I caught the season premier yesterday. It was… ‘Eh.’
I was pretty much laughed out at the Cheney jokes last week. The panel discussion wasn’t funny. Bill Maher seemed to sleepwalk through the show. I was surprised to hear of port operations being taken over by Dubai (there’s a Pit thread on that). But I think I heard Jimmy Carter on the news this morning saying that there wasn’t really any threat of terrorism in this case. I thought The Commedian showed some insight into the issues (I don’t really remember what those insights were), but he also showed some rather simplistic thinking. The Old Woman Author belaboured her points too much. The Fox Guy wasn’t funny at all. ‘New Rules’ was weak. And I’m getting rather tired of Maher’s anti-meat/anti-fur remarks. Yes, we know, Bill! At least he didn’t go off on one of his holistic healing rants.
Since the show has been on hiatus for three months, maybe it’s just that Maher is sluggish on this first episode.
didn’t see it, but my father told me that he had the same complaints with it, more or less.
i like that show, too, and it’s a shame that people who wouldn’t necessarily agree with maher don’t watch the show. sometimes it does get into some republican bashing, but, for the most part, it’s a decent spot of debate…much like our great debates forum.
i’m hoping ihe’s just getting out of a hangover/kicking rust off. have you noticed any new/deleted writers from the credits?
The comedian was Eddie Griffith (or is it Griffin?)
The “woman author” was Helen Thomas.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the first show this season and I am a fan of the show and Bill Maher. The Cheney jokes are a little old now, although I guess Bill just wanted his shot (pardon the pun) like everyone else has had.
Eddie was way too simplistic and out of his league on a show like this. Helen Thomas, who I have a lot of admiration for, made some good points, but overall I don’t think she came off very well. The guy from Fox sounded like any other commentator on Fox. Bush can do no wrong, yadda yadda, yadda.
I hope the show isn’t jumping the shark and just had a shaky return. We shall see.
I thought it was pretty bad, too. This happens more than occasionally on his show - he puts on a comedian and two journalists/politicians, and it ends up with the comedian trying to be smart and insightful, and the politicos trying to be funny, and it all turns into a big mess. Maher always has three or four scripted jokes that he forces into the conversation - sometimes when the timing is right, they work out great, but most of the time they come off as forced.
The “Fox guy” was Dan Senor, senior aide to Paul Bremmer, the first administrator of the American forces in Iraq (Coalition Provisional Authority).
He is actually a really sharp guy and engaged to Campbell Brown (bastard!) It was a bad forum for him. I am a card carrying Democrat, but I can only stomach Helen Thomas in extremely small doses.
Eddie Griffin was almost completely incoherent and his angry, bitter commentary on things (in which he always transfixed his eyes down at the table in front of him for) was thin and not very well thought out.
Helen Thomas didn’t have much credibility left after she insisted that Cheney accidentally shooting a guy was worthy of coverage over the other, much more important stories that Maher mentioned.
Dan Senor articulated the most reasonable explanation I’ve heard so far for why there is somewhere between 6-9 billion dollars unaccounted for in Iraq reconstruction money. Of course the “we didn’t have time to prepare decen accounting practices” argument is just another damning piece of evidence of the Administration’s utter lack of preparation and forethought concerning the post-war period.