User reviews

No great offense meant to U.S TV, but most of its shows with hosts trying to make some fun of the recent affairs, politicians and all that jazz are usually crappy and saved by the "bring a funny and/or weird celebrity" bell. Of course, "The Colbert Report" and a few bits of the "Daily Show" are exceptions, but overall one must admit that even these don't really dwell too long in deep waters (meaning grave issues of major concern) like "Last Week Tonight" does.

A couple of examples of serious satire from the first episodes are the death penalty, the hypocritical stance of politicians towards people like the Sultan of Brunei or even the fun'n'serious interview of the ex-chief of the NSA. The fact alone that such significant and highly debatable subjects are discussed is a huge win for the show. The end result airing on HBO, comes as no surprise to me. Their only commitment I have seen so far show-wise, is quality and creativity, two traits this show seems to possess.

I am taken in by the first three episodes and honestly believe that this show has the potential to stimulate the brain and instigate belly-aching laughs at the same time. Hopefully, the creators will not take steps back, when possible pressure to "lighten" their material may arise - if and when a lot of people start watching the show.

{Quick note to those who may feel offended by the approach John Oliver has on the ignorance of some people from the States, when it comes to the rest of the world: If you know your way around a world map and have an idea of what is happening elsewhere in this vast place called Earth, lay back and enjoy the sarcasm. If you can't do that, take the bitter pill.}

Loved John Oliver on Community and love him on this show. He's intelligent and sarcastic, and somehow manages to make topics that are completely horrific (e.g., the U.S. government's actions) not thoroughly depressing. I love how he will make fun of ANY political party; so many shows just spend their time panning Republicans, losing half the country as a result. Oliver must be a libertarian, because he very fairly simply makes fun of anyone who is doing something stupid, regardless of political affiliation. This is something that cannot be said of the unbearable John Stewart, or SNL, for example, but can be said of the awesome Lewis Black as well.

I also like his way of poking fun at the U.S. - it's not condescending or rude, it's just good humored teasing. The segment in which he shows the globe with countries marked as Not the U.S. is priceless.

Oliver's topics are well chosen, and his take on them is unique. I greatly hope HBO will continue this show as it's the best comedy late night hosted whatever genre you call this currently on TV.

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!

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!

After the season finale of Game of Thrones, Veep, and Silicon Valley (whichever comes last), I was going to cancel my subscription to HBO. Now comes Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and I'm in a quandary. The history of television and big belly laughs for me is a rare combination. The best sitcoms every have mostly merely amused me. Laughing out loud so hard I can't stop and I have to get online and tell my friends to add this to their watch list is more rare than a lamb chop in Hell's Kitchen. John Oliver made The Daily Show funnier. It's great to see talent like that finally get its due share of hate mail.

So now, what to do... cancel HBO and pay $1.99 per episode to watch it on Roku? Yeah, that's how frugal I can be. But can I wait 24 hours for that kind of laughter? Therein lies the quandary.

I must take a moment to thank John Oliver and his creative team. Laughter is the best medicine. You're saving the planet--perhaps the multiverse. Boredom is hell. Torture is preferable to boredom. At least torture is something. So thank Fox for 24 hours of torture. But boredom will kill you to death. I didn't know what I was going to do after Dexter ended. Being Human relieves me for a few months, then it's agony. Hannibal comes along and I'm mesmerized for a few months, then I have to wait like a pregnant woman for the next amazing moment. OK, I admit, Wednesday nights in the summer are delicious because of the people who think they can dance. But you, sir, you are the kind of jester who comes along once in the history of an empire, and where would we be without you? Perish the thought.

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!

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.

As someone utterly disillusioned by Jon Stewart's dogmatic chauvinism, I am so utterly relieved a talent as intelligent and insightful as John Oliver has been given the opportunity to have what is essentially a more educated, dialectical version of the Daily Show. Stoners reminiscing about Half Baked can keep TDS as their main source of news but at least now those of us willing to hear a different perspective on US issues and considerably more (and better) commentary on international affairs can at least have a weekly bit of entertainment. Only advice: Jon Oliver's audience is de facto more educated than TDS and we do not always need to laugh out loud to appreciate a segment, John Oliver does not need to mimic Jon Stewart's fear of silence and desperately reach out for trite laughs and non sequitur dick jokes whenever something isn't met with gut bursting laughter; America has youtube and getting high while watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force for that; sometimes being informative isn't (and does not need to be) outrageously funny.

