Post by AnBr on Feb 28, 2022 13:12:55 GMT
www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/02/24/john-oliver-last-week-tonight/
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” returned Sunday for its ninth season, still the best that political late-night comedy has to offer. Forget the 20-odd Emmys it’s won, including its lock on the talk-show category six years running; “Last Week’s” cachet and influence are most readily seen in how many of its competitors have emulated its chief innovations: length and depth.
Oliver himself leaned into his show’s strengths in the season premiere. The 34-minute episode dedicated nearly half an hour to dissecting the moral panic over “critical race theory,” a phrase that’s only in quotes here because so many of its detractors don’t seem to know what it is they’re railing against.
The segment was notable for two reasons: It cemented “Last Week” as the funniest, best considered and most persuasive of its proliferating ilk, while inadvertently drawing attention to how much harder it needs to work these days to distinguish itself in the crowded and increasingly formally homogeneous late-night space.
Oliver himself leaned into his show’s strengths in the season premiere. The 34-minute episode dedicated nearly half an hour to dissecting the moral panic over “critical race theory,” a phrase that’s only in quotes here because so many of its detractors don’t seem to know what it is they’re railing against.
The segment was notable for two reasons: It cemented “Last Week” as the funniest, best considered and most persuasive of its proliferating ilk, while inadvertently drawing attention to how much harder it needs to work these days to distinguish itself in the crowded and increasingly formally homogeneous late-night space.