Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO) TV Show

I watch this show religiously and am so excited for their bonus episodes surrounded around the conventions. Anyone else a fan?

 

It is such a hit or miss show. It all depends on where he draws his guests from; when it is elected politicians, they just repeat the things you could hear on any other news talk show, but when he is able to get journalists and writers with something to say there are some very provocative conversations. The comedy portions are just as hit-or-miss, and it is a shame he just blames the audience every time they dismiss a joke. I saw him do stand-up a couple years ago and it is just a repeat of Real Time.

 

Over the past few years I've found him unwatchable because he's become more extreme in his views and super smug

 

Watch this religiously too. The interviews and panel discussions are almost always interesting and enriching.

He may be smug but it's part of what makes him entertaining to watch. Even panel members and the audience know this.

One of the reasons I love to watch him is he arguments for himself as if it was factual that he's always right and never wrong, but he does it with so much class and confidence.

I'm dying to see him talk to Reza Aslan again on the show, he's just a self-confident and eloquent and he not so often has panel members that match him on that level.

 

I always enjoy this show but some of his jokes are straight cheese. I usually enjoy the panels/though. New Rules can be good.

 

I watch it most weeks. It's good, but not great. I will say though, that this show and his stand-up aren't indistinguishable. He expresses the same views, but that's to be expected. I like him as a stand-up comedian more than as a political commentator, but it is nice to not hear the same bullshit every hack on cnn, msnbc, fox, etc. is saying.

 

Probably my favourite show on air

 

I liked his US weekly segment he did for Hillary and Ted Cruz

 

Loving the bonus episodes we're getting!

 

The extra episodes had the worst kinds of guests. Michael Moore, Dan Savage, and Joy-Ann Reid are all awfully boring people with very scripted opinions. The same goes for Gavin Newsom. The "regular" episode had a better lineup, even if the Republican Congressman derailed a lot of it and the Clinton actress regurgitated most of the same things.

 

Haven't been able to find torrents of the RNC episodes -_-

 

HBO Now is really cheap, but the episodes are available for free on YouTube.

 

I just don't have Internet at home as I live in the dark ages

 

Where do you torrent, then? There are a lot of websites that can convert YouTube videos into downloadable .mp4s.

 

Coffee shops and libraries mostly! Thanks for that info though, didn't know that was even a possibility. Will give it a whirl after work.

 

I loved the line where he called Michael Moore a communist haha. He does have some of those people on far too often

 

i can find this on youtube

 

The guests on the extra episodes are mostly shills, more often than not. Dan Savage is the worst; a gay man supporting a woman that was against same-sex marriage until the moment it became politically popular while taking the time off from criticizing Republicans with the same positions to support the war in Iraq. One of the strengths of his show is interviewing and putting on the panel both left and right-wing voices that do not appear daily on typical cable news networks. Joy-Ann Reid can go back to openly advocating for a primary challenge to Bernie Sanders on her own network.

 

His first couple shows back have been great

 

some of the liberal dorks they get on this show kinda ruin it for me. I'm not talking about the smart scientist or the guys who actually have professional knowledge of how things are done, i'm talking about the liberals who just yell "war in iraq" and get a huge applause. It's just liberal talking points instead of actually addressing a particular question. it can get pretty lazy.

like Jane Fonda was terrible

 

It'll be interesting to see how it goes off he books Milo.

 

It was difficult enough to watch Tomi

 

The show varies so wildly in quality week-to-week because of the way they choose their guests. What does Tomi Lahren have to say? She is famous for peddling a younger and prettier version of the Limbaugh-Hannity-O'Reilly schtick, and a recent look back at her Twitter shows she actually believes very little of it. I don't agree with just about anything Grover Norquist says, but he is an engaging and logical defender of his ideology. Milo YiannansNdasodiasczxopolis is just an Internet troll; nothing can be gained from having him on.

 

The reason for Milo and Tomi (sounds like a kids movie) is clearly for the ratings bump. There is zero reason to have them on the show other than shock value. They are going to say dumb things and get people riled up. The two of them aren't a fair representation of the masses and are just canon fodder for the panel. People are certainly going to tune in. When you get gems like, "I think Trump is incredibly pro-LGBT..." Jesus.

 

I mean, I do think they are also the future of right wing extremism or atleast the mouthpieces for it so engaging with and shutting down the outlandish things they say has at least some merit outside of ratings. Watching the moderate republican tell Tomi that what she was saying was insane didn't give me much hope but provided me with a bit of satisfaction