How Last Week Tonight with John Oliver became the funniest show on TV

When John Oliver’s show, Last Week Tonight debuted on HBO in the summer, I was very skeptical about its success.  I had really liked all of Oliver’s previous work.  I found him a very good replacement for John Stewart on the Daily Show when Stewart had to take time off, and I love him in his recurring role on Community.  My issue wasn’t with Oliver himself, it was with the format.  Could a weekly 30 minute current events show really work in an era when The Daily Show and The Colbert report every night?  Sure HBO has had success with Politically Incorrect with Bill Mahr, but that’s a completely different beast.  Even as promo’s for Oliver’s show seemed to embrace the once a week nature of his show, I was still skeptical.  I am proud to report, after season one wrapped up this past Sunday, that I could not have been more wrong

Oliver turned the circumstances of the show into a strength.  He realized quickly that just running down news stories that he may have missed during the week was not going to work.  Instead, each episode was focused around one story, be it elections in India, or lack of interest in any country hosting the Winter Olympics, and dove deep into these subjects.  Often times, the main segment on Oliver’s show would take up more than half the episode.  By doing so, he could explore every angle of the story, instead of what was just broadly visible to the public.

By focusing so much time on one topic, it really allowed for Oliver’s humor and personality to shine through.  When he found something funny, you knew he found something funny.  When he thought something was asinine you knew that as well.  He didn’t need to fake shock or to fake disdain because these are his ACTUAL takes and feelings on these stories, with his own John Oliver twist on them.  He can make any story amusing and can also find a sense of light-heartedness to even the most dark or drab stories.  Most people really don’t care about Supreme Court sessions, but Oliver can make them care a little bit more when he reenacts the whole thing with dogs as the justices.  He can dive into a segment on the death penalty, because in the end, he will show you a video of a tiny hamster eating a tiny burrito.

To HBO’s credit, they have done a lot to aid in the success of the show.  They have let Oliver really do his own thing in regards to format and content.  They have also put basically whole episodes of the show on YouTube, something unheard of for a premium channel such as HBO.  I think they realize that Last Week Tonight is not really a show people are going to revisit on an episodic basis.  If we have learned anything, it’s the importance of clips from shows like these being posted online and going viral, and HBO has allowed for that.

Last Week Tonight will be back in February to kick off its new season.  Already there has been talk of changing some things up.  One suggestion was moving the show to one hour.  I would advise against this.  The show is so perfect the way it is, at one hour it may get diluted.  Why mess with what is now the funniest show on TV?

 

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ReviewCap: The Newsroom - Boston

     "This isn't going to be a reality show. We don't do good TV. We do the news."

The Newsroom is a show that I typically hate watch.  I know that among people who write about TV, I am in the majority.  However, many people I talk to who are just casual TV viewers really do enjoy the show and are said that it is entering its third and final season.  It’s understandable.  Often times hearing dialogue written by Aaron Sorkin is enough to block out some truly horrible aspects of shows.  Sports Night is one of my favorite television shows but upon rewatching at an older age, it is clear that many weaknesses the show had were covered up by that damn catchy writing.

And while I normally do hate watch The Newsroom, I really want it to be good.  I have a feeling this will be Sorkin’s goodbye to television, at least for quite a while, and I would love it to be a one season masterpiece to close out what has been an aggravating show.  The first episode of season 3, “Boston”, is at least a step in the right direction.  

Last we left our ACN crew, their credibility was shot to hell from Genoa and some sneaky video editing from the nefarious Hamish Linklater.  The season picks up in the aftermath of all that, on the day of the Boston Marathon bombings.  Because of the credibility issue that ACN has, they are one of the last stations that report the story of the bombings, needing 100% confirmation to avoid anymore shoddy reporting.  Not focusing on the sensationalism of the actual bombings and avoiding using that story as a manipulation of feelings is definitely a pleasant surprise.  The story leads to the revelation that ACN has fallen to the fourth ranked, a fact that has Will wanting to quit his job.  Amidst the chaos of the Boston bombings, Neil receives a note requesting his encryption key.  The person requesting it wants to send Neil some classified government documents.  Upon receiving them, Neil requests more documentation which he then receives.  Upon sharing this news, Will quickly points out that by requesting more classified documents, Neil has aided in committing a felony.  The show has always had issues with how to incorporate Neil into the ongoings of the newsroom, often regulating him to crackpot theories and coming relief.  This is a story that could be interesting and have some legs, although there is a lot of work to do to successfully resolve it, given the limited amount of episodes left in the series run.

The episode falters, as it usually does, when it comes to dealing with the women of The Newsroom and the relationships in the workplace.  Sloan and Don (who will from here on out be known as hairline) are a thing I totally forgot happened at the end of last season.  I wish Sorkin would have forgotten about it to because those 2 have absolutely zero chemistry.  Sloan is investigating a secret sale between undisclosed parties, which she later finds out is actually Reece’s step siblings trying to sell the company out from under him.  The story seems a bit ludicrous, but if it leads to some great speeches from Jane Fonda in coming episodes, sign me up.  Mac on the other hand is not given much to do, other than give Will crap and be shocked at the amount of twitter followers people have, because in the world of Sorkin, technology is hard for women.  I will say that after completely murdering the character of Maggie, she’s actually allowed to resemble a real life person for a week when she has to go on air to report a story because Elliot has an allergic reaction to walnuts.  I’m sure all that will be ruined tough by Sorkin’s blatant copying of the Jim and Pam romance on The Office, but hey, I’m trying to stay positive

All in all, this was a pretty good episode of a show I often hate.  Hopefully they can focus on the good, drop the bad, and make a decent season.  As maddening as he can be, Aaron Sorkin deserves to get out of TV on a high note.