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.

The early seasons of this show did a great job investigating topics you might not usually consider, with a fun comedic style. The later seasons seem to have turned down the comedy and turned up the political partisanship, which is a bit of a shame as the overall program is less entertaining as a result.

I remember watching this show when it first came out in 2014 learning so many new things and having cleared prior misconceptions I've had on a certain topic. And the humor was incredible then. Now, I feel you could put this on a 30-minute block for MSNBC and it would fit perfectly.

However, since about 2018/19, the show has declined in quality with regards to presentation of an issue and humor. As I've gotten older and become more knowledgeable and experienced with socio-political issues, some recent episodes on homelessness and harm reduction, you can clearly see the progressive slant despite objective metrics that show certain progressive policies have not been as successful as he claims them to be. I say this knowing he's never been a "both sides" kind of guy, but now he seems to emphasize policies that do not work merely out of ideological thinking. Most episodes from the past few seasons just feels like he's preaching to the choir. That's the primary reason why I feel the show has declined.

Secondarily, the humor is no longer there. I've watched old segments on YouTube and the jokes are still hilarious given the context. Now the jokes are pretty much low-hanging fruit or ad hominem attacks. The best the show can do now is give me a chuckle or two. The last episode that had me laughing out loud was about the French election from 2017/18. Since then, I'd say the humor is pretty weak from "AT&T Business Daddy" to the intermission segment "And Now This;" it's all become predictable. It's been a long time since they did the "Why Is This Still a Thing" segment which I always thought was funny and insightful.

Despite all that, I'll still tune in every week on the chance that he will discuss a topic that I'm not aware of or could use more information on. However, I've decided that if it's a topic I'm knowledgeable about, I will not watch due to the progressive bias and fact manipulation. I'm a left-of-center individual, but even I know when leftist policies have run its course.

There have been a lot of comparisons to the Daily Show so I decided to point out some important distinctions. Aside from what one can only consider Jon Stewart's showbiz fatigue, there are two glaring differences between the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight.

First, Last Week Tonight is not only fresher, younger, and therefore has more to prove (and has been successful so far), but perhaps most importantly its on HBO. At first the difference didn't really strike me, then they did a long segment on Comcast and Time Warner Cable that was not only eye-opening in an investigative manner, but is a subject you would NEVER see on the Daily Show, probably because it is ultimately a subsidiary of a subsidiary of one of those two companies.

Secondly, and perhaps less importantly, Last Week Tonight is not, like its title suggests, a weekly show. Just look at its episode air dates. I'm not sure why so much time goes on between two episodes, but as long as they keep up what they've done so far I'm looking forward to it.

Primarily I'm excited to see a comedy news anchor go after the things that have been off-limits for comedy central personas due to their network status.

I've been endlessly entertained for the last seven years, but I've also been educated. No, I don't trust everything John says. But I do prefer the comedic twist on introducing me to topics I never knew about and really should have than the normal angry anchor fear mongering at me. I will watch this show until it one day sadly ends.

It's amazing, he could have chosen to do a show that only helped him gain money but he chose one that helps America (which isn't even his homeland) and it's people... I honestly want to get an HBO subscription just to watch him!! And above this he airs a lot of his episode on youtube FOR FREE!! And on top of that... The cherry on top of this Amazing meaningful show that helps improves people's lives and change laws for the better HE IS SO FUNNY AND INTERSTING!! Who would've imagined I'd ever be hooked on what is basically a news show... John Oliver is one of the few that truely deserves everyone's respect... ( This is the only time I ever rated a show .... If only I can do more for his show)

John is a comedic genius. I wish the show came on more often or was an hour long. Absolutely brilliant!

