Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The insane level of awesome energy John Oliver feeds the viewer can almost be felt! John cuts through the bullshit and touches on real news.

There's something about this show that I really genuinely like (and I'm an Australian). Perhaps it's the way most of us would like to already live in a world that does good and makes fun of the stupid and absurd, a bit like Japan perhaps!? Well John Oliver has us covered. Each week a much needed hit of vitality and rejuvenation gets subtly unveiled, then straight up sucker punched to us.

The views on issues are sublime, as though John has been on our planet in a future time of peace, then come back to help lube us all through the hole we're already headed for, the peace hole. The energy and views on the show are just like a pick me up to make us go a tiny bit faster.

I've just watched episode 3 and that episode alone sums up the type of people, media and just the general positive peaceful way I'd like to see humanity head.

10/10 for the sole fact we need to take a look at ourselves in a mirror and thankfully John Oliver's right there, holding up the mirror for us! If you enjoyed Chasers War On Everything, Newsroom, Real Time with Bill Maher or a slew of other 'younger trend news~ish' shows, I'd say this is well worth a look!

Especially because most of those reviews, conveniently mostly post-2016, will say things like 'He used to be balanced but now it's leftist/woke/agenda-driven. I've watched every episode of this show and it's ALWAYS been left-leaning. Social justice, pro-healthcare, anti-gun... That's what the US needs to hear specifically because the US is none of those things at the moment. Don't pretend that people like John Oliver used to represent everyone equally and then suddenly went Left. That's like suggesting that Tucker Carlson used to be more Centre and then suddenly, out of nowhere, he's become Right, when he's always been Right.

In saying that, I love that he provokes conversation and forces audiences to think beyond just the acceptable alternatives. Rather than increase funding in this, why not scrap it entirely and go with that instead? Sure, some will watch it and think, "Nup, that's going too far" or "That's so un-American" or even "He's pandering to this group or that ideal", but sometimes Americans need to hear those extreme views, especially when their own leaders are happy to implement even more extreme measures (like locking up kids because of their skin colour, building a wall much like the Berlin Wall, and labelling all Mexicans as "rapists and murders...and some, I assume, are good people").

I, for one, love that John is willing to push his views so far that it'll piss many people off, because, if nothing else, it starts a conversation. Since the US has seen absolutely no major social, political or financial reform in the last 50 years, the country needs to be shoved out of its racist, elitist apathy and shaken vigorously until actual change becomes part of the conversation.

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!

John Oliver is involved in one of the most tasteful shows I have come across which is currently in production. John pulls through with a very unique flavor which leaves the viewer thinking about the show long after it is over. His insightful outlook and commentary on a wide variety of issues is well worth the half hour (plus internet content). In my opinion, John doesn't, or at least attempts not to alienate any viewership the show may achieve but the show is perhaps designed to engage those with an open mind. The humorously named "Last Week Tonight" is a lot more than cheap laughs, and then some. In the few episodes that have aired so far, John has proved, at least to me personally, that him and his staff are capable of having very sophisticated opinions on some very deep issues. Honestly, I hope I can hear a lot more from John Oliver and the writers/staff involved!

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.