I seem to be finding more and more lazy humor in this show lately. Specifically, the writers are leaning on an awful lot of sexual jokes to get shock laughs, when they really should be focusing screen time on more incisive material. And on top of those, they're also reaching into past episodes to bring back jokes that exhausted their humor weeks ago.
For these and other shortcuts, the episode was stretched an extra 10 minutes, too. Sigh.
Shout by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-10-11T01:01:02Z
7.4/10. Good, if not great episode. I know Trump provokes nothing but outrage, and rightfully so, but I expect more insight and cleverness from the show than just pointing out the obvious about his awfulness, though maybe there's only so many angle you can apply to something like a presidential candidate being caught on camera talking about committing sexual assaults.
The main story on closing Guantanamo Bay, however, was a great segment that had the right mix of information and advocacy. There was there to educate you on the raw facts, but also enough of Oliver and his staff's perspective to make it feel like it was all adding up to a cogent point. The laughs were a little slight, but it was still a quality segment.
That said, ragging on Billy Bush and the leader of Chechnya may be amusing enough, but it too feels like shooting fish in a barrel. The "is this your cat" business was fun, but leaning into it starts to make it feel like you're just watching the "this week in wacky news" segment of your local news broadcast.
Overall, some merely decent supprorting bits, but a quality main segment boosts this one.