'Last Week Tonight': John Oliver Takes On Liberal And Conservative Media In New HBO Show

While a comedic take on the news and pop culture isn’t anything new these days, John Oliver’s European view and world encompassing focus, expressed in HBO’s Last Week Tonight, is. Oliver’s international focus differentiates him from The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report’s Stephen Colbert, as does the HBO format. HBO has less FCC interference and the network airs new episodes of Last Week Tonight only once a week, allowing the show to have a more compressed, content heavy experience.

Oliver and his writers take on the media for its insubstantial lack of content, ratings drawing sensationalism and narrative fulfilling opinions disguised as truth. Every week he focuses on the fake holidays—National Ride Your Bike to Work Day, National Third Shift Workers Day, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day—that morning news shows love to kill forty-five minutes on, as well as covering stories that we’d never hear about otherwise: India’s prime minister election, Turkey’s prime minister slapping a protestor, for example—while being as vulgar and curmudgeonly as premium channels can handle.

Considering we’re only four episodes deep, certain kinks are still very apparent. In order to set itself apart from Stewart and Colbert, Oliver’s tone and tact are different, though his bits sometimes fall flat. This week’s GM/space ship bit certainly didn’t fare well but it was brief and quickly segued into a new topic. For whatever reason, the show tends to hiccup at about the twelve-minute mark, when either the bit doesn’t work or the bit works but goes on too long. Like actual hiccups it’s quick, but noticeable. Likely this can be chalked up to growing pains.

While Stewart is, after eleven years, still obsessed with Fox News, and has become more of a smug preacher than a comedian, Oliver’s jovially freaked-out recitation of what’s not being reported set against what is being reported provides us with less of a party-based narrative and more of a grenade-like attack on everyone who makes a living in front of a camera. He attacks not so much the politicians, but their mouthpieces and what is now the ‘news’ in name only.

Conservatives will enjoy Oliver’s attacks on an apology fueled outrage loving society that routinely tramples on free speech while also tackling double standards we’re not allowed to mention. Liberals will enjoy his rants on corporate greed and unabated malfeasance, global warming and gay rights. Both sides will enjoy the gallows humor that shows both Fox News and MSNBC anchors using the exact same wording to discredit each other.

By focusing on the hypocrisies that exist on both sides and utilizing a common sense system to his deconstruction of an argument, Oliver manages to appeal to everyone by attacking everyone. In truth, Last Week Tonight, if forced to be categorized, employs a Libertarian perspective that is rarely aired save for the brief and occasional coverage or when Andy Levy guest-hosts Red Eye.

The interviews tend to be a mixed bag. When they are farcical and awkward they are at their most entertaining and strangely most informative. Whereas last week’s Bill Nye debate was preachy, this week’s Fareed Zakaria had rather funny jokes that punctuated a somewhat mundane topic. The interviews could become a liability if done weekly. They take up the last ten minutes of the show and sometimes have a Kevorkianesque effect on momentum. They feel less interactive than the rest of the show, which often implements Twitter and Facebook as comedic assets to its live broadcast.

Last Week Tonight has only four episodes to its name and is still working out its kinks and finding out what bits work, what don’t, and what needs to be tweaked. Depending on how long a run the show is meant to have – if it’s going to air seasonally – Last Week Tonight will have likely found its footing in another month or two.