The TV Show That's Going Up On The Wall: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

There is no show whose flag I waved harder this year than John Oliver’s new HBO show. In a concept that seemed like it couldn’t possibly work - a projected that basically amounted to The Daily Show without the immediacy* - Oliver immediately turned on its head and launched a 60 Minutes-style investigative program fueled by a dry British wit and his trademark joyful incredulity. Every week, the in-depth piece ruled Twitter and Facebook, no matter the subject matter.

*I was not alone in thinking this: the end-of-season piece the New York Times did on the show basically apologized for ever doubting him.

In fact, here are the topics the show explored, in order. Just take a look at this slate, remembering that this is a comedy program.

Episode 1: The Indian general election (this was the pilot!)
Episode 2: Capital Punishment
Episode 3: The Senate election in Kentucky
Episode 4: The Right to be Forgotten
Episode 5: Net neutrality
Episode 6: Bashar al-Assad
Episode 7: Immigration reform
Episode 8: the Dietary Health and Information Act of 1994
Episode 9: LGBT rights in Uganda
Episode 10: Income equality and wealth inequality
Episode 11: Incarceration
Episode 12: Failures in nuclear weapons systems
Episode 13: Argentine debt restructuring
Episode 14: Payday loans
Episode 15: Equal pay for equal work
Episode 16: Student debt
Episode 17: Scottish independence
Episode 18: The Cuba embargo
Episode 19: The Kansas state budge shortfall
Episode 20: Civil forfeiture
Episode 21: The Supreme Court
Episode 22: Sugar (this doesn't sound tough, but it was actually kind of devastating)
Episode 23: U.S. state legislatures in United States elections
Episode 24: The lottery.

Each one of them had smart, well-framed arguments and featured deep dives in terms of investigative reporting. It’s the best news show I saw all year, and this was all while being basically unquestionably the funniest show on television this year.

The show went off the air in November and won't return until February, and I've missed it desperately. I've been subsisting on occasional check-ins the show's dropped on YouTube, or Oliver's surprise hosting gig on The Daily Show. There's nothing on television I looked forward to more this year - even more than Game of Thrones' always too-short 10-week run.

If you don’t have HBO Go (and you probably don’t), steal someone’s password* and watch every episode of this show.

*Ha ha! I would never actually suggest doing this, of course, Copyright Lawyer Looking At My Website! What a flagrant abuse of the system that would be!

Also receiving votes: You're The Worst, Silicon Valley.

The Podcast That's Going Up On The Wall: The Hollywood Prospectus Podcast

Let’s start with the place I stole the idea of The Wall from - Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan’s Hollywood Prospectus Podcast for Grantland. Despite the fact that they’re recording from different coasts, the chemistry here between the hosts is basically unmatched on any other podcast I heard, which comes from their decades-long-length friendship, stretching back to their days as writers for SPIN magazine (remember music magazines, guys?). Now that Ryan is the editor of Grantland’s entertainment division, and Greenwald its head TV writer, it’s a refreshing pleasure to hear the two of them call each other and riff on television, music, movies, or whatever seems to be bouncing around pop culture.


They’re both so attuned to each other’s rhythms and nearly perfectly in sync in terms of taste that they’re almost a hive mind when breaking down why Homeland has gone off the rails, or why everyone should check out the new A$AP Ferg record; but even when they draw firm lines in the sand over something, you get the sense they're just trying to get a laugh out of the other person.

If you wanted to check it out, I’d recommend checking out the October 27th episode where they break down what they loved and hated about ‘Birdman’ and compare Taylor Swift’s “1989" to Fleetwood Mac’s “Tango In The Night." But I’d also recommend seeking out Andy Greenwald’s interview podcast, particularly the episode where he sits down with Jenny Lewis about her new album “The Voyager,” and she tells some of the most incredible stories about working with Ryan Adams (the man, God bless him, is both a musical genius and a borderline insane person). It’s gone from the podcast archives, but I dug up the link online.

Others receiving votes: Serial (Well, of course. I’m a white person), Drunk Ex-Pastors, How Did This Get Made?

Introducing: The Wall of Fame (2014)

Every year I do some sort of wrap-up of things I liked over the year, but no matter what I do to try and avoid it, it always ends up becoming some sort of Top 10 list, and Top 10 lists are mostly boring. I like seeing playlists, but who cares if I thought Interstellar was better than Nightcrawler?* Who cares if my high expectations for the new Muppet movie were wildly missed, or my already incredibly low expectations for the last Hobbit movie were somehow not met?**

Instead, I’m introducing a new wrinkle this year: The Wall. Things I’m throwing up on The Wall this year are the things I fought for, begged people to watch, defended from their critics, rode for online. This is not any sort of Top 10 list - these are just the things that made me happiest. And they go up on The Wall so I can look up at them in satisfaction from now on.

*If you do care: I did.
** Both true!

Rwanda, Part 6: Carved In Stone

Rwanda, Part 6: Carved In Stone

I don’t notice the scars.

I don’t notice the scars because I never notice things like that. This woman has been showing us the country all week, bumping along dirt roads in sweaty buses, and I never see them until someone else mentions it to me. But there they are, sharp lines that could only be from a dull machete, marked on this woman’s neck. Remnants of a time I don’t dare bring up. Maybe she doesn’t even see them anymore when she looks in the mirror. Maybe she’s forgotten they’re there.

She can’t have forgotten. But maybe she’s trying to forget.

Rwanda, Part 5: The Light At The Top Of The Stairs

Rwanda, Part 5: The Light At The Top Of The Stairs

The information, at first, is clinical. The first few panels are essentially a sketch of a history lesson, a bare framework on which to hang the rest of the tragedy. There are tiny bits about tribes and population, but the story doesn't really begin until the arrival of Dutch settlers in the late 19th century.

Of course it does, I immediately think. When you hear about a tribal battle based on insignificant racial distinctions, the odds that the conflict sourced from vaguely well-meaning European colonists are astronomically high. This is what we have always done. John Oliver had a good bit the other week about how being British is a little like being an alcoholic. "When someone says you did something awful, you find yourself going, 'honestly, I don't even remember doing that but, yeah, probably, probably!'"