Real Time with Bill Maher

Followed for years and years but now that bill has entered his 'I can't be wrong' phase I find myself tuning him out as he talks to people who know sht.

Network: HBO; Genre: News Analysis, Comedy; Content Rating: TV-MA (profanity, sexual humor); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Series

As a more conservative-minded person (70% of the IMDb readers just skipped to another review) I've always found Bill Maher to be a social guilty pleasure and an intellectual workout. The late-night roundtable series "Politically Incorrect" was network TV's first and last introduction to the silver-tongued comedian, not to mention a regular time-slot favorite of mine. Whether telling us that pregnancy isn't "sexy" or that all Christians are brainwashed bigots, Maher is a true original who challenges the audience and their safe notions that the First Amendment only protects speech that they like. I say this because HBO's "Real Time" is so free; your likeness of it will directly relate to how much you like Maher and, in a time when everybody wants to listen to ideological parrots, your likeness of him may relate to your own politics.

I defended Maher on his supposedly controversial post-9/11 comments on "PI", though in retrospect being kicked off ABC and onto HBO was the best thing that could have happened to Maher. "Real Time" allows Maher to be his clever, acerbic and deeply iconoclastic best. It is a fully open venue to speak his mind, shape it into riotous laughs and rip into the hot button issues of the week, his own annoyances and his own personal enemies without commercials to break the momentum and network TV channel changers flipping by and catching his comments out of context. Even fans of "PI" might find a now off-the-leash Maher too strong, raw or abrasive.

It all works like dynamite because the guy is funnier, smarter and a better interviewer than Jon Stewart, Jay Leno and David Letterman combined. He really asks the tough questions and pins down the guest to answer them. In the final New Rules segment Maher's rapid-fire wit is shown to be in top form. At any point, his off-the-cuff improvisations are laugh-out-loud funny. He's also more out in the open about his angry liberalism than Letterman (I'm afraid Letterman is really going to explode one day). From one angle you could say that its anger holds it back from really reaching the comic heavens. Maher hates President George W. Bush and the way he twists every joke back to the "Bush is an Idiot" punch-line becomes repetitive and tiresome. The show has a one-track mind. Bush and the Republicans only get a brief break when Maher goes after the ding-bat celebrity of the moment.

The really accented problem with "Real Time" is the audience. For one of TV's smartest infotainment shows it has TV's dumbest audience. Listen as they clap and cheer at the mention of faile US foreign policy or soldiers who come back from war missing limbs in a twisted backward celebration of something they think legitimizes their view. You have to admire anybody remotely conservative who braves this lion's den, gets the back of their ears flicked all night by Maher and the 2 other guests ganging up on them and still maintains their composure. Often the show gets me heated and occasionally Maher's jokes even go off the edge and into tacky, but that is the razor's edge of iconoclastic comedy. It doesn't work if someone isn't offended. A knee-jerk reaction would be to wish that Maher balance it out, but that would be disingenuous wouldn't it? That wouldn't be Bill Maher.

"Real Time" is a red-hot ideological spit wad show. Nobody is able to or given the time on TV to lay out a linear-logical liberal case the way that Maher can on this show. Conversley, the arguments many of the guests are making feel either insightful or clueless and circle, which is another reason the show is such an addicting watch. Conservatives should be listening to Maher the way liberals should be listening to Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh. There is also something special about it, tucked away on HBO. "Real Time" is like looking through the keyhole and in on a private New York cocktail party where politicians, pundits, actors, salon.com writers, musicians and other pseudo-intellectuals get together, sit around, complain about middle America, pontificate about the world going to hell, pretend that Maureen Dowd is funny and generally pat themselves on the back making themselves feel like geniuses and think their rants are accomplishing something - except on "Real Time" there is probably more smiling and laughing.

Freedom, baby, freedom. To debate and freedom to be heard in your entirety. "Real Time" is the greatest testament to it on American television. A work that becomes great because HBO (a network that craps quality) simply lets the inmates run the asylum. This is an addictive hour of TV that I only wish it was on more regularly. It is great to have Bill Maher back and better than ever. Unequivically, this show is awesome.

* * * * / 4

It has been a long time, a very long time, before I have seen something intelligent on TV. I never watched "Politically Incorrect"; I just never got into that show. But I do like the political nature of Bill Maher's comedy and prose, and while I do not agree on all his points, I do deeply respect his true representation of them; he doesn't mollify his points because others may not want hear them. This is something truly refreshing. If you don't like flagrant intellectualism and polar politics, this show isn't for you. However, if you have an open mind and want to hear some of the questions people don't want you to ask, this IS for you.

This was a standing appointment in our house, but Maher has become a one-trick pony (will, maybe two or three tricks) and his "I said it first" self congratulations go on ad nauseum these days. The list of repetitious blather includes: how long it took to get his solar panels, Americans are fat, I told you so, I hate kids, blah, blah, blah. He's starting to sound like someone's crotchety grandpa, and we're almost the same age.

The show was much more interesting with three panelists and better opening monologues that didn't feel quite so teed-up. While New Rules is always entertaining, the best part of Real Time is the closing monologue, which is always thought-provoking, smart, well-written, and well-delivered, Maher shines here without fail. More of this, less of the rest, please.

Of course, some people are attracted to the unstable. I have to watch this show whenever I notice it is on, even when I find it to be an episode that I have already seen. You are never sure if you should laugh or wince as Bill takes aim at everything ridiculous about America. He even lets himself be ridiculed, which is the mark of a fair commentator. The guests on his shows frequently disagree with him and the show is more fun when they disagree. The first time I really took to Bill's style was watching a show where one of the guests(Andrew Sullivan, I think) slammed a comment of Bill's that they then discussed for a few minutes. The only thing I don't like about the show is that it is too short. Bill frequently has to cut discussions off to make way for other topics, which gives it the feel in pace of PTI. An important show with a perfect home in HBO, where you can actually say what you want to say.