This is more interesting as kind of a sociological piece than an episode of television. Seeing all these committed progressives faced with the crushing, unexpected reality of Trump's election breaks the walls of artifice down and let's you see people reacting in real time. Colbert in particular is fascinating here. You can see the way he just crumbles, seemingly on the verge of tears, when he hears that Florida has been called for Trump. There's a lot of gallows humor, a lot of shocked statements from Jena Friedman and Jeff Goldblum, and a lot of people just trying to process this devastating event while cameras are trained on them. Colbert, as always, is a trooper, offering a sincere and seemingly half-improvised meditation on What This Means, that has his usual mix of heart and humor, especially at the end of the episode. A lot of the actual planned comedy comes off as kind of lame to be frank (though the Led Zeppelin yard sign bit tickled my funny bone), but the unplanned stuff, the honest reactions from celebrities, comedians, and prognosticators alike is captivating TV, though probably not for the reasons intended.
Shout by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-11-15T18:01:23Z
This is more interesting as kind of a sociological piece than an episode of television. Seeing all these committed progressives faced with the crushing, unexpected reality of Trump's election breaks the walls of artifice down and let's you see people reacting in real time. Colbert in particular is fascinating here. You can see the way he just crumbles, seemingly on the verge of tears, when he hears that Florida has been called for Trump. There's a lot of gallows humor, a lot of shocked statements from Jena Friedman and Jeff Goldblum, and a lot of people just trying to process this devastating event while cameras are trained on them. Colbert, as always, is a trooper, offering a sincere and seemingly half-improvised meditation on What This Means, that has his usual mix of heart and humor, especially at the end of the episode. A lot of the actual planned comedy comes off as kind of lame to be frank (though the Led Zeppelin yard sign bit tickled my funny bone), but the unplanned stuff, the honest reactions from celebrities, comedians, and prognosticators alike is captivating TV, though probably not for the reasons intended.