening elsewhere in this vast place called Earth, lay back and enjoy the sarcasm. If you can't do that, take the bitter pill.}

John Oliver's show is one in which he intersperses current events with comedy. And to keep your audience laughing while looking at such events today is quite a feat. I've only been familiar with Oliver and his show since March of 2016, so I didn't know about the kerfuffle raised when he was not picked to host The Daily Show after Jon Stewart left. However, I think things turned out for the best because John in a weekly show where he gets to go deeper on issues is probably more useful and funnier than John only getting a monologue and a few one liners in on a nightly show.

John rarely has guests of any kind, so he has to be imaginative in his main segment or he risks getting preachy, which usually just consists of John talking to the audience with clips to illustrate the point he is making.

Oliver always maintains a sense of humor even when he is discussing some of the more heinous institutions of American life such as the concept of medical debt and medical debt collections. He doesn't sport a condescending smile but rather a "isn't it ridiculous that we do things this way" smile. He is quite unpretentious, describing himself as a "rat faced Brit" and his show as "a petting zoo with a desk".

Since I only started watching the show since 2016, John has been blessed with having Donald J. Trump as an unfortunate wealth of comic material. So far in the 15-18 months I have been watching the show, John has highlighted some really oddball third party presidential candidates in 2016, and in the most recent season he transformed his desk into a French Bistro to explain to the French people in their own tongue - while smoking! - why they should not vote for far right wing candidate Marine Le Pen, given a new train set to a local news show in Scranton - John is somewhat obsessed with local US news programs, and traveled to Pennsylvania to buy five wax figures of presidents from a presidential wax museum that was closing, one of them being Warren G. Harding. He then proceeded to show a trailer of a movie entitled "Harding" that could be made if one had access to a wax figure of the president, which his show did. It was actually the only trailer I've seen in the past two years that made me want to buy a movie ticket - and the film doesn't even exist!

Highly recommended if you want to see some horrifying things about American political and economic trends that you will definitely not see on the 24 hour news cycle, and get some creative laughs to somewhat counteract that horror. Highly recommended.

John Oliver uses his biting humour to bring light to important issues and events. His style involves a lot of mockery and rude jokes that alienated me a bit, but overall his incisiveness led me to want more.