John Oliver's show is one in which he intersperses current events with comedy. And to keep your audience laughing while looking at such events today is quite a feat. I've only been familiar with Oliver and his show since March of 2016, so I didn't know about the kerfuffle raised when he was not picked to host The Daily Show after Jon Stewart left. However, I think things turned out for the best because John in a weekly show where he gets to go deeper on issues is probably more useful and funnier than John only getting a monologue and a few one liners in on a nightly show.

John rarely has guests of any kind, so he has to be imaginative in his main segment or he risks getting preachy, which usually just consists of John talking to the audience with clips to illustrate the point he is making.

Oliver always maintains a sense of humor even when he is discussing some of the more heinous institutions of American life such as the concept of medical debt and medical debt collections. He doesn't sport a condescending smile but rather a "isn't it ridiculous that we do things this way" smile. He is quite unpretentious, describing himself as a "rat faced Brit" and his show as "a petting zoo with a desk".

Since I only started watching the show since 2016, John has been blessed with having Donald J. Trump as an unfortunate wealth of comic material. So far in the 15-18 months I have been watching the show, John has highlighted some really oddball third party presidential candidates in 2016, and in the most recent season he transformed his desk into a French Bistro to explain to the French people in their own tongue - while smoking! - why they should not vote for far right wing candidate Marine Le Pen, given a new train set to a local news show in Scranton - John is somewhat obsessed with local US news programs, and traveled to Pennsylvania to buy five wax figures of presidents from a presidential wax museum that was closing, one of them being Warren G. Harding. He then proceeded to show a trailer of a movie entitled "Harding" that could be made if one had access to a wax figure of the president, which his show did. It was actually the only trailer I've seen in the past two years that made me want to buy a movie ticket - and the film doesn't even exist!

Highly recommended if you want to see some horrifying things about American political and economic trends that you will definitely not see on the 24 hour news cycle, and get some creative laughs to somewhat counteract that horror. Highly recommended.

I could listen to John Oliver daily. He tells the truth and backs it up! Love him.

John Oliver uses his biting humour to bring light to important issues and events. His style involves a lot of mockery and rude jokes that alienated me a bit, but overall his incisiveness led me to want more.

I used to love this show and John Oliver remains one of the most genuinely funny people on television. But every week now it is the same jokes about Trump, Bannon, Manafort, Ivaka, Comny, Conway, Sanders. It's not that I like them or do not but I watch this show to get away from the usual drivel of politics and instead pay attention to issues that are otherwise out of scope. Predictable and not entertaining these days. John Oliver needs to get back to what he was doing best in seasons 1 and 2.

Had I rated this show in 2015 I might have scored it at least a 9. John Oliver's delivery of jokes whilst raising awareness of well-researched issues and fighting for the little guy was to be commended; It was a breath of fresh air and helped make the world just a little bit better. As a result I would "binge" on these YouTube clips.

Unfortunately the same can't be said today. His segments and certain jokes are now more often cringe, with a lot of lazy jokes and clips taken out of context. I don't know if I'm leaning more towards the right these days or he's just moving more and more towards the left on the political spectrum but this strong bias is becoming ridiculous. The constant Donald Trump bashing is getting quite old now and the show is staring to feel like liberal propaganda, which as a liberal myself I feel quite ashamed of.

It's not too late for the show to turn things around, but as it stands, John Oliver, someone who I regarded as a hero is now just plain annoying.

I've never missed a show and I miss it when the season ends. With every new show, John Oliver proves his intelligence, stylishness and talent. He leaves me speechless how many deficiencies he finds in our society that are not on the front page, but still it is sad that they exist. He seems the only person noticing and caring about everything and everyone. I am wondering why HBO does not give him more time. He is forced to talk so fast that doesn't give us time to absorb the news. His show should be in prime time, not at 11pm ET Sunday. HBO give him more time - he is the only one you have! There is nothing wrong for viewers to have lower level of intelligence, but don't rate 1 star just because intellectually you are not up to him. It is a pity that there are so many people brain washed who don't make the efforts to open their eyes and be objective. I wish John Oliver and his show to be forever.

A show I look forward to every single week! John Oliver is not only hilarious, but an excellent teacher on world issues and how things really work. I have learned so much watching this great program. Thank you HBO!