There’s a potentially great show here. The basic premise works, and Bill Maher certainly gives you plenty of material. But over time, the show has started to feel less like a focused critique of Maher and more like a weekly exercise in deciding who is sufficiently pure to be considered a good person.
Larry Wilmore is a good example. You spent an absurd amount of time treating him with outright contempt. Gavin Newsom seems to trigger the same reflex, with the Getty connections brought up constantly as though they settle the question of his character. And the broader pattern is hard to miss: if someone isn’t DSA or very close to DSA-aligned politics, they seem to become suspect almost by default.
That makes the show feel smaller than it needs to be. You don’t have to like Wilmore, Newsom, Warnock, Lander, or anyone else. Criticize them when they deserve it. But there’s a difference between criticism and constantly policing who counts as a morally acceptable person.
What makes a show like Knowledge Fight work is that the hosts have strong political views without making every episode a referendum on every political opinion they hold. They leave enough room for the actual subject of the show.
This show could be much better if it did the same. Right now, it often feels less like “I Hate Bill Maher” and more like “I Hate Everyone Who Isn’t Almost Exactly Like Me.” If that’s the audience you want, fair enough. But it’s an awfully narrow one
