As I
mentioned in my review of the revamped Daily
Show, YouTube clips of John Oliver were my gateway drug back into news
media satire shows. Before I sat down to
watch an episode of Last Week Tonight
in full, I’d wiled away quite a bit of time watching clip after clip of
Oliver’s feature stories. Still, I
figured I’d better at least get an actual episode or two under my belt before I
gave Oliver’s show its own review. So, I
watched the recent season finale (the program’s third season will be premiering
in February) and have slowly started catching up on other episodes from this
year. Initial verdict? Big thumbs up!
It’s
interesting how these shows that were born out of Daily Show talent are reminiscent of the original, but each has a
unique flavor. The Daily Show, under both John Stewart and Trevor Noah, the
now-retired Colbert Report, and Last Week Tonight (I haven’t seen The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore) all
have the same basic format of skewering news media through shrewd commentary
and sly pop culture references, lambasting anyone who deserves it but having a
generally left-leaning bent. Noah’s Daily Show has many of the same
trappings as Stewart’s version – a combination of news-desk commentary,
pre-taped stories, two-hander back-and-forths with correspondents, and nightly
guests – but Noah’s voice is already being felt, with a stronger emphasis on
looking at America through a newcomer’s eyes, increased impressions/accent
work, and greater attention paid to issues of race. The
Colbert Report was astoundingly dedicated in its parody, with Colbert
committing 100% to the bullheaded portrayal of his Bill O’Reilly-esque
character and using it to shine a spotlight on hypocritical posturing and
harmful fearmongering.
So
what’s John Oliver’s thing? In a word,
I’d say it’s “passion,” and in six words, I’d say it’s “passion and an
inexhaustible work ethic.” Since his
show is only on once a week, he can’t keep up with ongoing news the way that
something like The Daily Show can, so
while he opens his episodes with a bit of a general news round-up, the big draw
is always his main story of the evening.
These are in-depth looks at one particular issue (from the state of sex education in America to the extreme challenges/prejudices facing Syrian refugees to the deplorable condition of the U.S. mental health system;) each
one is a good 10-20 minutes in length, delivered with anything from impassioned
fervor to righteous indignation, and backed by a mountain of
fastidiously-thorough research. The
statistics are both fast-flying and staggering, highlighting lies, cover-ups, loopholes,
inequalities, misperceptions, and bald-faced ignorance with astonishing exactness.
The
lengths Oliver and his team go to for these stories can be pretty
remarkable. On air, Oliver has waded
through the immense sea of paperwork, out-of-pocket expenses, and red-tape BS
it takes for an Arabic translator to make it to safety in the U.S. He’s made a herculean effort to make sense of
the numbers the Miss America Foundation claims it gives out annually in scholarships,
trying to figure out how he can possibly get all the drops to add up to the
full bucket they insist is there. He’s
shared the fruits of his months-long correspondence with an opportunistic
televangelist, airing all the balls-to-the-wall crazy letters he got filled with entreaties for money and guilt
trips fueled by appropriated religious beliefs.
I enjoyed John Oliver back when he was on The Daily Show, but he’s really come into his own here.
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