Outstanding episode. I have to admit, I bristled a bit when I saw that Oliver was doing vaccines as a topic. I'm 100% pro-vaccine, but it just seemed like a case where Oliver would no doubt be preaching to the choir in terms of his audience. But instead, he didn't just hit the "vaccines good/bad" issue, which is easy point, but the sub-issues, like vaccine ingredients and vaccine sequencing. Explaining how the opposition to these things is not just anti-science, but ascientific was a worthwhile tack to take, and explaining everything in terms of rhetoric and breaking down the arguments and issues served to make the topic interesting and compelling, even for folks relatively versed in them like yours truly. In addition, his comedy inserts, like insults for fish or riffs on R. Kelly or busting on himself landed delightfully.
Beyond the main story, the "And Now This" segment on people calling in about the local news train was the perfect slice of small town quotidian weirdness. And the intro stuff did a nice job at dressing down Trump's comments about any alleged taping and the dangers of complacency or not accurately estimating the chances of the Senate health care bill passing.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-06-27T02:14:40Z
Outstanding episode. I have to admit, I bristled a bit when I saw that Oliver was doing vaccines as a topic. I'm 100% pro-vaccine, but it just seemed like a case where Oliver would no doubt be preaching to the choir in terms of his audience. But instead, he didn't just hit the "vaccines good/bad" issue, which is easy point, but the sub-issues, like vaccine ingredients and vaccine sequencing. Explaining how the opposition to these things is not just anti-science, but ascientific was a worthwhile tack to take, and explaining everything in terms of rhetoric and breaking down the arguments and issues served to make the topic interesting and compelling, even for folks relatively versed in them like yours truly. In addition, his comedy inserts, like insults for fish or riffs on R. Kelly or busting on himself landed delightfully.
Beyond the main story, the "And Now This" segment on people calling in about the local news train was the perfect slice of small town quotidian weirdness. And the intro stuff did a nice job at dressing down Trump's comments about any alleged taping and the dangers of complacency or not accurately estimating the chances of the Senate health care bill passing.
Overall, a really superb outing from the show.