Page 1 of Topical American shows

A bit of a clunky thread title but as I now get Sky Go Extra (loyal customer blah blah as a reward blah blah) I can now download stuff to my mobile which means I watch stuff I didn't before.
I'm struck by the difference in quality between 'Real Time with Bill Maher' which is excellent and the relatively poor 'Last Week Tonight' with John Oliver.
I should really be supporting the Brit but it's frankly awful.

Just curious what anyone else's opinion is and if you want to point me to anything else.

Snaps

I started watching Real Time with Bill Maher back in 2008 when the writers' strike was ongoing and all the other shows were on hiatus for a few months. It was around the time that Barack Obama was running for his first term as president and I really got into US politics as a result.

I hardly ever watch it now, though, partly because the guests all too often break down into salty liberals vs
dumb republicans. Occasionally they have somebody interesting on, but it's becoming increasingly rare. There is very little real discourse any more.

I agree, John "It's $current_year" Oliver's show is garbage.

I think part of the problem is that the state of US politics is now so absurd as to be impossible to satirise. Poe's law in effect.

This item was edited on Friday, 18th August 2017, 16:08

John Oliver annoys me with his 'right-on' lefty attitude, which is a shame as I used to love Jon Stewart who would take the p*** out of anyone despite being left leaning.

I've seen a bit of Maher and he doesn't seem afraid of going against type.

As more of a centrist, I'd rather satirical shows just took the mick out of everyone rather than blatantly showing their political bias.

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

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As Gareth mentioned, US politics is really weird right now. Even if a satirist aims left, he'll wind up hitting the broad side of a barn that is Trump by default. 

What's the guy who replaced Jon Stewart like?

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Jitendar Canth

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Isn't Jon Stewart's replacement Trevor Noah? Don't know much about him, saw him on an episode of QI.

Nowhere near as good, stopped watching it after a while - never got any better...

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

http://synth.myreviewer.com

Quote:
Si Wooldridge says...
"As more of a centrist, I'd rather satirical shows just took the mick out of everyone rather than blatantly showing their political bias."
I thought you were more right of centre. :)

America is a very right wing country, where even the supposedly left wing party mostly supports things like the death penalty, the right to shoot people (er I mean own a gun) and corporate greed. Democrats are only the left wing in comparison to the Republicans.

Things like the Daily Show come across as heavily political because that's the context of their media in general. It's a reaction to Fox News basically.


Quote:
Gareth Williams says...
"I think part of the problem is that the state of US politics is now so absurd as to be impossible to satirise."
It is a bit strange when you have a president that is even too much of a right wing power crazed lunatic for his own party, who can't even bring himself to criticise a white supremacist march because that's his core voting base.

When a president who was basically a puppet for an arms dealer turns around and says, dude, seriously, even I think you might have gone too far, what's left for satire to do?

EDIT: Further thoughts on this... The Daily Show came heavily from the G. W. Bush era where the president actually had a large amount of support and approval, although he did become unpopular during his second term.

I think a lot of the shows appeal was for many, Bush was an idiot in sheeps clothing, and this was the liberal's way of jumping up and down and pointing and saying, "can you not see what this man is???"

But Trump is already has the lowest rating in Gallup's history of polling for a first term, he will have to become a completely different person to not become the most unpopular president of all time, before his term is over.

And he's so openly nasty, there isn't really much for satire to uncover and be clever about.


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This item was edited on Friday, 18th August 2017, 21:34

Quote:
Rob Shepherd says...
"I thought you were more right of centre. :)"
Yes, that's still centre...I don't have a white hood yet...always identified with Democrats than Republicans as far as US politics is concerned, but they've all been pretty useless for the last couple of decades...

I understand the concept of The Daily Show, it was a must watch when Jon Stewart hosted it, just don't like Trevor Noah as much.  Maybe it's the material but the tone seems much more harsh than it used to be with Stewart.  Stewart could be hard hitting, but there's just something about Noah's delivery I don't like - and that was even before Trump...

You may have forgotten that I reviewed this once upon a blue moon:

https://www.myreviewer.com/DVD/66884/Outfoxed-UK/66904/Review-by-Si-Wooldridge

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

http://synth.myreviewer.com

This item was edited on Friday, 18th August 2017, 23:21

Quote:
Si Wooldridge says...
"it was a must watch when Jon Stewart hosted it, just don't like Trevor Noah as much"
I didn't take to him either. :/


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Yes, I did read your view of John Oliver, but I still think this is worth a view.....

This item was edited on Tuesday, 22nd August 2017, 11:57